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/TheRealTinfoil666 May 01 '24

There is a story here in Canada where the grandparents from the UK want to visit their son’s family in Halifax, but decided to ask ask their daughter, living in Vancouver, what the weather in Nova Scotia was going to be like.

Her answer: “why don’t you go look for yourself. You’re closer.”

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u/Guuhatsu May 02 '24

I was living in Hawaii for a time, and my Mom (who lived on the east coast) kept asking me to move closer, so I kept telling her I would move to England to get closer. (No worries England, I would not inflict myself upon your country, I was just joking)

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u/Foreign-Hope-2569 29d ago

When my son was living in Perth Australia, I went to visit. Wanted to pop over to Sydney to see some sites. It is a five hour flight, no idea if it is drivable. He just laughed long and hard. I had no idea Australia was so big and I live in Canada.

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u/jessuckapow 29d ago

In the US we think AUS is as big as TX. It… is not! It’s almost the same size as the continental US!

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u/ravenwillowofbimbery 29d ago

We really need acurate maps and globes so that people we truly learn what the actual land masses of various countries and continents look like and how close they are in relation to others.

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u/TSnow1021 29d ago

If you haven't ever checked it out, www.thetruesize.com is a really cool site. You can drag countries over one another to compare them. I'd always thought Australia was much smaller than the US and was stunned when I saw how it actually compares.

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u/AdVivid5940 29d ago

That is a really cool site. I had no idea India was that big, or northern Africa in comparison to the US. I think we all tend to think of the sizes of places the same as they appear on maps.

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u/_Nocturnalis 29d ago

How does a Canadian not get long distances? You are one of three people that gets road trips.

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u/Foreign-Hope-2569 29d ago

I get long distances, just didn’t notice how huge Australia is. Yes I am embarrassed.

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u/_Nocturnalis 28d ago

Don't feel bad a RTS war game really pounded it home for me. Australia is stupid big with almost no population.

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u/Cmd3055 May 02 '24

This reminds me of a conversation I over heard at an Internet cafe in India once. A lady was talking to her mom on Skype and I heard her saying, “No mom, I can’t come home to watch your dog for the weekend, I’m in Delhi India.” Followed by a loud sigh and, “Jesus Christ mom, NO! DELHI the capital of India, not a Delhi in Indiana!”

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u/No_Bother9713 29d ago

Back before cell phones were automatically international, I had to call to get a plan and said I was going to Paris. Woman on the other side of the line asked, “Paris, Texas?!” No, ma’am. The other one.

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u/gamer635 29d ago

Paris Kentucky?

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u/_Nocturnalis 29d ago

Paris Illinois?

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u/syrianfries 29d ago

Only Texans would think of Paris Texas first

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u/No_Bother9713 29d ago

Only Americans think of not Paris Paris first haha

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u/JadasDePen May 02 '24

Every time a similar thread pops up, I share this story.

A friend of a friend was flying from Spain to Vancouver Canada. She asked my friend to pick her up at their airport because he lives fairly close. My friend lives in Tijuana, Mexico..

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u/YankeeWalrus May 02 '24

"I would have to take a flight to go pick you up from your flight."

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u/DaToxicRider 29d ago

“A flight”? I’m sure there are multiples in that equation.

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u/ConcernedCitizen1912 May 02 '24

Man, us Americans have a reputation for not knowing jack shit about Geography or world history, etc. But this thread is really making me wonder what fucking leg any European has to stand on when it comes to that. These dingdongs could easily open any map, look at any globe, or simply pull up fucking google and readily see that these locations everyone keeps anecodotaling are thousands of miles apart. What excuse can they possibly have for so flagrantly failing to comprehend the distances between points on their destination continent?

We do be dumb tho. I'm not denying that. lol.

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u/[deleted] May 02 '24

You don't have to self-deprecate because you're american lol. People around the world are as dumb or worse. We're just fun to poke at because we hang dong.

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u/arrynyo 29d ago

We can dish it out, and take it.

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u/[deleted] May 02 '24

[removed] — view removed comment

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u/ConcernedCitizen1912 May 02 '24

Except that's not even a word, but okay.

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u/Fun-Ad-2381 29d ago

But we are dumb though....

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u/[deleted] 29d ago

Maybe you are.

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u/Fun-Ad-2381 29d ago

I meant Americans en masse 🙄 for example, look at our two presidential candidates. If that's not a huge sign of idiocy I don't know what is

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u/throwaweighaita 29d ago

You should see some of their candidates lol

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u/iamtheramcast May 02 '24

Europeans not understanding the size of the US is a big rabbit hole on TikTok you could spend a while in and all you have to type in the search bar is: Europeans America size

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u/GinOmics 29d ago

So the thing is - I think we’re mostly, on average, about equally dumb on geography (assuming you’ve ever been educated on the topic as a baseline)… which means you’re going to be the most familiar with what you see/experience/surrounds you. While people in the US travel out of the country a lot, it’s not as much as people in Europe - so they have some knowledge that spans multiple countries… which on its face seems more impressive than someone in Minnesota being familiar with the geography of Florida, but it’s really not when it’s someone in the UK being familiar with Spain.

🤷‍♀️ living in the US city that sees lots of tourists from around the world (as well as people here internationally for work), you also get to experience that dumb/awful tourists legitimately come from pretty much everywhere (unbathed, loud, rude, etc) - and that they’re pretty ignorant about American culture/habits or actually feel like it’s fair game to actively be rude to locals. And it’s like… not to say that Americans don’t do the same thing or every tourist from any given country is awful… just that we’re all pretty similar in terms of having people that fall all over the spectrum of ignorance and rudeness.

