Anti-city people are just plain fascinating to me
There's quite literally a grocery store two doors down from me. A round trip for milk takes less than 10.
Great. Able-bodied people can make an entire store trip in 15 minutes. Bully for them.
I live on the outskirts of a city -- technically within the city limits, but a somewhat suburban neighborhood (common in a lot of parts of my city). I have a grocery store a block from me. I cannot walk to it or home from it. There are no good sidewalks between me and it, either, and the roads all have slopes that would be dangerous for me if I took my scooter. Furthermore, even if I had flat, even sidewalks between me and it (which most parts of my city, even the downtown areas, don't have; it's a hilly place), the most often I could shop would be twice a week, and then only some weeks. I don't have the spoons to do it every day. It takes a lot longer than 15 minutes, and it is exhausting. And the basket on my scooter is not built to carry groceries home.
City living can be great for a lot of people! That's fantastic! But city living is not going to make it possible for everybody to go car-free.
It's possible to have multiple people's needs met in a 15-minute-city. It's possible to have a walkable city that also caters to disabled people's needs. Wellington and it's inner suburbs are pretty close to a 15 minute, walkable city. We also have dairies in most places (corner stores) that cover things like the basics plus snacks and drinks etc. But I can't walk anywhere anymore due to chronic pain. I can however get groceries delivered in either large or small amounts. It should be cheaper than it is, but it's not too rough for me - a fortnightly shop gets delivered to my door for $9. A small top-up delivery is $7 or less. I do think if your big grocery shop is over a certain amount they should deliver it to you for free - they're making enough profits off us to factor that small amount in. If I had a mobility scooter, I could get to my local dairy, down to my doctor's surgery, to my local library, to a cinema, to most things I need. The only thing I struggle with is getting to and from work, but I work on the far side of town to where I live, and it's up in a very hilly suburb. I can't walk to the bus stop near home any more, but I can get to a bus stop in town in a rideshare for less than $10, and then catch a bus that drops me at the door of my workplace. I catch the bus down into town after work and then rideshare home for around $6-$7. I'm lucky enough to be able to afford this cost because I have a free bus pass. To catch the bus without a bus pass from the closest stop to my house would cost me $$60-$70 per week. To use rideshare to and from an accessible bus stop usually costs me another $20ish per week on top of what paying for the bus would cost, maximum. I'm good at playing discount codes between apps, sometimes I can get my weekly transport spend under $70. I looked at using a disability driving service but it was more than double the price of rideshare apps, even with a Total Mobility card! It's not impossible for 15 minute cities to be accessible. Low public transport costs, low delivery costs, accessible footpaths and crossings, affordable rideshare costs, plenty of drop off/pick up spots in busy areas, public toilets, etc etc are all doable. It just needs the community to demand it and those in power to put it into place.
The other thing is: I just straight up dont want to go grocery shopping every day. Even if the trip only took 15 minuets(which I dont buy btw), thats still 15 minuets I have to plan my day around. I still have to take that time out of my limited time after work, instead of coming home and relaxing.
I was about to say that there's a lot of talking past each other in these discussions, since walkable city advocate seem to be saying "it's possible to design cities this way" and the opponents say "my city isn't currently designed this way."
but then I saw the last paragraph from sleepydumpling and they literally want the government to enforce where you can pick up groceries and how much it costs. screw that.
My thing with this is that I feel like a lot of walkable city advocates aren't just pushing for better infrastructure, but for a specific lifestyle. The 'oh just buy a few groceries every day' is a good example of this. Good for you if you dont mind that. But some people (myself included) would rather take an hour or two out of one of our days and not think about it for the rest of the week
Also there's a strong tendency to just...handwave away real practical concerns people have
