Same here. The only downside is people openly pitying you when you tell them you have to walk to X now. This still makes me feel a loser sometimes for not owning a car. It's stupid, I know.
In that case the whole journey is really 4 miles. I was thinking in terms of a continuous or largely continuous journey (such as walking to the shops and back) being 2 miles.
That said longer journeys can be treated as exercise. Why go to gym for an hour each day when instead you can spend that hour going to places you're going to go anyway.
If you have a headset for your phone. Call someone. You're interpersonal relationships get stronger.
If you're working through a issues, spend the time thinking about different alternative approaches.
If you're learning a new subject, review in your head what you've been learning.
If you're preparing a talk, dictate different ways of presenting it to a voice recorder.
If you're stressed out about the world, spend the walk finding things you are grateful for.
If you're in a relationship, compose a poem or two for your partner.
I've been taking a 1-2 hours walk in the morning for a few years, which I usually use to get groceries, and miss it dearly when I can't.
[0] Or music, but I admit I don't listen to much of that.
To be clear, I love walking, but to say that people are stupid for acting different than you is monumentally narcissistic.
When I make those choices I balance off what I want to do against what I need to do and what I should do and what I could do. That is the essential choice of being an adult.
My experience with walking, before I started walking, regularly, which was forced on me by a requirement to get more physical exercise as part of a weight management program, was that I felt very strongly that I had much better uses for my time than getting slowly from point A to point B. That attitude was supported by my ignorance with regard to what else I could do while walking and so stack time usage.
What I learned by being forced to walk at least 30 minutes a day (its now up to 2.5hrs a day) was that there were things I did while sitting around. Those things included calling people, having meetings, and thinking about solutions to problems or the days events. What I experienced was, that I was no less productive during the day where I spent time walking, and there were tertiary effects that were completely unexpected.
For example, I have always been plagued with the issue that as soon as I lay my head on the pillow to go to sleep, my brain starts kicking up all the things I didn't have time to think about during the day. As a result, getting to sleep could take an hour to an hour and a half. Just laying there, in bed, trying to stop my brain long enough to go to sleep.
Walking massively mitigated that problem. I found, after I had been walking, that I had spent some, if not all, of that time thinking through things that had been pushed aside by the immediacy of email or social media or "honey do" projects. Not only had I thought about them on my walk, I started recording on my phone notes to myself of actions to take to move forward on things I was stuck on. This meant that when it was time to sleep, not only was it much easier to go to sleep, I already had a good idea of the things I needed to get to the next day or in the near future.
That blew my mind. That I had traded laying immobile in my bed for some moderate exercise that effectively took no additional time out of my day and has lead to better sleep and better fitness. It also blew my mind how much more effective 1:1 meetings with direct reports were while walking than they were sitting in an office.
I was pretty ignorant about both the time saving aspects of walking and the effect it would have on my mental acuity and well being. If someone reading this decides to try it out for themselves, it is my hope they will see the positive benefits I have experienced. I wouldn't go back to a non-walking lifestyle now, I have come to rely on those benefits.
If you take a car ride, that time may be considered as wasted.
Now, this is only possible in a city that was built (at least) hundreds of years before cars. Having visited the US I can honestly say that some cities (not the ones like New York) are designed completely around the car. Trying to walk everywhere in a city like that is futile and you'll just hate life and everyone around you.
The comment you responded to was prompted by this: "When I see people drive somewhere that's less than 2 miles away it blows my mind."
> So I chose to live within reasonable walking distance of places I need to go.
I'm glad that works for you, but - depending on your life interests - it's pretty literally impossible for many people.
2. It might be better to not always be in a hurry.
3. Try to live in a place that's not so alienated as to have a grocery store that's 2 miles away (unless you're in a rural / countryside area in which case you're probably doing a lot of walking anyways).
I do not use smartphones. I do not remember the exact rationale of how it started. But, it generates a lot of free time for your life. Whenever people question it, I would reply, "Well, it is an experiment I am doing".
Based on how close the other one is you might get a confused nod to how-stupid-are-you as a reply.
The good thing about it is, by default, you do not get to fool around in your free time. The time is only free, if there is do not have other ways to pass it by.
P.S.: But, I am not claiming it is better. But, I find it convenient and quite a bit fun.
Too late to edit now
The other side of some manual work is that it exercises you in some way- but if there are things that'll speed up whatever it is you want to do and they are generally available, you will be pitied!
I love to walk. I hate owning a car. In most of the US, there is no good way to get to most places other than by car. Really wish it was otherwise.