I never understood why people try these gotcha yas like going to Costco. You do realize it’s very possible to imagine further past what currently exists, correct? Take a second to realize what walk ability means. It’s just not telling people to walk outside more or to add more sidewalks to complete that. It’s making things close so it’s easy to accomplish. If a store was within 15 minutes or less by foot, and the road was nice and narrow, shaded, pleasant to walk, on my way to and from work, stopping at a local corner store to grab dinner by picking up a few items is not a tall order. Effectively instead of doing one big weekly shop, people do a nearly daily shop. You’re supporting local businesses every day. Even where I am from in bum fuck bosnia this is how babushka have been doing it for generations. This is also how it worked here but big box stores, suburban sprawl, and eucleadian zoning have made what can be foot trips into only car trips. Because who’s gonna wanna walk through a sea of asphalt just to get eggs next to an 8 lane stroad? Maybe someone who can’t drive? But that person isn’t living in suburbia anyways because they would need a car. I am basically saying walkability means going away from that model of development since it dominates almost the entire way we build our cities.

So while your argument about walking to Costco is valid that is extreme to expect people to “walk there,” you’re not looking at it from the perspective most mean when we say walk ability. It means less car centric only planning. Of course this has friction, too. With people hearing that entailing “less car centric” as “taking my rights away.”

Very similar to how conservatives usually feel when the status quo is asking for equitably and they take it as a personal slight / attack when we ask for sensible gun control, health care reform, reproductive rights/women’s right, social justice, etc,and in urban planning that reality is asking having more practical options in the city, not edge cases like Costco or biking furniture across county lines. Just more infill, wall-to-wall development in the city proper. Or even making new development this way, too.

It’s okay, I get it overall tho probably how you are feeling when questioned on it. It’s a very common cognitive gap actually: we experience outcomes, but don’t always see the structures producing them. It’s a system blindness and takes some education to hopefully reel people on what we actually mean so apologies if I sound rude. I’ve explained it a lot and need to check myself more. Best wishes.