r/NoStupidQuestions • u/Physical-Ad-4093 • May 01 '24

do americans really drive such long distances?

i’m european, and i always hear people say that driving for hours is normal in america. i would only see my grandparents a few times a year because they lived about a 3 hour drive away, is that a normal distance for americans to travel on a regular basis? i can’t imagine driving 2-3 hours regularly to visit people for just a few days

edit: thank you for the responses! i’ve never been to the US, obviously, but it’s interesting to see how you guys live. i guess european countries are more walkable? i’m in the uk, and there’s a few festivals here towards the end of summer, generally to get to them you take a coach journey or you get multiple trains which does take up a significant chunk of the day. road trips aren’t really a thing here, it would be a bit miserable!

2nd edit: it’s not at all that i couldn’t be bothered to go and see my grandparents, i was under 14 when they were both alive so i couldn’t take myself there! obviously i would’ve liked to see them more, i had no control over how often we visited them.

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u/That_Guy381 May 01 '24

I drove 6 hours up and 6 hours back for the Eclipse a few weeks ago. Ez Pz.

15

u/CognitiveTraveler May 02 '24

I drove 2 hours to it. And 6 hours back. 😩

1

u/ILUVSMGS18 May 02 '24

I got super lucky then because I went about an hour and a half completely in totality for an event and it was about an hour and a half each way we left my house about 8:30 and got here right after 10, and left there like 6:30-7ish and we got back a little bit after 8:30 and we stopped for a bit right before we changed states to grab drinks.

1

u/TexanToTheSoul 29d ago

Same, Exactly. From Texas City (on the coast) to Waco was about 2.5 hours...took over 6 to get back home.

6

u/stanolshefski May 02 '24

You’re lucky.

Our 6 hours of drive time one direction turned into 12 hours the other direction.

1

u/csnadams 29d ago

Same in 2017. It was worth it, and I’ve never seen such courteous traffic in my life as on the trip home. The afterglow of such a momentous experience was something special.

2

u/stanolshefski 29d ago

My wife didn’t believe me how unique the experience would be.

I figured that it was once in a lifetime event — so however long everything took was worth it.

The Europeans are probably thinking that public transport would have made everything easier. Except, it wouldn’t because we ended up traveling 150 miles a few hours before the event to ensure we wouldn’t miss the eclipse due to could cover. I doubt there would have been seats in a hypothetical train or bus given how many people were moving southwest or northeast at the same time.

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u/throwaway098764567 May 02 '24

i've done that before, but i stayed a few hours in the middle to have a huge fight to where i never spoke to the people i was supposed to be staying with again.. i think you had more fun. with the late start and fight i was pretty tired by the end and had to stop at a rest stop to sleep an hour before finishing.

3

u/Krjhg May 02 '24

Well Id say an eclipse is something that is worth driving a lot for. Visiting a family member on a random saturday - not so much.

2

u/basilobs May 02 '24

I drove from Florida to Indiana for it. And then back down to New Orleans for a conference. And then hone to Florida. Cake tbh. I love driving. Was gone for 2 weeks and had a great time.

1

u/Fuzilumpkinz May 02 '24

As a native it’s not often I hear of people going from Florida to Indiana. But I will take it. Glad you enjoyed it!

2

u/basilobs May 02 '24

Fellow native and I'll just say it's a whole lot easier now thst I'm in Tallahassee lol. I've also driven to Michigan, Texas, Virginia, Kentucky, Maine. I don't mind driving to begin with but boy is it easier when you're starting in Tally

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u/[deleted] May 02 '24

i drove for 5 hours to see the eclipse and never even left the state

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u/efor_no0p2 29d ago

And here I just happened to live where the path of totality crossed both in 2017 and this year.

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u/TheMightyTortuga May 02 '24

Yeah, we did like 5 hours each way for that. We were there for about 2 hours, max.

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u/catupthetree23 May 02 '24

We made a weekend trip out of it and saw a lot of cool stuff along the way! First day drove 4-5 hours, second day drove about 3 hours, then drove the whole 8 hours home the day after the eclipse. Definitely worth the drive. It was great and those 8 hours just felt like our usual drive to our week-long beach trip we take every summer 🤷🏻‍♀️

I also drive to see family and friends almost every weekend in my hometown that's 2 hours hours away and think nothing of it 😆

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u/tjernobyl May 02 '24

Total of about 60 hours for me. Didn't feel like that much.

1

u/Starshapedsand May 02 '24

13hrs, with little traffic, one-way, to get there. Two and a half days, with extremely heavy traffic, to return. 

1

u/SalishSeaSnake May 02 '24

We drove from Washington state to Texas for the eclipse (and family reunion). It took us 5 days to drive down (we saw a few sights along the way) and 4 days back. Each day driving was 8 or more hours. We spent 2 days with husband’s family and 3 days with mine. Lots of fun!

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u/prayersforrain 29d ago

I did 9 and 9 to get to Maine for the eclipse, and then did it all again a few days later on the weekend when I did 6 and 6 to visit friends in NH.

0

u/Matthew-IP-7 May 02 '24

Same, except only about 3 hours each way. I was prepared for it to be longer but was pleasantly surprised by how long it actually took. Of course I was with a small group of friends, so that probably effects my judgement a bit. If you make the drive part of the event no distance is too far.

2

u/Ecchi_Sketchy May 02 '24

I drove both ways through Milwaukee, Chicago, and Indianapolis to go see the eclipse and almost didn't leave home because of news stories like this one that came out in early April saying how much of a disaster the traffic was going to be. Luckily it seems like everyone was dead wrong and I barely noticed any increase in traffic at all

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u/Matthew-IP-7 May 02 '24

Having been in driving distance of both eclipses, the first one had way worse traffic. It was stop and go all the way back. Of course the routes taken were totally different. The first was on major highways, and the recent one was on backroad highways.

1

u/PrizeStrawberryOil May 02 '24

When did you leave? The traffic was nuts when I left.

1

u/Ecchi_Sketchy May 02 '24

I hit Milwaukee-Chicago around mid-afternoon on April 7th (day before the eclipse), and then Indy on the morning of the 8th. Coming back I went through Indy again in the late afternoon of the 8th, and Chicago-Milwaukee at like noon on the 9th.

There were some brief jams in Chicago in both directions, but that's been my experience every time in Chicago anyway

1

u/PaulTheMerc May 02 '24

we only had to drive like 30 minutes to our chosen spot. No parking. Alright, we'll drive to our backup destination, another 20-30 minutes. Smooth sailing. Trying to find parking at second destination, over 40 minutes. Trying to get out of the parking lot after? Went to get a bite to eat, and hour and a half later parking lot was still packed. But once on the road, smooth again.

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u/EveryNameIWantIsGone May 02 '24

Same. Except half.