Urban vs. Suburban vs. Rural distances to activities (city hall, theater)

[Borntoolate85]

Area type - outer suburban (Fulton/Simpsonville, MD)- Home
Grocery store - 2 miles
Drug store - 2 miles
Convenience/liquor store - 1.6 miles
Movie theater - 5 miles
Shopping mall - 5 miles
Bar - 2 miles
Restaurant - 2 miles
High school - 2.2 miles

Area type - edge city urban (Downtown Silver Spring, MD)- Work
Grocery store - 200 yards
Drug store - 200 yards
Convenience/liquor store - 300 yards
Movie theater - 0.3 miles
Shopping mall - 0.3 miles
Bar - 300 yards
Restaurant - 100 yards
High school - 1.4 miles

[pch1013]

Area type - urban (San Francisco)
Grocery store - 0.3 miles
Drug store - 0.4 miles
Convenience/liquor store - 0.1 miles
Movie theater - 0.4 miles
Shopping mall - 3 miles
Bar - 0.3 miles
Restaurant - 0.1 miles
High school - 0.8 miles

Second-closest:

Grocery store - 1 mile
Drug store - 0.4 miles
Convenience/liquor store - 0.2 miles
Movie theater - 2.4 miles
Shopping mall - 3.5 miles
Bar - 0.3 miles
Restaurant - 0.3 miles
High school - 1.3 miles

My neighborhood has a "walk score" of 85, which seems very low. I can't think of anything I'd ever need that I couldn't walk to.

[sonofaque86]

Is there a calculator or something for this stuff or a map ya'll are using

[iNviNciBL3]

Originally Posted by sonofaque86

Is there a calculator or something for this stuff or a map ya'll are using

Google maps

[2Easy]

Originally Posted by animatedmartian

Can I through in a random one?

Closest access to a freeway - 2 miles.

That's a good one and I had actually thought about including distance to closest bus and rail stops but thought that it would be unfair to the rural CD's and also thought that distance to various transportation modes might be worthy of a separate topic.

Anyway for me:

Closest access to a freeway - 1.6 miles

[tvdxer]

Area type - rural (rural Duluth area)
Grocery store - 7 miles
Drug store - 4.5 miles
Convenience store - 2 miles (they usually can't sell liquor in MN)
Liquor store - Don't drink, but the nearest I know of is about 6 miles away
Movie theater - 7 miles
Shopping mall - 9 miles
Bar - 4.5 miles
Restaurant - 4.5 miles
High school - 5 miles

Average driving time to the "mall area" is about 15 minutes, and to downtown Duluth about 20. Driving time to the nearest destinations (bar, restaurant, drug store, etc.) is about 7 minutes. To bike to the mall takes about 45 minutes and to the nearest destinations about 15-20. Walking is out of the question, but I've walked back from the area where the "nearest destinations" are located a few times, and it takes about 2 hours.

And if you're up to it, what are the distances to the second closest locations for each location type? The distances for most of mine are the same.

Grocery store - 9 miles
Drug store - 9 miles
Convenience store - 5 miles
Liquor store - 7-8 miles
Movie theater - 10 miles
Shopping mall - 9 miles
Bar - 4.5 miles
Restaurant - 5 miles
High school - 6 miles

At my old work that I was employed at for years (currently unemployed):

Grocery store - 0.75 miles
Drug store - 6 blocks
Convenience store - 2 blocks
Liquor store - 1 block
Movie theater - 3 miles
Shopping mall - 6 blocks (enclosed shopping mall about 5 miles)
Bar - 1 block
Restaurant - 2 blocks
High school - 5 blocks

Driving time is negligible for all but the movie theater, which takes about 10 minutes or less to reach. Biking time ranges from negligible to about 4 minutes for the mall, pharmacy, etc. (with normal traffic lights). Biking time to the movie theater is about 15-20 minutes and the large shopping mall, I would guess about 50 minutes (due to the store being at about 630' elevation and the mall 1350'). Walking time is roughly a minute to the liquor store, about 5 minutes to the restaurant or convenience store, and about 15 minutes to the pharmacy and strip mall.

Closest bus stop is 4 miles away from my house and right outside my old work. Closest light rail stop is roughly 2.5 hours by car or two day's biking (maybe you could make it in one, but you'd really have to be in shape) in Minneapolis.

[Jimbo_1]

Area type - urban (New Orleans)
Grocery store - 0.4 miles
Drug store - 0.5 miles
Convenience/liquor store - 0.4 miles
Movie theater - 2.9 miles
Shopping mall - 2.9 miles
Bar - 0.3 miles
Restaurant - 0.3 miles
High school - 0.1 miles

What are the distances to the second closest locations for each location type?

Grocery store - 0.5 miles
Drug store - 0.9 miles
Convenience/liquor store - 0.4 miles
Movie theater - 4.3 miles
Shopping mall - 3.2 miles
Bar - 0.5 miles
Restaurant - 0.3 miles
High school - 0.2 miles

Acces to Interstate - 1.7 miles

Some of these distances depend on whether you take a pedestrian only bridge or if you are using a car and take another bridge that is farther away.

[escilade18]

Area type- Urban (Pittsburgh)
Grocery store - .2 miles
Drug store - .7 miles
Convenience/liquor store - .1 mile
Movie theater - 7.9 miles
Shopping mall - 6.5 miles
Bar - .1 mile
Restaurant - .1 mile
High school - .9 miles
2nd closest
Grocery store - 1.8 miles
Drug store - .6 miles
Convenience/liquor store - . mile
Movie theater - 11 miles
Shopping mall - 11 miles
Bar - .3 mile
Restaurant - .3 mile
High school - 3.5 miles

Access to interstate: 1 mile

[flyonpa]

Area type - suburban (Atlanta)
Grocery store - 3miles
Drug store - 2 mile
Convenience/gas- 0.5 miles
Movie theater - 4 miles
Shopping mall - 4 miles
Bar - 3 miles
Restaurant - .5 miles
High school - 3.5 miles

2nd batch
Grocery store - 3.5miles
Drug store - 2 mile
Convenience/gas- 0.7 miles
Movie theater - 10 miles
Shopping mall - 12 miles
Bar - 4 miles
Restaurant - 1.2 miles
High school - 6.5 miles

Interstate (State 4 lane controled hiway) 3 miles

[2Easy]

Somewhat interesting so far is that outside of an urban/rural outlier or two that we all have somewhat similar access to certain amenities.

One thing that I kind of expected to find was that urban areas in my experience have more drug stores. That's holding true somewhat.

I also expected that some suburban areas might actually have distances more similar to rural areas and that other suburban areas might be more similar to urban. That's not really the case based on this very limited sample and they are all substantially the same.