@ajsadauskas @fuck_cars In a Brussels suburb we've got all of those things within max 15min walking except a gas station, a sports arena and a movie theatre.

There's no university or sports arena within 15 minutes of me but, the bus station will take me to either and I could walk to the sports arena if I really felt like it. I think the movie theater might be closer to a 20 minute walk but that's still reasonable.

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.

@ajsadauskas @fuck_cars I built free software to quantify amenity categories within a 10-min walk:

https://mark.stosberg.com/new-software-to-calculate-walk-potential-for-cities/

My default categories:

- Arts / cultural space
- Bank / ATM
- Bar / pub
- Barber
- Bike shop
- Bus stop / Rail Station
- Café / Tea Shop
- Car share station
- Community center / place of worship
- Daycare
- Fitness or Sports Center
- Grocery store
- Hardware store
- Laundromat
- Library
- Liquor / cannabis store
- Park
- Pharmacy
- Restaurant
- School
- Retail / boutique

All but 5: grocery story, mall, university, sports stadium, hospital

@fuck_cars @ajsadauskas all but a park, hospital and uni for me, though I’d get to them in about 30-45 mins and there are good buses to the latter two. Not a bad score really. I’m intrigued that the question in the poll starts out with reference to the 15-minute neighbourhood. Given the conspiracy theories I wonder if they’d get higher scores without an “ideological” scene setting and just asked the questions in isolation.

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

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.

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...

@ajsadauskas @fuck_cars
In Manchester, England.
All within 15 minute walk except for:
Hospital - 20 minutes Metro (but health centre only 5 minutes walk)
Cinema - 20 minutes Metro (but theatre 10 minutes walk away)
University - 20 minutes bus

Buses and Metro every 12 minutes or better.

Living in an urban part of Ottawa, Ontario. The neighborhood is called Centretown West

Grocery: Not a supermarket, but right across the street from my building, there's a corner store that sells all of the relevant staple foods like bread, milk, eggs, some produce, dry groceries, etc.

Pharmacy: Yes actually a couple of options.

Bus stop: There is one near me, and I'm also only about 10 minutes from the metro light rail station.

Restaurant: I live near the city's "little Italy" and "Chinatown" areas, so I'm spoiled for choice here. I also live near a stroad which means fast food options.

Post office: They are commonly in pharmacies here in Canada, and the one near me is no exception

Bank: Yes, in fact I could probably access a branch for all of the major Canadian banks within a 15-20 minute walk.

Elementary school: Yes there's one close to me. A high school too.

Daycare: Yup, a few actually.

Hospital: Not within walking, but there are clinics

Barber: Quite a few over in Little Italy, including the one I go to.

Bar: Tons along the strip of Little Italy

Mall: Nope, but lots of shopping options at individual shops around me. Malls are gross anyway.

University: I am about a 20 minute walk to Carleton, and the walk would be through the park mentioned above