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!

Outer London and use the car about twice a week to get to kids clubs that would take ages otherwise as not on a direct bus route. And once to get between two places that would be perfectly walkable if they weren't in opposite directions.

Market Town in the NW and I drive pretty much everywhere. I do sometimes get the train to our nearest city, but I drive to the station. I could walk, but it’s about 20 mins and I can’t be bothered on the way home. Buses are awful.

Market town in the south west. We drive to the supermarket, but that is mainly due to family size making the walk to Aldi with a shopping trolley impractical. We can walk into town for most things, and we have trains to adjacent large towns for entertainment and days out - the station is a five minute walk. I work from home, but my office is quite local, so can walk there when I want to go in.

We chose this location quite deliberately to be close to everything we needed.

Moved from huge city and a boring house in the outer suburbs to a small city where everything is now a fifteen minutes walk away. The difference is like night and day. I have restaurants, cinemas, pubs, shops, train station etc within spitting distance and it's improved my social life no end! No need for taxis and can have an impromptu pint whenever the feeling takes me. If I walk in the other direction for twenty minutes I'm in open countryside or a five minute train ride will take me to a famous area of outstanding beauty. Weirdly enough, the housing here is far more affordable and I'm no longer surrounded by anti social behaviour. Wish I'd made the move ten years ago.

This is what I need! I think a lot of the towns round us have sort of spread out, with new builds etc (Inc ours) so that the train station is no longer walkable for a lot of the houses. This small city sounds excellent!

I'm not up North unfortunately but I know exactly what you mean in finding somewhere that ticks all the boxes and opens up your life. They do exist!

Arse end of nowhere rural Wales. So yes. Even to catch a bus we'd have to drive!

Coastal Florida. I drive everywhere except when I walk the dog or walk for exercise.

My house is on the edge of town and I can walk to the centre high street in 5 mins. There's everything that we need. Grocers, butchers, doctors, dentist, library, community centre, pub etc but the main supermarkets and clothing retail is about 20 miles away in any direction so we always need a car but don't need to leave our immeadiate town if we don't need to.

@GrandStanding if it's also got good secondary schools then can you tell me where it is !

I live in Bristol and although I can technically walk to everything, and we definitely always walk to and from school, I do drive most places as it's very hilly and takes ages. My doctor surgery is a five mins drive or 30 mins walk up a massive hill. And then back. I just don't have hours in my day to spend getting places.

A lot of my neighbours moved from London with stars in their eyes about things 'only being a 35 minute walk'. They drive everywhere now too.

Depends how much you want to walk really.

I never learned to drive.

I live in a medium size town in Derbyshire, near to both Nottingham and Derby. I live in the town centre so am close to all amenities, and we have Tesco and Asda superstores in the town.

I get the bus twice a week to work in the city centre but I wfh most of the time. DS goes to sixth form in our town, it's about 30 minutes walk from our house.

If I want to go further out there's 3 different bus routes that run through my town, and a train station as well. 2 of the bus services run 24 hours, 7 days a week. I can be in London in 90 minutes on the train, get to the peak district on the train and one of the buses goes to the airport.

i drive everywhere. Unless im out for an actual walk.

tesco is 25 mins away. Local coop 3 miles. Thats my nearest shop. And I would never change it. Love where i live. Rural snowdonia

Suburbs of a Scottish town. Car essential.