How far will you walk?
 

I was staying at a hotel with a colleague last week and the front desk recommended a restaurant for dinner. Per Yahoo Maps, it was 0.43 miles away.

I grabbed my wallet and started to head out on foot, but my colleague reached for his car keys. I told him it we might as well walk because it would be only 10 minutes, and he looked at me like I was crazy.

So this got me thinking, what is your threshold for walk vs. drive? Mine is around 3/4 of a mile. Maybe 1 mile if I'm in a pedestrian-friendly downtown area, or if I'm feeling in the mood for some exercise. If I don't have a car and I'm relying on transit, then perhaps a bit more.

Ir really depends on where I am. If I'm in the middle of NJ, where i usually find myself along US 1, then I wouldn't walk even if the restaurant was just across the street, as there is no safe way to cross US 1.

However, if I'm in a city with a more pedestrian friendly atmosphere, I'd be willing to walk up to 25 mins, weather depending.

Where I'm currently travelling to for work, anything within a 15min walk is acceptable to me. Outside of a 15min walk, I'd take a cab as it gets pretty far from downtown, relatively speaking.

If just going out for a meal is the intent, then maybe a mile or so depending on factors like: pleasantness of the walk, the weather, companionship, convenience of parking at destination, etc. Time wise, maybe 20 minutes - if I'm not in heels. ;)

Also have to think about the prospects of the walk back.

For me it's not just the distance. It's weather, the shoes I am wearing, parking convenience. I'd walk 10 minutes down the road to dinner.

How far will you walk?
 

I agree with the OP's time frames, although if I'm starving then I likely would take a cab. Also as another poster said, the walk there is easy... sometimes its the walk home that gets ya. But likely 1km for food each way.

Happy to do 2-4KM, as long as it's safe. I.e. many parts of the US have no sidewalks.

Some of us live in places where normal people can't afford to have a car (read - Singapore). But I live 6 bus stops away from my office and unless I am running late, I try to walk from home to office and back. Everyone in office considers this to be crazy.

I definitely have a higher tolerance for walking distance than most people. Especially if I know parking is going to be an issue, I prefer to walk every time. I might walk up to a mile. But I'll always defer to the others with me.

Most recent example... I walked from LAS to the strip because it was a nice night and to save money. It's a couple mile walk but easy when it's night and the sun isn't out.

We live in Valencia, so we walk everywhere. My daily commute is 40 minutes each way on foot, about 7 km total. When traveling, I can clock around 10 km a day before tiring out.

In a polluted, unsafe city? To the taxi stand.
In a very nice place? No limit.

I've once walked from Amsterdam to Breda because I wanted to experience the Dutch countryside. I've also walked the West Highland Way in Scotland, one of my favourite place in the world. I walked from British Columbia to Oliver in Washington state once because I wanted to try a restaurant there. The CBP agent I talked to at the border couldn't believe I was walking there, he even offered me to wait for the end of his shift so that he could give me a ride.

Depends on a lot factors: distance, terrain (uphill vs. downhill vs. flat), weather, my physical condition, cost and convenience of public transportation (since I don't own a car). Generally, up to about a mile and a half each way assuming flat terrain and good weather.

I did walk from the Apple Store on 59th and 5th, through Times Square down broadway to Union Square at night in NYC in the dead of winter once. That was a ~45 minute walk in NYC sludge.

If I'm starving or extremely tired, off to Seamlessweb I go.

When in S'pore, I live 5 bus stops from the office, but I wouldn't dream of walking the estimated 30-40mins in anything other than gym/exercise kit. Far easier to take 10min bus journey unless there's a jam.

OTOH, I could walk 15-20mins in a suit in Paris. Not too long ago, I walked a roundtrip of 50mins daily from lodging to school, including a handful of mornings in fairly heavy snowing conditions (Western European not North American standards)

or there is a sidewalk only on one side of the road, and it switches sides every few hundred metres :(

walking to SFO from my hotel recently, I lost count of the number of times I had to cross a 6-10 lane road just because the sidewalk switched sides

I was like you 2 years ago when I moved here from California. I surprised myself how fast I could adjust to a point that unless I am running, I do not sweat at all once I finish my walk.

Plus if I would not walking, I would miss plenty of interesting sights nearby.

Like this, 100m from our office.

I walk *everywhere.* If the walk is over 1H and the weather is meh, I might take public transit. I even walk in suburban US cities with no sidewalk!

A couple months ago I felt like I didn't see enough of "real" Sydney, so I walked from the harbour to the airport with my rollaboard. That was fun, rewarding, and interesting.