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 Greater Manchester. I don't drive at all. We have excellent public transport.

I live in the North West too but in the middle of a small city. I only use my car for school runs (school is 6 miles away) everything is literally on my doorstep. I love it

We moved this year from the suburbs to 10 mins walk to the the city centre. Rarely need to drive now

We live in rural Cumbria.

We can easily walk to the supermarket, the post office, the doctors, the train station, the local schools, the high street and the library, but for anything like the cinema, a chain restaurant or any kind of chain store that isn't Tesco, you either have to drive or get a train (which is unreliable at best).

In someways, we're really well catered for, but in others we're quite isolated.

Suburbs of a small city here & I only drive to a handful of more rural places. Trains and buses go to work, shops, beach, activities, cinema, theatre, and most friends’ houses.

NW also, small town, everything needed within walking distance

Village in the Home Counties. 2 supermarkets, dentist, doctor, hairdressers and nails etc all within the village. Park across the road from our house. Fields 1 minute walk away. School less than 5 mins walk. I love it. I work from home so can easily go all week without getting in the car (until swimming lessons on Saturday!)

South East village in the commuter region for London. We can walk to most essential things like supermarket, corner shops, community centre, schools, doctors, pharmacy, dentist and there are loads of play parks within easy walking distance too. I have to drive or get a bus to the towns for other shopping, cinema, other entertainment.

I live on the edge of a small town in a Surrey. I have a range of small shops, a supermarket, a leisure centre, a community centre, a post office, a primary school, about recreation ground and a railway station within 10 minutes walk.

That's by design rather than accident. When we moved here 25 years ago my husband and I both commuted into London. We had a toddler and I was pregnant. One of our essential criteria when house-hunting was that we must be able to walk to a station and other facilities.

Literally drive everywhere. Only 4 miles from a lovely northern city, but 2 miles walk to the nearest bus, across muddy/wet/livestock fields. No facilities at all, apart from the church and primary school (neither of which we need now),
in the local village which is a mile away, along a single track road.

Yeah I have to drive everywhere (village on outskirts of London) and it sucks. But I’m not walking 3 miles into town and back.

Should have added pubs, cafe and library also all in the village!

In the Midlands right on the boundary between city and county. Primary school is on the same road, secondary school is a 5 minute walk, doctors and pharmacy 7-10 min walk, 3 parks within 10 mins walk, co-op, post office, couple of convenience stores, all within 10-15 min walk. City centre is a 20 min drive or bus ride away or a very nice 40 min walk down a cyclepath/canal route.

I went from one extreme to the other. Until I was 32 I lived in London and didn't even have a car (despite passing my driving test at 17). Then we moved out to the sticks (a small village about 5 miles from the nearest town) and have to get in the car to do everything! I do love it here but that is the one downside!

Nearest shop is an hour’s walk in decent weather, if it’s snowing I wouldn’t attempt it as the roads are narrow and there’s no pavements. The nearest retail park is 45 mins away in good weather, it can take up to an hour and half if it’s snowing. We’re in the Scottish Highlands.

I live in a city. We can walk to quite a lot - bank, library, GP, dentist, schools, supermarkets, phamarcy, massive park with woodland, bars, restaurants and coffee shops. We have pretty much everything else you can want a short tram ride away. Wouldn't swap it although out house is pretty little compared with what we could get further out.

Also in a NW small town I can easily walk to shops, parks, GP, cafes, pub, station.

NE suburban, right on the edge of town.
1 min walk to a (small) park.
2 min walk to a green space the kids play football and cricket on.
10 mins walk to mini sainsburys, take aways, bakers, pharmacy, post office and community centre.
Just under 20 mins to (secondary) school and tesco.

DS1 and I walked to 35mins to the nearby thriving high street, where we went to the bookshop, and got a haircut. Library etc there too.
We'd drive to the swimming pool, big park etc

I live in an outer London borough. It's a mixed bag. It's one of the largest ones so in a way a small town on it's own. So just because it's London it doesn't mean it's easy.

Our own high street and GP - 20 minutes walk, no direct bus
no corner shop etc, the nearest is at least 15 minutes walk away
Bus to town center/supermarket/leisure center - 10 minutes walk, 10 minutes bus
School - primary was 20 minutes walk, no direct bus, secondary is 40 minutes walk, bus for 1/2 the route but it's normally utterly packed.

We lived in a different part before and most things took 20 minutes walk, I walked for miles with DD in the pram unless it was pouring down.

I’m in a large village about a mile from a large town and 15 miles from Manchester. We are a 20 min walk from my work, 2 minute walk from school, 10 minute walk from co-op/sainsburys/post office/hair dresser/dentist/train station/library - Monday through Friday I don’t drive at all, but I have friends who cannot comprehend that I WALK to the shop 8 mins away and walk back with a bag of shopping and a child. Sometimes I think the world is more accessible without a car than people think but we are just conditioned to think we need to drive everywhere

Edge of large town centre down south. I can walk everywhere. 4 supermarkets, work, gym, GP, train station etc. I'd go mental if I had to drive it all.

I have a car but it's just for ad hoc outgoings, dropping DC's off, family visits, massive supermarket shops, days out.

We live in a village but a lot is walkable like supermarket, doctors, bakers, etc but drive to swimming pool or to go on trips out at the weekend. I did specifically choose here as so much is walkable and I don't drive.

I live close to a town centre so I can walk to the shops, railway station, leisure centre (just about, that is about 25 minutes away) and if I can be bothered and am not buying heavy items, the garden centre is 2 miles away. It's great and means we rarely need to get the car out.

If it's with 2 miles, 30mins walk we always walk otherwise we drive

Walk
Bus
Drive