10mo ago

What can you get to within a 15-minute walk of your house?

A recent YouGov survey asked Americans what they think they should be able to get to within a 15-minute walk of their house.

Of these choices, I can currently walk to all of them from my apartment, aside from a university (no biggie, I'm not currently studying, although there is a Tafe within walking distance), a hospital, and a sports arena.

How many can you get to with a 15 minute walk from your house?

fuckcars #walkability #urbanism #UrbanPlanning @fuckcars #walking

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I'm gonna make a few assumptions: One is that this is just a neighborhood in my hypohetical ideal world (or rather, near-ideal). Second: we're talking about high qualiy versions of these places, and not the "just barely good enough to not go under" versions that abound. Last: "should" means "necessity" and not "luxury."
Groceries are a no-brainer.
Parks — hell yes. In fact, I'd prefer if everyone had access to all kinds of nature within "walking" (walking + public transportation) distance: parks, woods, botanical gardens, community gardens, wildlife reserves.
Pharmacies should be obsoleted: drugs should be devriminalized and un-gatekept. People should have the freedom to put whatever stupid, life-altering substance they want to into their body (with caveats like informed consent and heavily recommended medical professional supervision). Distributors could be home-delivery through the post and the over-the-counter section in your local grocery store.
Bus stops... Yes for some neighborhoods, but ideally more trains or trams, especially in suburbs.
Post offices are dying out. Letters and spam are the kinds of things people should have access to in their immediate neighborhood, but are becoming obsolete thanks to the internet (which should be a public utility instead of run for profit). I'm about 50/50 on whether there should still be home-delivery for everyone and all packages, or if there should be local holding centers for most (although, once again, any delivery network should be considered a public service instead of a few companies monopolizing the role), and at-home delivery for the most important packages/incapacitated people.
Banks are a no. Credit union, yes. Or maybe no and just let money become the digital currency it's slowly been turning intobfor the past 40 years. Ideally, society (and by extension this ideal neighborhood) would function without capital.
Gas stations: hell no. Convenience stores yes (or just all-in-one grocery stores). Maybe EV charging stations... Maybe.
Having a barber is way more convenient than people give it credit, and it doesn't benefit from centralization. At the very least, everyone should have a neighbor who cuts hair well.
Bonus round: things that should be within a 30-minute commute (by transit)—mall, movie theater, hospital, elementary school, day care, university, restaurants, bars.
No to stadiums, but yes to sports fields in the parks.
Things not on the list that should be: museums, clinics, dentists, optometrists, psychiatrists, veterinarians, pools, gyms, community centers/general use indoor halls, fire stations, makers spaces... probably others that I'm forgetting.
Sorry that this 15 minute walk is turning into a jog.
- drugs should be devriminalized and un-gatekept. ... over-the-counter section in your local grocery store
  "Hello. A sack of potatoes and a kilo of meth please!"
  "Here you go. A healthy breakfast!"
  "Nah I just like peeling potatoes when I'm on meth"
  PS: BTW banks in Europe are kind of regulated to be "social banks" for customers, you have a right to a bank account and free cards and you can take out your electronically wired money for free from the machine. That's what a bank should be imho.
  PPS: Good assumptions, it's really important that they work as public utility and optimized for social benefit than profit.
- Bars should definitely be 15 minute walk. Anything to disincentivize driving there.
  
  For a lot of people the bar serves as a "third place" as well which is an important part of many communities.
  
  True, I have a local bar that I use as one of two primary third places. It’s a place I go to just hang out or attend groups. Is it good that our main third place sells an addictive substance? Not really, but it’s fun and it is a source of community and culture.
  Third places are a fundamental part of society and if 15 minute cities don’t have a variety easily accessible to you then it’s going to make the place worse to live. That means everything from religious centers to community centers to bars.
  
  That means everything from religious centers
  You're really gonna hate my stance on "a church in every neighborhood" then. I already know what that's like, I was born and raised in the bible belt.
  
  I'd be more in favor if the third place dealt substances that were less addictive or at least the addiction was less lethal. Cafes, community centers, hookah lounges and parks come to mind
  
  That's a big part of why i put bars in the "under 30 minutes travel" category: I don't want a lot of loud, raucous, drunk people flooding the neighborhood at 2 am after the loud, raucous building full of drunk people finally turns the volume down... But I also want people to have access to the things they like regardless of how I feel about them.
  The whole point of the added facilities and all my stipulations was to create a rat utopia for humans — somewhere everyone feels fulfilled — not my own personalized hell where all the loud obnoxious party rats keep me (or any of my nonconsenting neighbors) up until 2 when I gotta be up in 4 hours for work.
  And my asshole opinion is that if a 30 minute wait before you can get shitfaced is so unbearable you're willing to risk your life and others', you reeeeeaaaaaalllllllyyyy need to be kept away from intoxicants, not have easier access. I mean hell, if it's that bad just go to the grocery store that has every drug known to humans. It's cheaper and closer.
  So fuck it, disencentivize driving by an ordinance that forbids parking anything bigger than a bicycle within a 30 minute walk of the bar, not by making it easier to become alcoholic. Plus it's my hypothetical ideal, and no one has cars anyway.
- People should have the freedom to put whatever stupid, life-altering substance they want to into their body (with caveats like informed consent and heavily recommended medical professional supervision).
  Please don't include antibiotics in this list.
  within a 30-minute commute (by transit) ... elementary school, day care,
  How big would day care be for all the kids from 30-minute transit? Day cares should be within 0.5km unless it is in same direction as mass transit(subway, suburban rail station). Elementary schools should be in 15-minutes PT range.
  community centers
  Then malls also shouldn't be.
  
  Please don’t include antibiotics in this list.
  Presumably because that can quickly become a public health crisis/outbreak/epidemic... I'll agree to that.
  How big would day care be for all the kids from 30-minute transit?
  As big as it needs to be. Presumably it would have the space and resources of all the day cares that previously existed in a 30-minute radius
  Day cares should be within 0.5km unless it is in same direction as mass transit(subway, suburban rail station). Elementary schools should be in 15-minutes PT range.
  Why?
  community centers
  Then malls also shouldn’t be.
  Shouldn't be what?
  
  Why?
  I'm thinking about soviet model of day cares when they are either near home or on the way to work. Also day cares don't benefit from being big. One adult per group of 15-20 children, about 5 groups total + 1-2 in kitchen + 1/3 director(works in 3 day cares).
  Shouldn't be what?
  Within walking distance.
  
  I was saying community centers weren't on the survey but should have been. They absolutely should be within walking distance
  
  Ah. Ok.
- In my town, we’ve been trying to pedestrianize the central business area, but one of the holdouts is my optometrist. They say most of their business is drivers and they won’t benefit from increased opportunity for walk-ins. But isn’t this sort of like bars? Do you really want people to be driving to or from an optom?

578 comments