I’ve heard the legends of having to drive to literally everywhere (e.g. drive thru banks), but I have no clue how far apart things are.

I live in suburban London where you can get to a big supermarket in 10 minutes of walking, a train station in 20 minutes and convenience stores are everywhere. You can get anywhere with bus and train in a few hours.

Can someone help a clueless British lemmyposter know how far things are in the US?

EDIT

Here are my walking distances:

  • To the nearest convenience store: 250m
  • To the nearest chain supermarket: 350m
  • To the bus stop: 310m
  • To the nearest park: 400m
  • To the nearest big supermarket: 1.3km
  • To the nearest library: 1.2km
  • To the nearest train station: 1km

Straight-line distance to Big Ben: 16km

  • Semperverus@lemmy.worldEnglish
    111·
    2 months ago

    On the west coast, it can take 8 (EDITED) hours to drive from the capital of oregon to the capital of california. Likewise, it takes about 14 to 16 to get from oregon to montana. It can take 4 to 6 hours to get from the southern oregon border to the northern.

    Where I live, i can walk to a little convenience store in about 10 minutes, but the nearest supermarket would be an hour walk away (10-15 minutes by car). If i were to move 10 miles in any direction, i may not have a convenience store around.

    • proudblond@lemmy.worldEnglish
      5·
      2 months ago

      Salem to Sacramento shouldn’t take that long unless there is gnarly traffic. As a kid, my family regularly did San Jose to Seattle in 16 hours.

      • Semperverus@lemmy.worldEnglish
        11·
        2 months ago

        Salem’s not at the northern border. You still have the distance of portland to go, or at least driving around it, and even that can take a while.

        From border to border, Organic Maps estimates 5 hours and 20 minutes, which does not include traffic.

        I did run the calculation from salem to sacramento though, and i was off by about double. Its 16 hours to southern california (ive done the drive), but to sacramento, its only 8. I own that mistake, I don’t travel to california much and mistook the trip I took for the distance i was thinking about.