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

578 comments

Why are bars so low? Do Americans like having to use a car when drinking?
- Apparently it's important that they can walk to a petrol station though.
  
  American here, the gas station is our version of the local corner store. Most places you have to drive to get to it but where I live there is one right at the entrance to the neighborhood and lots of adults/kids do walk there. I would sorely miss it if it was gone.
- Probably don’t want to live near drunks, or the piss and vomit that exists after a weekend.
  
  Living near one, I don't have these issues
  
  That and the noise, bars can be pretty loud
- If you ever drive through rural America, you'll usually at least see one or two crosses, often on telephone poles, on rural roads. People, often teenagers, die pretty regularly in rural America because of drunk driving.
  Some people like it. Some people are just numb to it. It's just insane to expect people not to when bars are the only social space in a lot of these towns, and those bars are not accessible by anything but car. There is no such thing as a taxi for most of the US (space wise, not population wise).
- That was the one that stood out to me, too (especially the dichotomy between "bars" and "restaurants"). It maybe explains a lot if NIMBYs are actually just moralizing puritans being dishonest about their motives.
- I'd wager not a single example of a 15-minute city exists or has ever existed throughout all history without a bar in range.
- The website has a British version that doesn't include bar/pub as a choice at all. Does include liquor store, though. Thought that was odd
- This stuck out to me too. This is one of my top items for a 15 min. city, not because I visit bars frequently, but because when I do visit, or when my neighbors visit, I'd like it to be a car-free trip.
- Where are they going to have AA meetings? that's the bigger concern. the only thing on the list that functions as a community center is the elementary school and park.
- Maybe they want to drink at home
- @Vash63 @ajsadauskas they drink piss-weak beer and if you have more than two somebody will accuse you of being an alcoholic
  
  Lol, local breweries have completely saturated the American market. I barely know anyone that drinks traditional retail beers anymore outside of sports and/or music venues where outside drinks aren't allowed.

@ajsadauskas @fuckcars One thing you can get within a 15 minute walk of some US homes is arrested!
(My grandma went for a walk in a Miami suburb. The locals thought that someone walking (rather than driving) was obviously suspicious so they called the cops. Because my grandma was white and female and elderly, rather than black and male and young, they stopped to talk to her rather than just shooting her. They then spent several minutes trying to get her to admit that she was walking because her car had broken down - they just couldn't get it through their heads that she was walking because she wanted to walk.)
- They saw an elderly woman walking on the street, and they didn't shoot her on sight?
  I hope those officers were fired on the spot for not following standard protocol!
- I used to live in South Carolina and recently moved to Chicago. Despite there being many more police in Chicago, I've actually had less of a feeling of police anxiety because I don't drive here. The cops are on the roads pulling cars over. They aren't in alleys and side streets following pedestrians (at the same rates, anyways). If walking and cycling are normal and built for, police are less of a problem, imo.

16% said "should not" to a grocery store? What?
I feel like there should be a separate question for the "I don't want anything near me" rural choice, since those might be making the rest of the responses misleading.
- They are probably carbarians whose only conception of a grocery store is a supermarket surrounded by a moat of parking. I wouldn't want one of those next to me either
  
  Not wanting a parking lot moat next to them is one thing, but not even wanting one within a mile and a half just flat-out doesn't make sense.
  
  Even then, 15 minutes is quite a radius. I wouldn't want to be a 3-minute walk away, but a 15 minute walk is like ~8 blocks.
  Granted, that probably necessitates other homes being a lot closer than 8 blocks, so I suppose this just becomes a micro-scale NIMBY-ism. So I suppose you're probably right.
  That said, there are lots of places where you have massive grocery stores at the ground level or underground in high-density urban environments, so you can get massive scale with high walkability, if you're willing to move past single-family homes (which we must... I say despite wanting a single-family home for my family.)
- Some people might genuinely prefer a humongous superstore, and the parking lot culture that comes with it.
  In the UK, you see tons of "corner shops", which are just overpriced grocery stores where the owner pretends to be serving the community, but is actually putting his daughter through private school.
  In contrast, the Sainsbury's down the road hires actual suffering locals who you know from high school, the parking lot is full of teens blasting music and worried parents teaching their children how to drive -- i.e. there is an actual community happening there.
  
