Planning a life with minimizing commute and general driving in mind really does work. We moved to a new city a couple years go, and purposely bought a place that was quite walkable/bikeable. We can walk to school, groceries and shopping, library, parks, doctors office. The only essential thing I couldn’t walk to was work, which was about 30 minutes away. However, there is a branch about a 10 minute walk away, and my plan was to eventually transfer there if I could. I let my work know I wanted that, and after a year and 7 months of commuting at this job, I finally got the okay to transfer! It is a nice 10 minute walk through a park, and I am thrilled.