Walkable Communities

[Anneal 2,197]

I've always struggled to walk anywhere in San Jose or my time in Orange County. It's always such a slog to get anywhere – even in my current neighborhood, the nearest grocery store and shopping center is about 1.2 miles away...and public transportation sucks here. There's only one bus line that goes near my neighborhood, and it's never convenient enough to justify using. All of that usually means that my family and I'm forced to drive to get anywhere. Meanwhile, in Santa Barbara, walking and taking the bus are significantly easier – it's not comparable to other cities in Asia that I've been to, but it's not too bad compared to OC and San Jose. 

How are your neighborhoods? Is it easy to walk around to get to where you want to go? 

[Rising Dusk 28,017]

I currently live in a very small community.  Work, the grocery store, shopping center, movies, food court and a couple of restaurants are all within a ten minute walking distance from where I live.  If I need more than those very basic needs, the public transportation here is very cheap and constantly running.

[MangoFoalix 25,037]

For me it's kind of hard. I live in the suburbs so everything is spread out instead of just crammed in places.

[Phosphor 11,532]

I live out in the country, so walking to the grocery store or any shopping center isn't happening. 

[Cash In 22,498]

I live near a small string of shops. I usually go for walks around there, so I can always pick up something if I need it.

[TBD 17,256]

"It's a beautiful day in this neighborhood, A beautiful day for a neighbor..." Like literally for my neighborhood.

[Hachiroku 127]

If you don't like the way cities are set up in California you can always go somewhere else. Car culture is king here. I personally haven't had issues walking to the store but driving their is easier and quicker.

[Dreambiscuit 10,092]

I live in Anaheim, CA and it isn't bad getting to where I need to go. I drive most places, but I can walk to convenience stores and most of the basic necessities. Downtown Disney is well within walking distance so I have access to a lot of dining and entertainment options if I want them, and I don't have to pay for parking. I can walk to work if I need to, but I don't like it if it's going to be dark when I'm done for the day. The area around Disneyland is a lot cleaner now than it used to be, since Disney wanted to make a good impression and keep the guests coming back, but I still prefer to drive if it's getting late.

It's true that California is a car culture, but most of the stuff you'd need is pretty close if you're willing to drive, like five to ten minutes away. 

[IronM17 5,399]

I live in a small german village on a hill and it is really good for walking here. I can go through the village which is really nice or through the forest or by fields (I life only 100 meters away from the forest). I like to walk through my village or the nature around my village, it is really nice here.

[Sondash Studios 4,851]

My neighborhood here in Charlotte, NC is okay. It's nice and quiet and relaxing as well. Though, you need a bike to get to the closest walmart here. (About 5 minutes away)

In Timisoara, Romania, it's quiet as well. You don't need a car. You can either call a taxi or ride the bus and tram, so it's pretty convenient.

Edited September 25, 2018 by Sondash Studios

[Stone Cold Steve Jobs 22,441]

It is pretty easy to walk around here. There is a nice park nearby too i go to to watch the bay on occasion. Once i went out there and it was like a scene out of Birds. Way more seagulls than usual.

[Anneal 2,197]

22 hours ago, Dreambiscuit said:

I live in Anaheim, CA and it isn't bad getting to where I need to go. I drive most places, but I can walk to convenience stores and most of the basic necessities. Downtown Disney is well within walking distance so I have access to a lot of dining and entertainment options if I want them, and I don't have to pay for parking. I can walk to work if I need to, but I don't like it if it's going to be dark when I'm done for the day. The area around Disneyland is a lot cleaner now than it used to be, since Disney wanted to make a good impression and keep the guests coming back, but I still prefer to drive if it's getting late.

It's true that California is a car culture, but most of the stuff you'd need is pretty close if you're willing to drive, like five to ten minutes away. 

I figured Anaheim would be somewhat easier to walk around in, but when I was in high school, I lived in the southern half of Irvine. We have OCTA here, but in some communities there is literally no coverage. The closest bus stop for me was 1.5 miles away, which meant the only real option was to drive. The nearest Albertsons was almost 2.5 miles away, believe it or not. I didn't like living there. Irvine is a very sprawled out city, unlike some of the older cities like Orange or Anaheim. Irvine isn't the most pedestrian-friendly city, either. Some intersections do not have crosswalks at all to save traffic light time. 