  Yeah, the actual closest one to me, very easy walking, is more properly called an INconvenience store. It has what looks like a surprisingly large assortment of overpriced food, but never again after I saw green bacon. They clearly make their money from the twin scourges of lottery and smoking. Then it comes down to the full sized grocery has much better hours, prices, selection, even if I usually drive there
  One of the grocery chains in our region actually tried a real NYC style bodega, and it was a fantastic addition to the community. Unfortunately it never quite caught on and was killed by COViD.
- @jeffhykin @ajsadauskas My brother and his neighbors are fighting a grocery store in their neighborhood because of "traffic" (it would be negligible). Instead they drive 10 minutes each way thru - traffic.
  Car brain - wanting your neighborhood to be undesirable so people won't want to come.
- Absolutely. I imagine there would be a significant correlation between those who want to live in an urban area vs a rural area and what they want within 15 minutes.
- It's worse: they don't want anything next to their homes that might be associated with working class because it would lower the price of houses.

How is bar so low?? Do people want drunk drivers? Because that’s how you get drunk drivers

Who needs a gas station within walking distance? One need a gas station within 15-minutes driving.

I wonder what the meaning of “should not” is in this survey. A restaurant “should not” be withing 15 minutes of my home, as in “I don’t want any restaurants near me” or is it “It’s not important enough to be in the local government’s target list”?
I don’t understand the red bars the way the question is phrased now. Why wouldn’t you want a park near you?
- If they used the phrase “15 minute neighborhood” during polling then a portion of the no’s are probably from people who have had it turned into a trigger word for them by conservative talk media.
  
  Yeah that's what I'm assuming the 16% who don't even want a grocery store near them is. That sets your baseline.
- "If your local government did adopt..."
  I bet 16% don't want "the government" to anything.
  That said, people in my neighborhood are strongly against sidewalks. Something about bringing the problems of the big city to us. (I presume crime, but it could be anything.)
- “It’s not important enough to be in the local government’s target list”
  I think this is the correct interpretation given the exact wording of the question.

Gas station above elementary school?

Why do you need a gas station in walking distance?

Do the 32 percent not know what a bus stop is?? Why would you want a bus stop farther than 15 minutes away????

Am I the only one impressed 16% of people dont want a grocery store nearby?

@ajsadauskas @fuckcars I'm kind of sad that "cafe", "bookstore", and "library" aren't even on this list at all. 😢
I would honestly have to do a web search to find out where the nearest elementary school, day care, and gas station are, but I'd be stunned if I didn't have those within 15 minutes. As it is, I do have everything else, including a university and a sports arena, and two malls. (I'm in between the Barclays Center and Long Island University in Fort Greene, Brooklyn, NYC.)

I do not understand why you would want to walk to a gas station.
- Snacks
  
  Tbf, 24/7 kiosks are even better than that
  
  Wouldn't a grocery store cover that use case?
- Makes you wonder how many people actually understood the question.
  
  Also, you have to realize the obesity problem isn't just a function of our diet, many people can't imagine walking fifteen minutes no matter what.
  
  Everyone answering that they understand it to mean “convenience store” is missing out on standalone convenience stores….
  But what about a “garage”, that traditionally used to be at gas stations as well. I find it very convenient that when my car needs servicing, I can drop it off and walk home. Yes, I also need a car and that shouldn’t contradict walkability
- Who doesn't run out of gas in your own home, every now and again?
- Most gas stations here have convenience stores attached and they're typically 24 hr. It's a common gathering place for night owls and degens lol. I've spent a lot of time at gas stations just hanging out with friends or the cashier after getting off work at 3am. Drink a couple tall boys, chain smoke, shoot the shit and unwind a bit before heading home. It's nice

Pretty bizarre results. Park and bus stop should be 100.
University, hospital, mall, theatre, arena? Those are massive, you can't have one 15 minute walk from everywhere.
Now bars are the one commercial item that's easy to have around.

Im confused about (from the poll)
bar.. if this is not walkable you are promoting drunk driving. (even if its not your thing)
what do you need to walk to the gas station for? or is this being used also as a corner store?

This poll shows a population not really taking the question seriously.
Why should a gas station be more accessible on foot than a local pub?

Missing a gym, physio, and doctors clinic.

