  The primary distance indicators are established in our Galaxy and the Local
Group. There are at least four different methods which give good distances:
methods using proper motions, RR Lyraes, Cepheid variables, and Type II
supernovae. However the data on independent distances is very fragmentary, due
partly to nature and partly to technological limits. As a result the data are
rarely put together in a consistent way; instead, the discussion of distance
scales is often focused on one or two methods or on individual objects. Hence
the question: what is the current situation with our overall knowledge of
distances to the nearby galaxies? We try to answer this question by combining
the fragmentary data from all four methods for fifteen objects: the galactic
center, the globular clusters M2, M3, M4, M13, M22, M92, and 47 Tuc, the
galaxies IC1613, M31, M33, M81, M100, and M101, and the Large Magellanic Cloud.
We pay special attention to covariances among the different distance estimates.
This most complete combination to date shows that all four methods are
consistent within their random and systematic uncertainties.
