[akgerber]

It often takes as long or longer to accomplish daily tasks in a car-oriented suburban neighborhood as in a pedestrian-oriented urban neighborhood; for example, it's about a 5 minute walk to the grocery store in my city neighborhood and about a 5 minute drive to the grocery store in my parents' (inner-ring) suburban neighborhood; likewise it's a 20 minute walk or 5 minute subway ride for me to a mall and around a 15 minute drive to a mall from my parents' house.

The main benefit the suburbanite gets is that much of their neighborhood is empty space in the form of grass and parking lots, not that they save particularly much time.

And the long-term mental and physical health benefits from daily physical activity are difficult to assign a dollar value to, but very significant.

That said, the OP must live right in a downtown to only walk and bike 700 miles a year; I live in a city neighborhood and have a 10 mile round-trip bike commute which comes to 2400 miles a year without errands or recreation or social calls or anything.