Bob

Yup.....door to car....car to building with heat/AC

Kylidevil

Thank you for your thoughts and comments. I thought that I may be wanting the impossible but it's so hard to know what some where is like just from reading about it and you guys are the experts! I will explore your suggestions, any further comments are fully appreciated :-)

kins

I dunno, I'm in Maine and I walk all winter. During snowstorms I use snowshoes and the rest of the time everything's ploughed so quickly all you really need is warm clothes and good snowboots. It's the icy bit when the final bits of snow are melting in late March/early April that I find worst.

To the OP, does it have to be NJ or Chicago? New England has many walkable towns with great schools.

WEBlue

I agree. Cities/towns with walkability can be found in the USA, it just takes some looking. We live in New England and have found several.

BTW, Chicago's #4 on the "Most Walkable" list of American cities.
http://www.thedailygreen.com/environ...460708#slide-1

Pulaski

There's a difference between walking for pleasure and walking to get around. I like pulling on boots and an overcoat and going out for a walk in the snow, but that is different from walking to work, school, and the shops because I have to and when time is short. Just because you can walk around a city, doesn't mean you'd want to every day.

When I visited Chicago on business before I got married, I stayed about 10-12 blocks from the office I was working in, and my colleagues thought I was nuts because I walked back and forth between the office and hotel!

retzie

Everybody thinks I'm mental walking 2 miles to the train, snow, rain, or shine (in Chicago). Seriously, if you dress for it, it's fine - I kept running outdoors all last winter. But it's not 'the norm' and it's (hilariously) not socially acceptable. It's like hanging washing to dry; you must be too poor to do otherwise. (Apparently, I also failed to get the memo about workout clothes being to look 'cute', rather than exercise in. Clear socialist; not to be trusted.)

I'm not saying the walking commute will work for anyone else (especially not with kids), but the fear factor here for being in any way exposed to the elements is outrageously high.



P.S. I'm Australian, so no-one can claim I'm well-adapted to cold weather.

scrubbedexpat099

Sounds like a few wimps, snowed today and shows 20f outside.

I was thinking of getting one of these:

WEBlue

Honestly, I think you can't listen to Americans on the subject of walking. The general population really don't know what it's all about. They've been brainwashed, as have city & town planners, to be ludicrously dependent on cars. But if you put walkability at the top of your list of priorities (right up there with good schools, which surprisingly sometimes go together with walkability in a town) you can find places that will work for a family that wants to walk. Especially in the northeast or Chicago!

Some American cities and towns are truly not set up for walking, so the OP will want to avoid those. And some PARTS of even the more walkable cities/towns aren't safe or nice to walk. So the OP must do their detailed research on the ground here, really looking carefully over any potential neighbourhoods for proper sidewalks (which actually GO somewhere--many suburban American ones don't), pedestrian-friendly shops and actual walking paths designed for walkers (through parks and recreation areas, etc).

I raised my children in Houston in the 90s sharing the use of one car with my husband. The little ones & I walked to school every day, walked to the pediatrician's office, and to some shops. Houston, Texas--summer and winter. Neighbours thought I was insane, and would often stop in their cars when they saw us and offer rides. But after a while they stopped. They just need a bit of educating, that's all....

z1565124

Buy a coat, gloves and a hat and you can walk in Chicago in winter. I do and find it very enjoyable in the winter.

HartleyHare

As I can't drive, we really researched quite heavily the areas we could move to. You really can't beat visiting the area, parking the car and walking around. The town that we are in is actively promoting walking and leaving the car at home. My daughter's school are the same - they want the kids, where possible to walk to school and a good majority of them do. I was out every day walking the dog, with my daughter since we arrived in June - including the days that it peaked 100 degrees. In the heat you need to be sensible - I would agree that I would not have wanted to have walked any distance with babies/toddlers in tow.

Research everything - I even contacted the schools to find out their snow policies and checked how efficient the town was in keeping the roads clear during the snow. We have ended up in a great location - across the road from the school and a 5 to 7 mins walk from the station and shops. I walk to the YMCA in town everyday - there are tons of people walking around, cycling, running etc... I can get the train or bus to New York and yes, we have a decent train service even out of the rush hour! I've taken the bus a few times to the huge shopping mall and contrary to comments once made on this forum it is not full of criminals We even have several taxi services due to the amount of senior citizens in and around the town and the fact there there is a large hospital here too.

One point I would make is that I have found that drivers here are not as vigilant where pedestrians are concerned, especially when crossing the road. We have crossings marked, but unlike a zebra crossing drivers do not have to stop to let you cross - they only have to stop if you are actually walking across. Until recently they didn't even have to stop - just slow down. As a result there have been several incidents of pedestrians being hit whilst crossing - all have been the result of the driver not "seeing" the person crossing, and the majority have involved SUV's.

Good luck with your move.

Bob

Sure, it's doable. I walk loads myself.

It's still crap to do as a means of transport if you've got kids though. Number of pavements that you can't use because the cross walk bit have been blocked in by the road ploughs, or the snow banks being so high that you can't get over them on to the pavement, or people pushing the snow out from their drive way on to pavements.

Just means that even with the best of walking streets in summer, you find you're walking on the road in a lot of places in winter....that and pavements often tend to be the last thing a town clears, so can be 2-3 days after a snow fall before they get cleared.

Big cities tend to be better taken care of, but on the flip side, you're paying the premium, so getting a house for the rate the OP wants is less likely, especially in a decent school district.

kins

I actually find walking the kids to school easier here than I did when I lived in Cheshire. It seemed to rain on cue at school walk time every single day back then.

Lbjen

You can walk around downtown Chicago in winter, but in the suburbs you really need to live right by whatever it is you want to walk to. Apart from the weather, there aren't that many sidewalks outside of the little downtown areas of most of the towns and there are rarely any pedestrian crossings, not even at traffic lights.

Kylidevil

Thanks again everybody. I work here in the UK so I do tend to drive everywhere at the moment as everything is done in a rush. However, if I wanted to I could walk the kids to school, wander into town to the library, bank, hairdresser, etc then walk home. As I won't be working in the USA :-(

Kylidevil

Oops continued.
As I won't be working and will only have 1 car I would like walking to be an option. Also, stupid as it sounds, in my head the less alien it feels as the more I will feel settled, in other words it's one less thing to get used to :-/