Now I live in San Jose and it's only marginally better because we only have one bus line. Unfortunately, the buses here are even less frequent and usually doesn't cover enough area to get you to go where you want to go. Some places require two or even three bus transfers because the lines are too short. There's also the VTA light rail, but it is incredibly inefficient and ineffective, especially when compared to its SF Muni light rail counterpart. Its ridership is literally less than 1 percent. 

[Dreambiscuit 10,092]

On 9/26/2018 at 3:35 AM, Anneal said:

I figured Anaheim would be somewhat easier to walk around in, but when I was in high school, I lived in the southern half of Irvine. We have OCTA here, but in some communities there is literally no coverage. The closest bus stop for me was 1.5 miles away, which meant the only real option was to drive. The nearest Albertsons was almost 2.5 miles away, believe it or not. I didn't like living there. Irvine is a very sprawled out city, unlike some of the older cities like Orange or Anaheim. Irvine isn't the most pedestrian-friendly city, either. Some intersections do not have crosswalks at all to save traffic light time. 

Now I live in San Jose and it's only marginally better because we only have one bus line. Unfortunately, the buses here are even less frequent and usually doesn't cover enough area to get you to go where you want to go. Some places require two or even three bus transfers because the lines are too short. There's also the VTA light rail, but it is incredibly inefficient and ineffective, especially when compared to its SF Muni light rail counterpart. Its ridership is literally less than 1 percent. 

It's hard when you have to rely on public transport. It's often too complicated and difficult to justify its use. My roommate uses a bike to go almost everywhere and sometimes I think that might be the way to go.

[Partialgeek514 5,011]

Where I live it's not too hard to live without a car. There's two shopping centres about a ten minute walk away as well as a grocery store just a bit farther away. Also, there's a bus route that connects all of them and goes to an LRT, which allows me to reach most important places in the city I might need to get to. Most people still use cars though since it's a pretty widespread suburban city. 

[Midnight Solace 5,132]

I live in the countryside, there are no people to be seen night or day. I can walk anywhere I want to. I really like it that way.

[Lucky Bolt 35,085]

Eh, I live in the suburbs and everything here is kinda spread out. Driving is just easier. 

[Patty Thundersnow 4,184]

Living int the middle of a corn field, everything is basically together here. But, it's still easier to drive because downtown can get messy at times.

[Kyoshi Frost Wolf 41,730]

Perfectly fine walking around in my town, because my town basically has nothing. We have more churches than we do businesses. So this town is pretty much worthless. You basically have to drive out of town to go anywhere that matters. Considering I cannot drive due to several reasons, it is troubling.

[Here No Longer 5,276]

I live in the country. Which means that my neighbors' houses are hardly within walking distance. Walking to town would take at least 3 hours. Within city limits maybe 3 and a half.

Edited April 25, 2019 by Dusklicious

[Treeglow Flicker 13,852]

I live in a small village. Everything is pretty much a minute from my doorstep save for the train station which is a 10 minute walk away. Then it's just a ten minute train ride into the city if I need to go there for any particular reason. Terrible place if you're trying to find work though.

[SparklingSquirrels 21,354]

I live in Washington, DC, so I can walk almost everywhere and I have great public transportation!  

...relatively speaking.

I loooove not having to drive.

Edited April 26, 2019 by SparklingSwirls

[Thuja 3,659]

I mostly walk everywhere unless it's something on the other side of town.  I live in a smaller town, maybe 50k?  Most people drive around here and if you can't there's overpriced taxis just waiting to drive you around(though none of them accept debit).  There is a bus system around here but it's bad and inefficient.  They traded in their bigger buses a few years ago for these crappy short buses that can't fit 20 passengers and of course there're more people coming into town that can't drive so they have to take the bus, which means the buses are constantly crowded.  The buses aren't 24 hour either, they're 7am-7pm, bus passes are the way to go until last year where instead of having year long passes, they reduced them to month long passes for double the price!!  Getting a car is all around cheaper than having to deal with other transport at this point tbh...

Edited April 26, 2019 by Thuja