Personally, I have no family to take care of and work from home, and as part of that I gave up on cars. Very good for my finances overall. But it does mean that restaurants that were once a 10 minute drive away are now inaccessible except for delivery.
Most places won’t let you use the drive-thru on foot either, and some stores (due to “labor shortages”) are drive thru only. So they literally won’t serve you without a car.
American car culture is terrible but it’s not like we get a choice at the DMV between driving and having functional, walkable towns and cities. You get to be a driver or a second-class person.
This one drives me crazy. Wife and I were walking home late from a night out, wanted McDs (alcohol was involved). The only options were drive through and app ordering for drive through pick up. Thankfully the woman at the uber pickup window let us app order and pick up there, but they aren’t supposed to…
Most places won’t let you use the drive-thru on foot either, and some stores (due to “labor shortages”) are drive thru only. So they literally won’t serve you without a car.
That’s potentially a zoning code violation. Call up your local government and report it.
(A fast food place near me illegally expanded their drive-thru to two lanes recently; my complaint forced them to rip it out again.)
For the restaurant in my particular example, it’s in a neighborhood with special zoning that says they’re supposed to not be allowed a drive-thru at all. Unfortunately, even though that old fast-food building had been vacant for more than a year before the current restaurant opened (which means it should’ve lost its grandfathered-in status), the city failed to enforce the zoning in a timely fashion and they got away with having one drive-thru lane. I’m just glad my city councilperson was urbanist enough to be willing to give the zoning department (or legal department, or whatever) a swift kick in the ass to stop them from getting away with screwing the community a second time!
Okay jeez.
Its not uncommon however, for people to believe that a ten minute drive (maybe a 30 minute walk) away is impossibly far to walk. Its very much baked in to “American” car culture to believe like this, and you can resist that culture by sometimes walking instead of driving.
10 minute drive (where I live) is typically 6-10 miles. Average walking speed is 3mph so you’re talking over 2hrs. I had to do it once on a tractor and it sucked, and that was doing 10-14mph.
Are you from the EU or something? In America a “10 minute drive” is literally like 2 hours of walking and miles away, we have much faster speed limits here and everything is wayyy more spread out. A EU “10 minute drive” is vastly different from an American “10 minute drive”
Idk how a 10 minute drive is a half hour walk. Average walking speed is 3 mph, so a half hour is 1.5 miles. If you’re driving that in 10 minutes, you’re only averaging 9 mph.
I don’t mean to pile on here because I understand your frustration. I grew up in NYC where basically no one drives, and didn’t get a driver’s license until my 30s when I moved to California for work. Even then I put off getting a car for years, since I like walking and don’t mind “decent” public transit.
But it just became impossible to continue. My commute was an hour and 45 minutes (one way), with about 40 minutes of walking, a train and a bus. I like walking but when it was over 100 degrees in the summer, or raining, or a wildfire smoke day it was miserable. The buses run every 30 minutes so if there’s a missed connection the commute becomes over 2 hours (still just one way). And the train has only 1 line so when there’s a mechanical issue you’re out of luck and just have to call an Uber anyway.
I finally broke down and got a car. My commute is now 30 minutes each way. The gas for my commute is somehow cheaper than the public transit. It’s ridiculous and it shouldn’t be this way, but it is.
Car dependency and pedestrian facilities vary greatly between countries, have you thought about that?
Many Americans simply don’t have sidewalks or any other safe routes to navigate to many restaurants and other places, nor do they have sufficiently developed public transport in those same areas (if at all).
Even in Russia, in cities built and/or amended by the Soviets to be walkable or at least accessible via public transport, there’s a lot of day-to-day places you’re not going to be able to reach without a car unless you have literal hours in your day outside work and other chores; not to mention some people not having the luxury of being able to walk as easily or at all.
Personally, I have no family to take care of and work from home, and as part of that I gave up on cars. Very good for my finances overall. But it does mean that restaurants that were once a 10 minute drive away are now inaccessible except for delivery.
Alright, buddy, three things:
I quite literally have a bad leg and walk with a cane, so fuck running.
The 10 minute drive includes stretches of highway.
