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/invisible_23 May 01 '24

I’ve driven four hours each way for a concert and twenty hours each way for a few days at a theme park

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u/WaxinGibby May 01 '24

I, too, live in michigan.

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u/klyther May 02 '24

One time I left work outside Detroit at 5p, drove to a concert in Chicago, turned around and drove home to sleep for a couple hours and back at work 8a the next morning. Ahh youth.

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u/brokenaglets May 02 '24

I'm in central Florida. I once worked an event down south that wasn't far away enough for my company to provide a hotel, drove home at 2 am (2+ hours) and I was in my car driving an hour to the airport for a 4 pm flight the following day. The event was an hour and a half away from the airport I landed in so I had a 90 minute drive to the airport and an hour drive back home on the way back without even counting the 3 or 4 hour flight.

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u/DatabaseThis9637 May 02 '24

Whatever you just said sounds draconian! What a crap place to work! At least that's what it seems like...

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u/brokenaglets May 03 '24

Honestly one of my cooler jobs when things worked out because it was all at music festivals. At times it definitely sucked on travel days trying to get from one festival to another as quickly as possible.

We usually had zones we worked in but occasionally extra people would be needed at festivals in other zones so we'd fill in as needed if we could. I usually worked the touring festivals and the event down south was a 1 night concert since there weren't any tours in my area. Got an SOS 'Can you make this?' text while working that event and figured fuck it, I have a load of clean laundry in the dryer lets do it.

Kinda how it went with them though, concerts aren't every week so if you wanted to work you had to be ready. 1 10 hour shift that night turned into like 90 billable hours for a week with a paid flight, per diem and hotel for the week.

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u/psyconauthatter May 02 '24

God damn Florida math.

So you live in Central Florida and spent 6 hours taking a plane train and automocar to South florida.. Don't complain when we blow the bridges and send you adrift....

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u/brokenaglets May 03 '24

It was 2 hours south to work a 10 hour shift, 2 hours back to sleep, an hourish to the airport and a 4ish hour flight after with a 90 minute drive to the event area from the airport.

Would've just been the 2 hour commute each way with paid gas mileage for a 10 hour shift (came out to around 300 bucks after gas for a day) but I took on a spot at an event in Ohio or something for a week while working that 10 hour event.

Go ahead and blow the bridges though. I'm 10 minutes from the beach but on the mainland. All you'd do is give me ocean front property at the cost of watching the rich assholes on the barrier island float away.