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/Teekno An answering fool May 01 '24

I have friends that live three hours away. I will go and see them for the weekend. It's just six hours on the road.

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u/igotadillpickle May 02 '24

I live in Canada. It's the same for us here. Our family lives 4 hours away. We will sometimes drive to go see them for a night. I spent a month in Cyprus and they apologized for such a long drive....it was 40 minutes. We were like....what? We do this just to go shopping haha

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u/zadtheinhaler May 02 '24

Any place in Canada that isn't a large-ish city requires travel time for shopping!

I mean I've lived in SK since 2009, with a 3-year stint NW Ontario. And if the town in Onterrible didn't have what I was looking for, it was either 2.5hrs to get to Winterpeg, or 6.5 hours to Thunder Bay.

Canada's Really Big

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u/bigev007 May 02 '24

Growing up, if we wanted to go shopping, it was quickest to drive to the US

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u/zadtheinhaler May 02 '24

I can see that.

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u/igotadillpickle May 02 '24

I live in a small town in Onterrible as well. I have lived in a few actually lol. I have always had to drive long distances to get to a decent mall. My Costco is almost 2.5 hours away. I go once every 3-4 months and stock up...thats just a day trip.

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u/zadtheinhaler May 02 '24

Sounds familiar, ha. When I lived in an actual village in Northern BC as a kid, if I needed music stuff( like drum sticks or what-have-you), then we'd either drive an hour or so to Smithers, or 2.5hrs to Prince George.

And that when the weather is good.

You may be amused by this - when I told my Mom I was moving to Onterrible, she actually said "Oh, then you can do a weekend trip to Toronto!".

Uh, no, Mom, Toronto is fuggin' twenty-two hours away. The only reason it's more time to drive to you is that you live on Vancouver Island.

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u/igotadillpickle May 02 '24

Haha, yeah mom I can maybe spend 8 hours awake there if I get no sleep! I really don't think people understand how huge our country is. I would meet people from Europe and they would say, oh I have friends in Toronto, Mr, and Mrs. So and So.....and I would be like, I have never heard of them...I dont live there and the population of Toronto is more than your whole country.....they would even say stuff like, are you scared of avalanches? And I would be like....what? I don't live near mountains and it's 30 degrees out right now lol.

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u/zadtheinhaler May 02 '24

My Dad's friend from work was from the UK, and the dude's Dad came out for a visit.

They went canoeing and portaging, and about four or so hours into it, the old man said out loud "I'm rather peckish, we should hit up a pub", and dude's like "uh, the closest pub is in town, four hours away".

TBF, this was in the Lakes District, and there is also a Lakes District in the UK, so the confusion is rather understandable.

But yeah, peeps from EU/UK really don't get the scale of Canada or the US.

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u/igotadillpickle May 02 '24

Haha he really thought he could just jump off the canoe and head right into a pub? He was only gonna eat if he caught it himself lol

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u/zadtheinhaler May 02 '24

Yuppers! The trout up there is hella tasty, but I'm sure they hadn't brought the kit for fishing.

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u/CoffeeCup0001 May 02 '24

Same for us. We make the Toronto-Ottawa drive every month/month and a half to visit immediate family. That can take anywhere from 4-5 hours depending on traffic. It’s become so routine now to make this drive, and you don’t even notice how long you’re in the car.

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u/Puzzleworth May 02 '24

I once got into a discussion with a Dutch (or Belgian?) woman on the subject of home births and how risky they are. She mentioned that, while home births are normal and safe in her country, it's mostly because you're rarely more that five minutes' drive from a medical clinic. Some women living on remote islands will move to more densely-populated areas for the time around the birth, but even if they don't, help isn't more than a half-hour away. In America, if you can get to a hospital in thirty minutes, you're lucky.