A question for readers

For an upcoming project: If you use the subway regularly, how many minutes walking time to the subway would be the outer limit of being acceptable?

Comments

[Suzanne]

15 min

[Robyn]

I'd say twenty normally, but in the sort of snowing-sideways-minus-twenty weather we so often have in winter it's more like ten.

[Mike B]

It depends on if there are other transit options nearby (as alternatives to the subway, not to get to the station), but if subway is the only choice, I would say 10-15 min.

[Katie G]

15 is the max before I would start considering buses and streetcars.

[Cam]

I live 2km from the subway, and 20 metres from frequent bus service. So for me, 5 minutes in bad weather, 20 minutes in good weather.

[Tom]

10-20 would be a reasonable range for me. "Acceptable" is a tricky standard, though -- lots of people live farther than 20 minutes from a subway. Clearly that's acceptable for them! Are you looking to draw a conclusion about Toronto transit preferences? Seems to me the data you get is more likely just a commentary on the difference between Star blog readers and the norm.

[Rachel]

I think more than 10 minutes I wouldn't want walking to be my only option - mostly because of slogging through snow, when those 10 minutes turn into 20.

[Ari]

15 minutes is about as long as I want to walk to the subway. The 15 minute walk from my current apartment to the subway is just slightly faster than walking six minutes to a bus stop and waiting for a bus to take me the rest of the way. If I lived any farther away, the walk would start to add an appreciable burden to my commuting time.

Of course, a straw poll of blog readers will get you a younger and fitter sample of responses than, say, a poll of senior citizens.

[Claire]

10-15 minutes.

[Dave]

Depends - for decision making in house purchase, if there were no bus service that would get me closer to home, 10 minutes; 15 to 20 is more acceptable if there is a bus line with frequent service at peak commuting hours.

[Ian]

20 minutes

[Dylan]

I'd say 15 minutes. But it might also depend on the nature of the walk. I'm more willing to walk longer in an pleasant environment. In an unpleasant walking environment (e.g. a narrow sidewalk beside a fast, busy road with nothing much to look at) I wouldn't want to spend as much time walking.

The Hulchanski studies showed that property values tend to go up near a subway - I wonder if that's something that could be mapped.

[Corinne]

10-12 minutes.

[Kevo]

I believe for transit modeling, they usually use 10-15 minutes for a subway stop (~800m-1km). Personally, my max is 15 minutes, otherwise there's usually a bus that connects to it.

[Kate]

15

[mark.]

10-15mins

I agree with Ian a few comments above - that it depends on the walking environment.
Also, I wouldn't want the subway much closer than 10 min - I like to walk.

[sanjay]

10 minutes

[emily]

8 minutes

[Paul]

Up to 15 minutes - but less if the subway commute is long once you get there.

[Marc]

Depends on the weather. 15-20 minutes if it's not raining hard and 5-10 if it is.

[Kelly]

10-15 minutes, if my total commute were 35-40 min. Less walking time if the subway commute were longer.

[Ned Schwartz]

16.3 minutes