The reason it takes 20 minutes to walk to a store is because of the automobile. I live in SF, and very few areas of the city are more than a 5 minute walk away from a grocery store. The problem of the automobile is a problem of development and saturation.
The automobile is ideal when few have them. This is exactly why the proliferated widely, now that we have 1.8 automobiles/household, the problems of automobile culture are inescapable unless we revert areas of our cities to pre-automobile urban design.
The automobile is ideal when few have them. This is exactly why the proliferated widely, now that we have 1.8 automobiles/household, the problems of automobile culture are inescapable unless we revert areas of our cities to pre-automobile urban design.