I remember once being just out of walking distance of a place I wanted to go to, the mass transit “distance” being well over an hour, and the taxi “distance” being about ten minutes.
Something is far when it takes me a while with loads of effort to get to it. Something is close when I can get to it quickly and easily. Western PA is further from me than London is. One involves a single flight and one train, the other involves a 10 hour drive with traffic, PA drivers, and PA roads.