@ajsadauskas @fuckcars I wonder why they included gas stations unless it's for their use as convenience store. Buying gas as a pedestrian is a very marginal use case...
- How else will you burn the cars?
- I don’t think lawn mowers, snow blowers, and other ICE landscaping tools, are “very marginal use cases”. Sure they might not use a lot of gas, but most everyone with a lawn/driveway has them (at least mower and blower).
  But also, yes, it’s a convenience store. Other than maybe in cities, we often don’t have any convenience stores at all, just gas stations with shops inside.
  
  I'm in my 20s and only once have I ever used a lawn mower that required fuel, and it was pretty old. Unless you're living on a huge tract of land and need a ride-on one, an electric one with a long cord will do the job 99% of the time.
  I've never seen a snow blower but I can only imagine it being useful to people living in areas that get a crazy amount of snowfall, otherwise it's overkill.
  Besides a lawn mower, there's not really any large powered landscaping tools I can think of that the average person would ever need to outright buy and own.
  
  A container of gas is heavy, and sloshing makes hard to carry. Would you really walk to get that?
  Battery powered lawncare equipment can probably serve most of us now, certainly most of us in a “walkable” neighborhood
  Do people even do their own yards anymore? Sometimes it seems like I’m the only one
  
  Why would you carry a lawn mower to the gas station?

@ajsadauskas @urlyman @fuckcars Why on earth would anyone answer ‘should not’ to a bus stop being within 15 mins? How are they thinking you get to the bus stop, by driving?!
Also, as a Dutchie, the amount of ‘should nots’ for a bar within 15 mins is killing me. I understand it, but it points to such a lack of imagination about what a city can look like. I have at least 20 bars within 15 mins walk of home and I’m not in the city centre 😄
- @Brendanjones @ajsadauskas @urlyman @fuckcars Indeed. Bars should only be in a 15 minute walk. You should never need to drive to a bar!
  
  @CurtAdams what about sailing? ;)
  https://www.hampshire-history.com/point-portsmouth/
  @Brendanjones @ajsadauskas @fuckcars
  
  Bus bar
- @Brendanjones @urlyman @fuckcars You need to keep in mind we are talking about a country here where a not insignificant proportion of the population thinks walkable neighbourhoods are a deep state conspiracy...
  
  @ajsadauskas
  I am reminded of Bill Bryson, writing in a different century (just), on why no-one walks https://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/bryson-s-america-why-would-you-walk-1079183.html
  @Brendanjones @fuckcars
  
  No, it's an insignificant portion.
- Honestly 15 minutes is way too much for a bus stop. If it's more than 10 minutes walk away it might as well not exist, and the target should always be under 5 minutes.
  
  @Zagorath @Brendanjones In the UK one of the magic numbers planners used for bus stops (or did a few years ago when I was in the loop) was 400m
- Some people think the "wrong sort of people" will come to a neighborhood if there's a bus stop. Like they're going to get on the bus, break into your house, and get back on the bus holding your tv.
  
  Yes, an architect in NYC intentionally designed bridges to be too low for busses to pass under them to keep busses out of some neighborhoods.
  Because fuck the poor.
- @Brendanjones I miss passing Dutchies (as in Dutch people), on Dutch streets or in Dutch bars, on the left or the right https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/PasstheDutchie
  @ajsadauskas @fuckcars

As someone in the UK, I already live within a 15 minute walk of most of these.
Is it really that bad over there? If you're not within a quick walk to the shops, or the doctors, or school, tram and bus stops, opticians, dentists, etc, how do you and the kids get anything done?
Who would intentionally move somewhere like that? The first thing we do when looking at moving to a new place is see what services are within walking distance, to get an idea for how worth it living there would be.
If you've got to walk 30+ minutes just to get to the shops? That's an arse ache you don't want.

Mid-sized village (around 10k inhabitants) in Germany:
4 grocery stores
2 pharmacies
Bus stop (and train station)
5 or so restaurants
Post office
Bank
Gas station
Elementary school
2 Kindergartens
2 barber shops
Bar
Sports field (calling it an arena would be a bit much)
Alas, no university or hospital, but I think for a village it's pretty good.
- This feels like the type of thing open street maps could provide a service for where you put in your postcode and it returns the services within a 15 mins walk.
  
