[throwaway0a5e]

>people getting their groceries locally instead of driving in to the centre of a city is a good outcome,

No this is not. It limits competition (increases prices) raising the cost of living and reducing everyone's standard of living. When it gets so bad that the options for groceries start vanishing (because groceries are low margin) we call that a "food desert".

People shopping locally because the opportunity cost of shopping elsewhere is too high (as opposed to willingly doing it for the convenience factor) is very much not a good thing, regardless of the mode of transportation those people are using.

[eythian]

Does it though? Where I live there are probably three different supermarket chain stores within about 500m, so easy walking distance. If I expand that to 1km because I feel like biking a short way, there'd be dozens of more shops and probably a few more different brands. This isn't even including the multiple non-chain ones. There doesn't seem to be any risk of a food desert here.