Originally Posted by
rbrian
I'm car free in a town of just 2000, with very few amenities - a couple of golf courses, a pub, and an expensive convenience store. I generally cycle 6 miles each way to the next town which has 4 supermarkets and a rail station, and everything I could possibly need is in the city 25 miles away. There is a bus every 30 minutes to the city if I don't feel like cycling that far on a busy main road, which I often don't.
That bus to the city is the key, IMO.
In most US small towns, you don't have a bus to the city more than once a day--if you're very lucky. The small town I lived in was just under 25 miles form the city. No bus, just a shuttle van. It sometimes took 2 hours or more to make the trip in. And then, it would only take you to an outlying shopping mall, and then another long bus ride to the city center. This was unacceptable to me, and I had to move.