A Reddit post discusses the lack of a walkway between a Florida apartment complex and a grocery store. Instead of a short walk between the two sites, people have to follow a roadway roughly half a mile. Why might this be the case?

Here are several possible reasons:

1. Planning in the United States tends to emphasize driving. This shows up in many ways over many decades and in many places.
2. Perhaps the store and the apartment are part of separate developments constructed at separate times. Building them at the same time may have presented an opportunity to provide a linking walkway.
3. Could it be a question of who would pay for the walkway and who would pay to maintain it?
4. Has there been local public support for a walkway? Debate at local government meetings? Has the question been raised repeatedly?

Americans tend to at the official levels and in individual choices promote driving. Many developments in the United States, particularly in suburbia, rely on driving. It can require working against the grain to promote other modes of transportation, including walking.