  Osmand does that, search or tap a PoI and it lists similiar in the area, nearest first.
- From where I live in my small Swedish town (about 8k inhabitants), so pretty much the whole town
  2 grocery stores
  2 convenience stores
  2 bus stops (5 lines)
  At least 10 resturants including a burger joint, a thai and a chinese. Most pizza places though
  1 hardware/home appliance store
  1 hardware/gardening store
  2 home appliance stores
  3 clothing stores, of which one for babies and one for sports
  4 (?) Hairdresser
  2 pharmacies
  3 second hand stores
  3 gyms, one of which at the sport centre
  A sport centre with swimming hall, general sport hall, bowling alleys, gym and fields for outdoor sports
  Two large schools and a couple of daycares
  Church
  2 graveyards
  Police station
  Municipal services
  2 Opticians
  1 library
  Think that may be it
- I moved to a tiny village (1.2k inhabitants) at the outskirts of the Paris metro. We got:
  1 supermarket that also doubles as a post office
  1 bakery
  1 pastry chef
  1 pizzeria
  1 fancier restaurant
  1 pharmacy
  1 kindergarten (mandatory school for 3-6yo) and 1 primary school (for 6-10yo)
  about 20 child-minders for the 0-3yo with working parents
  1 tennis, basket, football field
  1 gym for indoor tennis
  1 public library
  1 train station next town with direct trains to Paris in 40min
  6 bus stops along the Main Street with one line going to the train station
  a church that only opens once a year for a concert of Christmas carols
  1 castle
  we are next to a river so we got a ton of public paths along it where we jog, bike or just walk as well as a water reserve thing for animals where we go hiking
  Considering the size of the village and how many people live there, I’d say we’re pretty good on the 15 minutes thing.
  
  I have a lot of these here in the US, even an interesting house called a “castle”, but have no idea to where there might be a bakery or pastries, depending. Grocery has a lot of baked goods, and places like Starbucks has pastries. Do those count?
- To be fair, 10k is a small city here.

I have everything but pharmacy, post office, cinema, and university. The pharmacy is within a 15-minute bike or bus, though.
What I feel is lacking is a hardware store. I really wish I had even a small hardware store close by. There used to be one.
Also missing from the list, but I have: a bakery, a swimming pool, and a coffeeshop.
- My hardware store is pretty disappointing though. I keep wanting to frequent it, and am fine with paying a little more, but the prices are a lot higher than my home center less than 2 miles away, and they never seem to carry what I’m looking for.
  Something that has worked really well though is a “garage”. It is extremely convenient to be able to drop my car off when it needs servicing, and just walk home

@ajsadauskas @fuckcars There's a couple of weird things missing there I would definitely include, like a doctor's office, a library and a gym.
I'm in a city in the UK and a lot of those are in 15 minutes walk from me. Some, like a hospital, university, cinema, shopping mall and sports arena and I think a bank I'd have to go into the city centre for, but that's only about 30 minutes walk, 10 minutes on the bike, or a short bus or metro ride. I'm generally pretty lucky in my location.

I would say an urgent care or doctor's office is more important to have on this list than a hospital. If you really need the Emergency Room you're probably not walking. And even in the US, if you wind up being admitted to the hospital, insurance will usually pay for the ambulance. (They ought to pay for other vehicle transport, for broken bones and stuff as well, but they suck.)
I could get to most of them, the Hospital/University/Sports (all together) would take more like 30 minutes and involve getting over or under the 405. Which means that there's times of day it would be quicker than driving....

@ajsadauskas @fuckcars I can walk to all except university (1hr walk, or 15min bike ride) and sports center (1+ hr walk, 18min bike ride).
I don't get the gas station though. Why so many "should"s? Why would you need to walk to a gas station?
Unless ppl are considering "gas station" to mean "convenience store", which in a lot of America that's what they are.

A gas station?! How often do you walk to a gas station?
- All the time. They're open 24hrs and sell milk, cat food, cat litter, batteries, condoms, and dishsoap. For a second shift worker, something that sells small necessities in the middle of the night is a huge boon.
  Plus I have deal with my neighbor to use his snowblower if I gas it up, and you can't take cannisters of liquid fuel on the bus.
  
  So a convenience store. I can see that. Basically a southern bodega 😀.
  Now the funny thing about this statement is I’ve been a southerner all my life and never even been to NYC. 🤣
  
  Did you mean "gas it up" ?
- Usually gas stations have a convenience store that is easier to get in and out of compared grocery store and sometimes have good food as well. especially in the Midwest gas stations have really good food and are the best fast food joints in town. Also buccees
  
  One of the few sad things about a transition to a car free(er) environment: no more bucees. They pay well, their bathrooms are great, and their food, though expensive, is great.
  Also, you reminded me about the local gas station where I once worked nearby. They had better food, though it was all fried, than any place within a 20 minute drive.
  
