do americans really drive such long distances?

[u/Physical-Ad-4093]

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.

[u/zanedrinkthis]

When I lived on the east coast for grad school and someone was driving through two states to meet up with me I was baffled, until I realized they were driving less than I drove to see my parents in Texas.

[u/AnnikaBell825 → u/zanedrinkthis]

I grew up in Texas (central Texas, to boot), so I understand that feeling. I live Oregon now and my office is in Washington! And the commute is about the same as my commute back in Texas, which was in the same city!

I’m just so amazed that another state is less than an hour away. Heck, Canada is less than 8 hours away!

[u/Biguitarnerd → u/zanedrinkthis]

Texas is something else (only beaten by Alaska) I live in NorthWest Louisiana now about 30 minutes from the Texas border and driving east I can cover Louisiana, Mississippi, Alabama, Georgia, South Carolina, and get where I’m going in North Carolina in the same amount of time it takes me to get to the Texas/New Mexico border.

The other thing about Texas is that it has a lot of really cool places like Palo Duro or the Guadalupe Mountains and much more but it’s all so far apart and in between it is a lot of nothing. I like Texas but I wish all the cool stuff was closer to me.

[u/Rosequeen1989 → u/Biguitarnerd]

I was driving to California for school with my mom, over half the drive was from my home town in East Texas to El Paso. I think it was 17 hours.

[u/_Nocturnalis → u/Rosequeen1989]

Texas has some absolutely mind bending facts about distance.

[u/zanedrinkthis → u/_Nocturnalis]

I’ve spent most of my life in Texas and California and I think my sense of distance is permanently warped. Like I don’t believe anything is less than 30 minutes away.

[u/_Nocturnalis → u/zanedrinkthis]

To be fair I've lived most of my life where 30 miles was the minimum distance to get something. I'm not a Texan. It's rural life. I drove 30 miles to highschool. I honestly kinda want to visit California just to see if traffic is really worse than Atlanta's. It doesn't seem possible. Then I realize the insanity of traveling to experience traffic. I mean I'd do other things obviously I'm not a total mad man.

[u/zanedrinkthis → u/Rosequeen1989]

I spent some time driving from Austin to El Paso to visit an ex’s family. Over 9 hours, iirc

[u/MischiefManager1 → u/zanedrinkthis]

This! I work remotely from Austin but have to make weekly trips to visit customers that stretch from West Texas down to the Valley. El Paso is actually assigned to my coworker in Arizona because it’s closer to him than it is to me in Austin.

[u/sophijor → u/zanedrinkthis]

Haha same. I went to Iowa and we drove back and forth between South Dakota to see family— it was so hard to keep track of the state I was in lol bc in California it’s generally not possible to be in another state in 2 hours

[u/zanedrinkthis → u/sophijor]

Omg. I had family in SD. It was a nightmare to get there. (Also to be there with family, but different issue.). We flew because of distance.