Do most people have to drive to get most places?

[Rosebudwater]

Odd question, but where do you live and how much do you drive to stuff? I live in North West England, smallish town. Everything feels like its a drive away (particularly as I have two young kids), or otherwise a bit of a mission to walk there. Could get to nearest shops /park with around a 25 min walk. All other amenities are a definite drive. It all feels a lot of hassle to do anything and on weekends like this, we've basically stayed in and got moth eaten.
Outside of London, is this fairly normal? I want to move, to feel a bit more connected with an area, and I think it will help to not bloody drive everywhere. But on the whole, is this unrealistic, unless you live in the middle of a city? Please tell me about where you live!

I'm in a city in the NW, I don't drive so walk or get a bus/train. Tesco express is 5 minutes walk away, as is the butchers, fruit and veg shop, cake shop, cheese shop and lots of other independent shops. Park is also 5 minutes away, beach is 10 minutes, country park at the end of the road. GP, library, post office, community owned cinema all within 5/10 minutes walk.

Big Tesco is 25 minutes walk away, or about 6 stops on the bus. Sainsburys 15 minutes the other way.

City centre is 35/40 minutes on the bus, 16 minutes by train, or about 20 minutes in a cab.

I cant drive so walk everywhere, barely get in a car or use public transport either.
Everything is within walking distance though and I could walk to 2 neighbouring towns as they are only a couple of miles away.
I do shop online for some stuff but also pull out my trusty shopping trolley every week for shopping!

Drive everywhere. It’s a 5 minute walk up a hill just to the end of my drive. 😂 I can in theory walk to the village/dc2’s school and we do in nice weather if we don’t need to get to work or anywhere else after. The other dc’s school would easily be a 2+ hour walk, some of it across high moorland, so can’t walk there (I mean, not like on a daily basis in time for school!). No shops around here within walking distance. It’s very rural.

I was really responding to the OP who said she’d stayed in this weekend.

Hopefully things might improve for me health wise next year but at the moment I have to ration my walking, lol

We're semi-rural in the northwest and yes we do have to drive pretty much everywhere except the corner shop, the doctors, the pub or the school. Public transport is crap and almost non existent here so can't be relied on for anything important.

We're moving to a larger village soon where we will at least be able to access supermarkets, salons, cafes and restaurants without a car. But for things like hospital, cinema, high street shops, leisure centres, nightlife, big supermarkets, museums etc we'll still need to drive.

Cornwall.

If I want to walk to the corner shop or the beach, or one of 5 exceptional restaurants it's a 5 minute walk.I

For anything else it's a dive and it is a bit of a pain really.

I'm in the northeast US. I am a maximum15 minute walk (mostly 5-10 mins) from library, grocery, pharmacy, corner shops, dry cleaners, post office, deli, restaurants, train station, public transport, church, school, playground, lake/boat club, and book store (well that would be a 30 minute walk as it is in the next town over). I love being so close to everywhere.

We're on the edge of a small NE town. We managed fine without a car until recently. There are/were good transport links, until lockdown was an excuse to slash them. Plus my kids have grown enough that I can't physically carry enough food back from the supermarket.

So now we use the car perhaps three times per week, and I resent it when I specifically chose to live somewhere I wouldn't need to.

Same, on both counts!

I went to visit family in Yorkshire and was bemused by a visit to what they described as a “local” restaurant which involved a 30 minute drive on the motorway. If I drive 30 minutes in virtually any direction, I’d be in a different county.

I live in NYC and don't drive anywhere, ever.

I mostly walk, but also use the subway or Uber depending on distance / time of day.

I do 12-15k steps a day without even thinking about it. I was in Florida last week and averaged 4k steps a day - I felt very lazy and sluggish.

I'm so glad I live somewhere that allows me to walk so much. I love it.

Market commuter town. Lots of people do drive, but everything is walkable within 20 mins max. We have a car but rarely drive it.

I live in Edinburgh and we don't have a car. We either walk, cycle or public transport everywhere. We chose our house within the bypass so we could have this lifestyle (he WFH and I cycle to work). I love being close to shops, coffee shops, pubs etc. Even the GP surgery is only 3 miles away. I really love not having to keep a car, I drove to work for years and I love not having to do that now

Small city, can do everything by walk or bike, sometimes get a bus, Ubers are cheap and easy to get, rail station ten mins walk. Lots of nice off road walks too. No real need for a car, ours is used so little that the battery goes flat.