I generally don’t have three hours to burn in travel time (round trip) when I want to eat at a restaurant.
Most places won’t let you use the drive-thru on foot either, and some stores (due to “labor shortages”) are drive thru only. So they literally won’t serve you without a car.
American car culture is terrible but it’s not like we get a choice at the DMV between driving and having functional, walkable towns and cities. You get to be a driver or a second-class person.
This one drives me crazy. Wife and I were walking home late from a night out, wanted McDs (alcohol was involved). The only options were drive through and app ordering for drive through pick up. Thankfully the woman at the uber pickup window let us app order and pick up there, but they aren’t supposed to…
That’s potentially a zoning code violation. Call up your local government and report it.
(A fast food place near me illegally expanded their drive-thru to two lanes recently; my complaint forced them to rip it out again.)
They’re not allowed two lanes? Many McDonald’s have them where I’m from.
For the restaurant in my particular example, it’s in a neighborhood with special zoning that says they’re supposed to not be allowed a drive-thru at all. Unfortunately, even though that old fast-food building had been vacant for more than a year before the current restaurant opened (which means it should’ve lost its grandfathered-in status), the city failed to enforce the zoning in a timely fashion and they got away with having one drive-thru lane. I’m just glad my city councilperson was urbanist enough to be willing to give the zoning department (or legal department, or whatever) a swift kick in the ass to stop them from getting away with screwing the community a second time!
I had a lady at the McDonalds near me tell me I can’t take my motorcycle through the drive-thru. I was like “wtf? I do it all the time here.”
Okay jeez. Its not uncommon however, for people to believe that a ten minute drive (maybe a 30 minute walk) away is impossibly far to walk. Its very much baked in to “American” car culture to believe like this, and you can resist that culture by sometimes walking instead of driving.
10 minute drive (where I live) is typically 6-10 miles. Average walking speed is 3mph so you’re talking over 2hrs. I had to do it once on a tractor and it sucked, and that was doing 10-14mph.
Are you from the EU or something? In America a “10 minute drive” is literally like 2 hours of walking and miles away, we have much faster speed limits here and everything is wayyy more spread out. A EU “10 minute drive” is vastly different from an American “10 minute drive”
A 10 minute drive is a 10 minute drive, man. A 10 minute drive is a 30 minute e-bike ride, or 90 minutes+ by foot.
Ok.
Really living up to your username.
That and I don’t want to get murdered walking around in my city. There usually aren’t even sidewalks.
Ok.
Idk how a 10 minute drive is a half hour walk. Average walking speed is 3 mph, so a half hour is 1.5 miles. If you’re driving that in 10 minutes, you’re only averaging 9 mph.
I don’t mean to pile on here because I understand your frustration. I grew up in NYC where basically no one drives, and didn’t get a driver’s license until my 30s when I moved to California for work. Even then I put off getting a car for years, since I like walking and don’t mind “decent” public transit.
But it just became impossible to continue. My commute was an hour and 45 minutes (one way), with about 40 minutes of walking, a train and a bus. I like walking but when it was over 100 degrees in the summer, or raining, or a wildfire smoke day it was miserable. The buses run every 30 minutes so if there’s a missed connection the commute becomes over 2 hours (still just one way). And the train has only 1 line so when there’s a mechanical issue you’re out of luck and just have to call an Uber anyway.
I finally broke down and got a car. My commute is now 30 minutes each way. The gas for my commute is somehow cheaper than the public transit. It’s ridiculous and it shouldn’t be this way, but it is.
Walk where? In the ditch?
Car dependency and pedestrian facilities vary greatly between countries, have you thought about that?
Many Americans simply don’t have sidewalks or any other safe routes to navigate to many restaurants and other places, nor do they have sufficiently developed public transport in those same areas (if at all).
Even in Russia, in cities built and/or amended by the Soviets to be walkable or at least accessible via public transport, there’s a lot of day-to-day places you’re not going to be able to reach without a car unless you have literal hours in your day outside work and other chores; not to mention some people not having the luxury of being able to walk as easily or at all.
Are you driving only three times as fast as you are walking? So something in the 13mph range?
Welcome to poor urban planning and a lack of capable public transportation.