Fuck Cars

@ajsadauskas @fuck_cars
In a 15 minute walk, in the Greater #Montreal , I have access to:
- Grocery Store
- (Miniature) Park
- Pharmacy
- Bus Stop
- Restaurant
- Post Office
- Bank
- Gas Station (why‽)
- (Fake) Shopping Mall

Groceries, (crappy) park, pharmacy, 2 bus stops, light rail stop serving three lines, at least 15 restaurants/food carts, a bank, a gas station (and a standalone convenience store), a hospital, a barber shop, and a few bars.

For the missing, good transit access fills in the gaps mostly:

• Day care: I don't have kids, so I don't know this one. There probably is day care in the area.
• Post office: I'm in kind of an awkward area for some amenities, and that includes post offices. Post drop boxes are plentiful, but an actual office takes some travel.
• Shopping mall: I don't frequent shopping malls, but there the light rail links up with some. Most are dying, but one is doing well. This is a shrug.
• Movie theater: A few minutes on the light rail, no problem.
• University: Portland State University is an urban university that I work at. I can access it by bus or light rail.
• Sports arena: There are at least two sizeable sports arenas, the Moda Center and Providence Park, on the MAX light rail. The light rail gets heavy use from Portlanders who don't want to deal with parking.

There are two exceptions:

• Good parks: The area actually has a lot of great parks, but there is a freeway blocking the nearest one. I can take transit, bike, or walk a while. That's doable, but it adds a lot of time if I just want to go lounge around in the outdoors.
• Elementary Schools: If I had kids, the area would be not great. It's a 25 minute walk, which is a bit much. That said, one of the "bike bus" programs would be perfect since the route isn't that long.

high rise strip malls with conveyor belts. ala Jetsons. my robovac has a lot to learn

@ajsadauskas @fuck_cars I also don't get A Bar being so low. The bar is exactly the place I WANT people to be walking to instead of driving. Perhaps this is just a limitation of the polling method; these responses are mostly just gut reactions, not carefully considered positions.

One of the really interesting things about reading this thread is noticing how these places clearly mean different things to different people.

Like one person says how "can somebody not want a pub in their neighborhood?" A pub and a bar might not mean the same thing to everyone. To some people a bar might mean something much closer to a night club and a pub something much closer to a restaurant.

Gas station doesn't mean convenience store to me AT ALL. To me it's only a place for buying gas. I would never go to one unless I was buying gas at the same time.

Is what I call a green grocer/fruit market what other people call a grocery store?

The questions abound...

I can reach everything on that list in 15mins by foot except for a sports arena and a hospital.

40% do not think an elementary school should be within a 15 minute walk?!?!? (16 not sure 24 no)

That's wild.

@ajsadauskas
And the amount of grocery stores i can reach within a 15 minutes walk must be at least 80, easily.
This town is still structured around small family businesses.
@fuck_cars

@ajsadauskas @fuck_cars

This is such a city-centric question, that I doubt many rural folks bothered to answer it.

46 years ago, we moved from London, where these things were available, to a rural Vermont town where none of them are except an elementary school (well, I can step outside and be in the woods; better than a park).

It's beautiful, quiet, and cheaper than city life.

When we drive, we combine visits to many of these amenities in one trip.

We don't regret our decision a bit.

Oh my god, just imagine if there were hospitals every 15 minutes <3

@ajsadauskas @fuck_cars All of the above except university which would be an approx. 40 minutes walk or 10 minutes by bike.

Seeing that those surveys exist does not really motivate me to ever visit the US besides the big cities. I literally have most of these in 15 to 30 minutes by foot or public transport. Wow.

I feel a bit lucky looking at this. I live in the middle of the US and I have the first 9 listed within a 15 min walking distance. I live in a rather large town though too and I'm smack in the middle of that.