Moving from the UK

[thefallensrvnge]

Originally Posted by Venerialice

Thanks for the replies guys/gals.

Columbus was our initial intention, but to be honest, it just didn't really 'grip' me when we stayed there earlier this year. Real estate in Columbus is at a premium, which isn't such a problem, but all the nice apts. out at Tipton have no availablity until Oct/November. I certainly wouldn't rule it out though. We had a drive through Franklin whilst we were there, but think we must have hit the 'wrong bit' as it didn't look very appealing at all. Might have to do a bit more research about Franklin.

What I found really difficult to grasp on my visit is that pretty much wherever we end up, we're going to have to drive almost everywhere. Maybe things will be different when I'm actually 'on the ground' so to speak, but the whole concept of 'strip malls' (do correct me if I'm wrong!!!) was totally alien to me!!!

Lol they are hideous aren't they. I imagine moving to here will be a huge adjustment, but it'll all work out. Indy will be a great spot to move to. While it is a car city, I think you'll find that for the most part, everything feels within reach from the downtown area: a couple of museums, many restaurants, and Indy does have some really nice older buildings (maybe not on a European caliber ). Also Indy proximity to other things is nice as well. I just got back from a trip to the Indiana State Dune beaches which is only 2 hours away. Very beautiful.

And Chicago is only 30 minutes from this. Keep the questions coming!

[domergurl]

If I can be of assistance do not hesitate to ask any questions. We have many UK expats here ... in my neighborhood in fact ...

I do walk and bike a lot to places in town ..

[Venerialice]

Thanks everyone.

Well you've well and truly lost me with all these transport things, but thank you.

Domergurl......you hit the nail on the head.......it's the walking and cycling I was thinking of. I doubt I would ever use what we over here call 'public transport', we will have vehicles anyway so driving isn't really an issue, just different. Here I can walk to a multitude of shops for no more than 5 minutes in any direction.

[bertrandandjules]

To be fair, many communities in Indiana have gotten better in the past decade or so. If you spend time in central Indianapolis, you can tell that much of it was clearly originally built before the car, and it has gotten much much more bike friendly in recent years. Public transport, is, as you say, pretty lousy there, but some of the smaller cities, like Muncie, Bloomington, Lafayette, aren't doing so badly in that department. I don't know about Columbus, but Columbus generally sounds like a pretty well-run city, so you should fine some opportunities there. Franklin is generally nice--becoming less "folksy" (to put it delicately) and more affluent as rich people from Indy are buying older properties there and refurbishing them. It still has a walkable older center, no doubt in part because it has a college there and thus a fairly large student population.

The big difference is that America is just such a fast stretch of land, much of it sparsely populated. We have soooo much more room than almost anywhere in Europe, and Americans live like they have extra space, with huge yards/"gardens" that puts the distances between houses much farther apart. Because of those distances, it is often impossible to walk from one place to another, unless you are comfortable with walking very, very long distances. Much of the time this just isn't practical.

That said, with the astronomic obesity levels in this country, the problems of an auto-oriented environment are becoming increasingly obvious to people. I don't think we'll ever have such tightly knit communities as they do in the UK, but at least the town centers are becoming more active and are usually walkable. And since places like Indy have made huge strides in recent years at becoming bikable, that has made it easier for managing those huge distances while still giving people the freedom and independence that probably explains why Americans often stay away from public transport.