> There’s many towns in the USA where kids can walk to school

Especially where there's no bus transport within 2 mi of the school. Kids walk to school inches away from dangerous roads.

> many towns in the USA shops are walkable, etc

"Many" is doing a lot of lifting here. What's a good estimate of the percent of platted neighborhoods (or Census Designated Places or zip-codes or whatever) that are generally walkable? Less than one? Less than .1% or .01% or .001%?

Not sure, but in the north east many of the old towns have residential and commercial very close to each other. Train lines run through town and the different stops have commercial around it with residential a short walk. Schools are spread across the community and crossing guards exist to help kids cross streets. Otherwise they use the sidewalk.

I think people have a weird perception that everywhere in America is sprawled suburbs. People have choice here. Some people want to live in towns that are walkable and some people don't. I know a lot of people that would hate it and enjoy having their subdivisions un-walkable from just about anything and like getting in their vehicle to drive places.

I know my preferences for lifestyle have changed as I've gotten older and started a family, etc. I loved big city life, small apartments, etc at one time but wouldn't want to live like that today. Now I like being in a town where I can walk places and have parks nearby and commuter trains and decent sized properties. But in the future I could see myself wanting to be more remote. It's nice to have choice.

I don't think you can get a quantity (ie ".1%") from a non-quantifiable thing like "generally walkable". I consider my town very walkable except for grocery stores, which is a pretty core aspect.

The walkable bit I see, but proper, fully segregated cycle infra is very rare.

Yeah, if you want to ride a bike then you ride on the street and try and stay to the side. Kids can ride on the sidewalks.

It works for me because I can walk to my butcher, coffee shop, various restaurants, book store, etc and if I need to do more then I can drive my car. Sometimes we'll bike for fun when going to places not too far away. I only end up driving a couple times a week generally. I think it's a great balance and I wish more towns were like mine since the typical home near me is around $1M and out of reach for many people.

This sounds like my neighborhood (Coolidge corner, Brookline)

Where are you?