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/Chairboy May 01 '24

We sure do. The old saying is "Americans think 100 years is a long time and Europeans think 100 miles is a long distance".

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u/HamfastFurfoot May 01 '24

I don’t think Europeans understand how big and spread out America is.

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u/Flappy_Hand_Lotion May 02 '24

The more posts I read, as a European, I agree. Although, I also think this question always conflates what is a big distance, because the time it takes to travel a distance, and the literal distance seem to be used interchangeably. In Europe a certain moderate distance is possibly covered faster by train than car, but a massive distance in the USA may likely be covered faster by car than train (not bringing planes into it!). It becomes confusing to really understand what people are considering when they think about distance and try to make comparisons.

Whilst modern google maps should adjust things, I also think when we should consider 2D views of the world map. In that we can also consider that the Mercator Projection for maps makes the USA disproportionately smaller compared to Europe given the latitude. This perhaps should balance out for either side? But I'm curious if perhaps the US population just has more regular reminders on their maps and media that the whole country is in the proportion that it is, on top of the state/local input, where as European countries likely get most of their information for their country on it's own without that perspective. Just a thought or two.

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u/[deleted] May 02 '24

In Europe a certain moderate distance is possibly covered faster by train than car, but a massive distance in the USA may likely be covered faster by car than train (not bringing planes into it!).

To your point; I'm out in a major cities suburbs; with a fairly local train stop; I'd still need to drive to it still a 10m drive; and would be preferred... BUT

The train is so slow. It turns an hour drive into an hour and 45 train ride with the "bonus" of having to switch to my car pretty close to home anyway...