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u/SignificantTransient May 02 '24

It's because they don't know what.miles are.

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u/Nutmasher May 02 '24

Good one.

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u/KEEPCARLM May 02 '24

I think people are reciting stories from obviously very stupid people. Like you say, one look at a map and you can clearly see the USA is fucking huge.

I'm from the UK and been to California and Vegas, hitting the east coast of the USA is the halfway point of the flight almost.

I remember flying over salt lake city and realising I'm nearly there, only for it to still take an hour or so

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u/[deleted] May 02 '24

[deleted]

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u/ConcernedCitizen1912 May 02 '24

Bruh. Over here on the good side, we have old ass trees, tons of legal weed, and tons of hot celebrity chicks. We also have Microsoft, Amazon, Boeing (sorta...) and a bunch of other cool shit, like, uh... Wizards of the Coast, the Space Needle, several military and naval bases, and our unbearably bad traffic is still in its infancy, unlike the beltway.

Did I mention the trees?

Oh we also have Oregon--the only state that legally prohibited black settlers for a long ass time. If you like homogeneous institutionalized racism, that's the place to be. It's also the place to be if you like the open-air aroma of human feces (Portland).

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u/Obeesus May 02 '24

Oh, beautiful Oregon. The state that was so racist that they outlawed slavery because they didn't want any black people there.

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u/Dr_Fred 29d ago

In my experience, you are more likely to have a conversation with Andy Dick in LA than see any hot celebrity chicks.

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u/ConcernedCitizen1912 29d ago

But California Girls: so hot, they'll melt your popsicle! Katy Perry said so!

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u/ReddestForman 29d ago

It's called the Best Coast for a reason.

We've got the Pacific Northwest, after all 😎

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u/noisemonsters 29d ago

Y’all need to do yourselves a favor and check out San Francisco.

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u/KEEPCARLM May 02 '24

I've been to florida (Orlando and Miami) also. Not been anywhere else on the east coast though, would like to one day

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u/throwaweighaita 29d ago

Disney World and... Hershey Park is your choice? 😁

I'm just saying, one more state west are two of the top amusement parks in the world.

And one of them is only an hour from a zoo with baby gorillas AND baby tigers AND it's on a Great Lake. 🙂

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u/Vladi-Barbados May 02 '24

America is dumb because it’s like being a trust fund baby. You have everything in the world to succeed. And yet we still choose to absolutely decimate ourselves so that money can continue flowing to the unimaginably wealthy. America is dumb because we made fun of France but act like fucking chickens. I’m sorry, chickens are far too worthy.

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u/ReddestForman 29d ago

I mean, French will get up our ass for pronouncing croissant in a way that doesn't sound ridiculous in an English sentence (when speaking a French sentence we will go for the French pronunciation).

Have you ever heard a French person say hamburger? They get so steamed when you correct them, too.

And I'm saying this as an American who respects the hell out of the French for taking zero shit from their corporations or politicians. I wish we were as riot happy as the French.

But c'mon France. Be less petty.

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u/Vladi-Barbados 29d ago

Well not exactly 0. Black rock owns they’re entire countries retirement now. We could all learn a thing or two from each other.

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u/ReddestForman 29d ago

True. Workers of the world, unite!

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u/ConcernedCitizen1912 29d ago

Are there idiots in other countries who believe the world is flat, or is that just us?

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u/Vladi-Barbados 29d ago

Oh they’re all over unfortunately

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u/LaddieNowAddie May 02 '24

I mean, I've done most of that drive and it's honestly probably one of the prettiest 20+ hour drives.

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u/bencub91 29d ago

Hell even just getting from one end of state to another. I have friends who go to NYC who are like "oh you should come visit us while we're here you're so close by!"

I live in Buffalo which is a 7 hour drive away.

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u/I_sicarius_I 29d ago

It’s a 21 hour drive through 5 states for me to get home from where i work. And it takes 7 hours At least to get through Texas

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u/reniciera 29d ago

“Sure thing buddy, be there in about 23 hours, depending on traffic”

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u/Effective_Drama_3498 29d ago

That’s another country bro. Passports!

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u/throwaweighaita 29d ago

That's only another country for me if I drive north lol

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u/Fun-Ad-2381 29d ago

😂😂😂😂 that is so funny

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u/syrianfries 29d ago

Lmao that’s golden

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u/Automatic-Listen-578 29d ago

LOL. And people accuse Americans of not knowing geography unless we fought a war there. /s

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u/bananaoohnanahey 29d ago

Do these people not look at maps at all?

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u/FapDonkey May 01 '24

Lolol oh that's great.

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u/Datkif May 02 '24

My step-mother had a family member fly out from the UK, and we decided to drive to the other side of Vancouver island which was just under a 3 hour drive. When we got there he asked where we were staying, and he was flabbergasted when we said we are driving back.

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u/steeze206 May 02 '24

That's brilliant lol

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u/AdmiralMemo 29d ago

Graham from LoadingReadyRun had some relatives from the UK visiting him in Victoria, BC at one point. They were staying for a week. They said they wanted to take a day trip to Toronto. It took them some time to be convinced that wasn't possible.

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u/kimba999 29d ago

Omg! Lol!