How would you define walking distance?

PasturesNew

imho

robatwork wrote: »

... walking to school for children. 3 miles ....

3 miles to walk to school each day's a different measure for a different purpose though.

When buying a house it's what's "local" so you can "pop out for" things. So the distance that'd be considered "the norm" for this purpose is different to what'd be considered the norm for other events and situations.

If I were looking to buy a house I'd want "to be able to walk" up to 1.5 miles max for it to be considered "walking distance"; it implies that "you can pop out and all this is available to you on a whim".

I'd buy a house knowing I could walk 3 miles to work .... but not if that were the closest I were to a shop selling milk, say.

Hedgehog99

Better to state the measured distance rather than just to say "walking distance". The latter is affected by weather, time of day and whether you're carrying heavy shopping etc.

questionss

I lived in a commuter town and we were within a mile of the station (0.95miles) this was considered reasonable walking distance for daily commuting and advertised as such. We are now 2.9 miles from a station to London, this is not marketed as walking distance.

Personally with 3 young kids I class about a mile (25 min at their pace) as walking distance for day to day stuff; about 3miles is their limit and needs refreshments

Thrugelmir

ACG wrote: »

I go to the gym 3-4 times a week and have done for about 10 years, but I understand the point your making.

Too old for anything so strenuous. This week I've managed to walk 56 miles. During the winter months I don't walk to work. Which will add another 22 miles a week to my tally. Without any other outdoor activities.

moneyistooshorttomention

I'd forgotten that, when I bought my first house, my father duly informed me he thought I should buy within 1 mile of the High Street - and then proceeded to point out what was/what wasn't matching that criteria. Hills weren't taken into consideration.

That house was bought a decade late (ie in my 30s). So I was still expecting to walk to/from work and then go out nearly every evening after that - and walk to everything.

So that's that thought to throw into the mix.

Surrey_EA

G_M wrote: »

That's easily walking distance. Though of course my 96 year old father might not agree.

daveyjp wrote: »

Agents shouldn't use such loose terms. How difficult is it to say 300m, or half a mile?

A long time ago, when I first began writing sets of property details, I was always taught not to use the description "within walking distance" as it was too ambiguous. What is a 15 minute walk for one person may be a 30 minute walk for another.

Much better to state the actual distance and let any prospective buyer decide if it's within walking distance or not.

moneyistooshorttomention

Surrey_EA wrote: »

A long time ago, when I first began writing sets of property details, I was always taught not to use the description "within walking distance" as it was too ambiguous. What is a 15 minute walk for one person may be a 30 minute walk for another.

Much better to state the actual distance and let any prospective buyer decide if it's within walking distance or not.

I can follow the logic on that. But that then raises the question as to why (if EA's are being that "careful" with language used) they often describe properties as being "a few minutes from x" and the second one looks it up on Googlemaps it becomes clear that it isn't at all. What the EA actually means is = few minutes if driving a car. So why don't they put "few minutes by car" - rather than just "few minutes"?

It took me a while of being puzzled as to how 20 minutes to get somewhere could be described as "few" - when I've always understood "few" to mean, say, 3-5 and certainly never as much as 20.

Surrey_EA

moneyistooshorttomention wrote: »

I can follow the logic on that. But that then raises the question as to why (if EA's are being that "careful" with language used) they often describe properties as being "a few minutes from x" and the second one looks it up on Googlemaps it becomes clear that it isn't at all. What the EA actually means is = few minutes if driving a car. So why don't they put "few minutes by car" - rather than just "few minutes"?

It took me a while of being puzzled as to how 20 minutes to get somewhere could be described as "few" - when I've always understood "few" to mean, say, 3-5 and certainly never as much as 20.

In my experience there are a great deal of estate agents that are not as careful as I am, when compiling property details!

Soot2006

As this thread clearly shows, walking distance depends on each person.

I walk cross country (literally up through a steep hill full of cows and then down a steep hill full of sheep) to go to ASDA if it's not a big shop (and not raining!). Only takes me 15 mins in each direction and I get a bit out of breath on the climb esp with a backpack full of food ... & I feel good for it. However, I wouldn't advertise my house as being "walking distance from ASDA" as the only non-cross country route would be along a super busy road without a pavment lol.

Just put a distance on the advert ... or something like: "reasonable walking distance (approx X miles)".

Bob_Dean

To me walking distance is where I would not thimk of using a car but woul automatically walk instead. For most purposes tis would be described as about 5 minutes away, however as everyone walks at a different pace the distance is different for everybody.