  It'll take you 15 minutes to cross a buccees parking lot >!kidding!<
  
  Yeah I think most people say gas station because they don't know the concept of a bodega
  
  I had never heard of buccees. It's massive!
  If the 'gas station' choice were replaced by 'convenience store' would a midwesterner have seen them as the same in this poll?
  
  Man when I was in college we had something like this in the bottom of my dorm. Super convenient.
  We just got a buccees near me. It was like a big deal.
- Also a good place to buy drugs
  
  No joke we just moved to a new house last summer and we were checking out local grocery stores and saw a drug deal in a food lion parking lot. So also grocery stores.

I would love this being contrasted with what they get on average, it would probably really depressing.
It's interesting, walking 15 minutes to the next bus stop sounds like a nightmare in a city but pretty good in the country ...

I have all of this in a 15 minute walk of my apartment. The key thing, if people would like all of this very close by is they will need many fold more apartment buildings.
That's the thing people aren't willing to accept in the US.
Also who tf really needs the post office that close by, these days? Makes me think this was an older crowd that was polled.
- Same for all of these except a movie theater and that post office.
  I work irregular hours so I have any online orders delivered to pickup points I can go grab them from at my convenience.
  Post offices in my area have been closing down, and having to walk further and further to my "local" office when picking up parcels has been infuriating over the last few years.
  Yes, the automated ones are showing up in local grocers and it has helped, but having to go pick up several kilos of cat litter from the other side of town instead of next door when the delivery gets re-routed due to the pickup machine being full, is not nice.
- It doesn't have to be high rise apartments though. Duplexes, quadplexes, small apartment buildings, row houses, and so on can increase density without huge buildings (although I don't mind them personally).
  
  @vividspecter @wolfpack86 Even three or four stories of apartments above the shops, instead of... Just a roof.
  
  The area i live generally maxes out at 5 stories. You don't need towers, but duplexes aren't going to be enough to get the density needed to have the full listing of services in a walking distance.
- I've had packages that went to the post office instead of my apartment, and I had to go pick them up. Having it nearby worked out better.
  
  Any number of businesses could enroll as a pickup point for packages in a walkable city. They don't need to be sending points, only pickup.
  This model works pretty well where I live.

Do people really use the post office or bank that often? If I'm walking into either of those, odds are something has gone catastrophically wrong that day.

The fact that only 68% of respondents say a bus stop should be within a 15 minute walk of your house and only 32% say a bar says a lot about the SEC and age of the sample pool.

The fact that it's called a gas station rather than convenience store on a survey about walking is somewhat disappointing.

I live in a city of about 3/4 of million people, just shy of it. Winnipeg Manitoba Canada.
I can walk to every one of those other than a university and sports arena (pro football or hockey, minor community center within ten), within twenty minutes. The movie theater is probably twenty away, everything else is accessible within 15 pretty easy.
It's possible but you gotta get into one of those post war community type places that hasn't been turned over yet..

Why less people want daycare in walking distance than restaraunt? Even less than fucking gas station.
And who are those 32% who don't want bus stop in 15-minute walk? Or why? Maybe they don't want it so far away and want it in 3-minute walk? If so, then I agree with them.

Montreal, I'm a 10 minute walk from the Olympic stadium, so I think I technically have all of those things except a shopping mall within 15 minutes walk. That said, I have everything I might need from a shopping mall within 15 minutes.

I lived in the suburbs once that required a 1 hour bike ride just to get to the nearest bus stop. That place was miserable

I knew I was pretty far away from anything. Just checked on maps and I'm 1 hour from the closest business walking. It's a dog kennel. Another 20 minutes I can be at a cafe, same story if I go in the other direction, about 1 hour and 20 to a small market. Roughly 5 miles. Biking would be a out 25 minutes, maybe faster if I hustle. Driving is just minutes. No bus or train nearby at all. ( There used to be a train that ran through my neighborhood about 100 years ago). I live in northeast US

@ajsadauskas @fuckcars Aw, c'mon! You have to have at least one pub or something to call it a neighbourhood. Sheesh!