I would never choose to live somewhere where you need a car to do the usual daily stuff.

I’ve pretty much always lived in the countryside apart from a two years in a city when I was much younger so I’ve always had to drive or be driven to get to places, currently live in the highlands and have to drive to get to anything.

Large ish commuter village

Can walk to post office and shop small, small coop, 2 pubs, fish and chip shop, pizza shop and Chinese, hairdressers, GP and pharmacy, garage ( we always drive - who wants cold take away it's 15 mins away)

It's pretty shit tbh. Pubs are a bit rough and for local people.

Drive to nice but sleepy market town is 8 mins and drive to big very awful town is 15 mins

It's not great where I live.

We’re on the edge of a small city. We can walk to countryside and walk into town but we mostly jump on a bus into town. The service is every ten mins or so and not very expensive.

I live in a rural location 6 miles from a market town which is good for most weekly shopping essentials. The historical county town 15 miles away is quaint and full of independent shops but not particularly practical. A larger town 25 miles away has everything.

When the kids were at home I would drive 25K miles a year just going back and forth and round about in the local neighbourhood. When living rurally it's very easy to knock up the miles. Village rural buses services to town are really infrequent (our village has 2 buses a day) the county bus service between the towns are really good (every 30 minutes). I drive to the local market town, park up and then catch the bus to the large town. The £2 bus fare each way is excellent value and the journey time is 1hr.

I have a similar situation @Rosebudwater
Town centre (small!!) is 20 mins walk away. So is the surgery.
Train station is about 5 mins away.
Supermarket: you need a car. Like for anything else?

Tbh I dint think you can get away without using a car unless you live in a town centre

I live in London zone 2, which is fairly central but not right in the centre. I've never learned to drive and can get to everywhere I need by walking, tube, bus or train. We have 2 dcs under 7 and can get around without a car. School is a 5 min walk, my office is 20 min walk, the nearest tube is 5 mins walk (and 3 other stations within 20 min walk). Various bus stops within 10 min walk cover 15 bus routes. We are 5 mins walk from the High St with 5 supermarkets, 7 banks, 4 chemists, countless coffee shops, restaurants, and other shops, library, dentist, pubs, music venues, cinemas, market. Big 400 acre park 10 mins walk away. We travel all over London to visit the museums, theatres, parks etc, and some of the museums are within 30 mins walk. I can get to Oxford Circus in 17 mins from my front door.

I've lived in a few other UK cities and they have been OK with public transport to get to shops and other amenities, but it's been impossible to get to certain places because of the way bus routes connect.
And even from London, there are a few places which are awkward to get to, mostly attractions in the outer zones or outside of London like NT properties, activity farms - places like that tend to be located away from transport connections.

A village in North Somerset. We don't have any public transport so we have to drive everywhere.

To get a taxi to the sleepy market town for a night out is exorbitant it's 8 minutes away and has lots of pubs and one stays open

One person paid £40 for the 9 minute ride as they needed to get back. Their DH shift started at 6am and they had DC - older but she needed to be back for them.

Outer London about 3 large strides inside the ULEZ tax area so £12.50 to drive to quite a few places. I have a few routes eg to one shop without paying £12.50. We are basically rural with 2000 acre wood opposite so it is very unfair of Mr Khan to put this tax on those who cannot afford a new car. I suppose I could give up full time work and do hours of walking with heavy shopping bags but that is not very feasible out here. Even cycling with heavy bags in darkness wind and rain living right at top of a hill does not feel very feasible either. So yes we need a car.

NW England. 5 mins walk to a large park, 20 mins walk to nearest supermarket (choice of 5 within half an hour though). I can walk to work. 20 mins walk to library, gym, local bars and restaurants. 15 mins on public transport into the city centre. I love it- I'd hate to feel dependent on driving, but on the whole I think most people are.

Middle of nowhere in Yorkshire so drive everywhere. I would cycle but kids are too young plus it would add a lot of time on to every journey