I'm actually surprised that my area of Wisconsin has the majority of these within a 15 minute walk. Bar included, of course. It makes me appreciate my neighborhood more.

@ajsadauskas @fuckcars
Why should I walk to a gas station?
- As someone else said: snacks.
  If you have a 24/7 kiosk in your area, that's even better though.
  
  @flyingsheep A gas station is selling petrol, diesel and oil, sometimes hydrogen, LPG or electricity charging. For all these, you need a vehicle.
  If one means snacks oder drinks, one should write down "kiosk", "grocery shop" or "elementary store".

Why the fuck is “school” so far from the top of the list 🙄?
Also, if the whole point is the place being walkable, gas station shouldn’t even make the list.

@ajsadauskas @fuckcars 57% of respondents prefer to drink and drive.

Larger German city (>500k), just from memory
A grocery store, about 11
A park, 1 large, three small
A pharmacy, six
A bus stop, only a few, dozens of train and tram stops
A restaurant, 40+
A post office, one large, dozens of shop-in-shop ones
A bank, six, dozens of ATMs
A gas station, none
An elementary school, two
A day care center, five
A hospital, I have to walk 20min for that :(
A barber shop or hairdresser, about a dozen
A shopping mall, one
A movie theater, three
A bar, 40+
A university, none
A sports arena, none

Need a proper public house

Have everything except university and sports arena. But for me it makes sense being in the NJ/NYC metro area.
Bar should be way higher on that list. Seems a lot of people haven't experienced the freedom of being able to walk home drunk from a bar, or at least take a subway/bus, without worrying about dealing with a car. Or worse relying on the friend who had a few beers but is still "good" to drive.

As an American you could ask me what should be in a 15 minute neighborhood and I'd answer things but I can't walk off of my street without taking my life in my hands. The only thing I can walk to is my neighbors' houses.

I'm in the UK. I have all except a hospital, movie theatre, university, and sports arena within a 15 min walk of my house. I live in a suburb in a large city (not London).
I can get to a hospital, movie theatre, and a university within 20 mins on a bus. I can get to 3 sports areas in about 30-40 mins on a bus in different directions.
My area is not a 15-min city, but is moving that way. My own street has been split up and blocked to through traffic (which I love), and there is proposal for a pollution tax to dissuade polluting traffic in the city.
But at the moment I cannot realistically commute to work as the public transport capacity is just too low to make it comfortable and safe (I work early and late hours).
I think the concept is great but I suspect they need most of the elements to be in place before they can achieve critical mass and change behaviour. Certainly for me I'm still doing a lot of driving.

Living in rural US I sadly don't have any of those within walking distance. Some would take over an hour walk, and most are not even accessible to walk. A decent bike ride can get me to a few, but I hate riding on county roads. Far too many people get hit around here.

Who are these people that responded "No, no I would not like a park or bank or gas station less than 15 minutes from my house!" ?

I live in a city of 1/2 million and have not even one of these within a 15-minute walk. Some, I could not care less such as bars, but a grocery store, gym, and park would be nice.

@ajsadauskas @fuckcars I’m in Toronto’s Danforth area, so basically everything except a professional sports arena is within 5-20 mins walk.
The framing of that poll has such a sinister American conspiracy theorist edge: “if your local government decided…” — like having these things nearby can only be forced upon you and you must fight back.
- @c9 @ajsadauskas @fuckcars a lot of these polls have a conservative subtext to the question.
- @c9 @ajsadauskas @fuckcars
  Interesting poll. Did you notice 'gas station' hiding in there?
  That's irrelevant if you're walking, and also irrelevant if you're driving - so, a red herring. The only time you go to a gas station is when you're driving and your need gas.

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.

I live in a big city and every single one of these things is within 15 minutes walk from my door except a sports arena, although if you substitute that for a gym with a pool and basketball court there's half a dozen.
I love it because I never need to use my car. Although there are consequences... Heavy traffic, loud music at night, unruly people in my neighborhood, ambulance sounds, people who rev their cars and motorcycles, trash on the street sometimes, etc.
I grew up a bit far outside of any neighborhood which meant every single trip involved the car and 20 plus minutes of driving. That lifestyle is perfect for some people because they appreciate the isolation. But it also meant planning well ahead and if you needed a quick run to the hardware store or some convenience item it would take half a day. The percentage of my childhood life in the car was too damn high.

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