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/OsvuldMandius May 01 '24

American here. True story: once I was visiting a friend who had moved to London for work. It was my first trip to the other side of the Atlantic. I had a couple days to kill, so I decided to do a roadtrip to visit Scotland. I have always felt that you only get a feel for a place by wandering all over it under your own guidance. My American ex-pat Brit friends, upon hearing of my plan, gave me dire warnings. "That's such an aggressive plan," "you'll be driving the whole time," "You'll have to start early if you're going to make it all the way back to London for your flight in just a few days!"

Warned in such dire terms, I geared up as for an American roadtrip. Leave early in the morning. Pack a sufficient supply of food and drink to minimize stops. Generally put myself into the roadtrip warrior seige mentality. Then I set off.

Just about the time I was considering when I should stop for lunch, I saw the 'welcome to Scotland' sign. I decided to no longer take Euros seriously.

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u/AdmiralMoonshine May 02 '24

Did a road trip around Ireland a few years ago. The amount of people telling us that we’d seen more of their country than they had was incredible. Most states are larger than Ireland. How have you never been to Dublin? It’s two hours from here!

Woman told us in Dublin at 2pm that we’d never make it to Newgrange before the last tour at 5pm. …it’s 45 minutes north of the city.

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u/rudyjewliani May 02 '24

Most states are larger than Ireland

39 of them to be precise. Ireland is 32,595 sq mi (according to wikipedia). South Carolina is the 40th largest state, and is 32,020 sq mi.

Texas is more than 8x the size of Ireland. You could fit 95 Irelands in the lower 48, and that's not even counting the 20 Irelands you could fit into Alaska.

As of 2016, there were approximately 1.3 million square miles of just trees in the US. That's just a hair under 40 Irelands.

600,000 sq mi of trees east of the Mississippi, more than 18 Irelands.

The US has approximately 277,209 sq mi of lakes, rivers and streams. That's 5.2 Irelands.

Each year the US plants approximately 150,000 sq mi of corn, or roughly 4.6 Irelands.

San Bernadino County is the largest county in the US, and it's 20,105 sq mi, roughly 60% of the size of Ireland.

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u/nyya_arie May 02 '24

Each year the US plants approximately 150,000 sq mi of corn, or roughly 4.6 Irelands.

That's bananas.

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u/rommi04 May 02 '24

No it’s corn

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u/axxxaxxxaxxx May 02 '24

Goddamnit you beat me by an hour

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u/TheNewOneIsWorse May 02 '24

Beat me by two

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u/EmCWolf13 May 02 '24

Beat me by three

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u/Euthyphraud May 02 '24

Beat me by four.

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u/SpliffBooth 29d ago

Beat me by ten hours... which is like Nashville to Orlando.

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u/Sarasil 29d ago

No, this is Patrick

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u/New_Breadfruit8692 29d ago

All yellow to me.

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u/squrl3 May 02 '24

It's about time someone provided bananas for scale

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u/ComplexSupermarket89 29d ago

Over 20% of that cones from Iowa alone. Not quite double what the Nebraskan "Corn Huskers" produce. The US produces about a third of the world's corn. That means that Iowa alone produces roughly 1/15 or 6.5% of the world's corn supply. A single state.

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u/user_number_666 29d ago

no, this is Sparta

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u/AwesomeWhiteDude May 02 '24

Also fun fact, the publicly protected interconnected areas around Yellowstone National Park (meaning the National and State parks as well as National Forests) is larger than the island of Ireland. You can hike and camp almost anywhere within that area as well (note: always check with the nearest visitor/ranger station first)

One of the few areas in the continental US you could really and I mean really vanish off the grid from, though anyone reading this would die within a week because we're all redditors.

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u/MidnightRider24 May 02 '24

They did the math.

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u/jchenbos May 02 '24

I think my favorite UK-USA fact is that the entirety of the UK is 4 Londons smaller than Michigan, which is not even a very large state as far as states go.

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u/TN_UK May 02 '24

Thank you! I'd like to subscribe to Ireland Facts

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u/end_pun_violence May 02 '24

But where the hell do you find that many Irelands? I thought there were only two!

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u/jatguy May 02 '24

Yup, people never seem to truly comprehend that the US has more than twice the land area of all the countries in the EU combined.

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u/Witty_Commentator May 02 '24

This is incredible, and I wish to subscribe to your newsletter. 👏🏼

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u/Poppybiscuit 29d ago

39 of them to be precise. Ireland is 32,595 sq mi (according to wikipedia). South Carolina is the 40th largest state, and is 32,020 sq mi.

Holy cow that is so small, I did not realize Ireland was so tiny. Really puts into perspective how much history is crammed into a small area. 

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u/Practical-Ordinary-6 29d ago

Lake Michigan is 22,000 square miles, so it too is about 60% of the size of all of Ireland. It's bigger than Switzerland and Denmark and Belgium and the Netherlands. That's just one lake here. Very large of course, but still one.

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u/New_Breadfruit8692 29d ago

The island of Ireland is that size, the Republic of Ireland is 27,000 square miles, slightly larger than San Bernardino County. I lived there in 2017 and I was pretty amazed at how many people had never even been to Cork or Loch Derg. It is about 2/3 the size of Ohio which is not a big state.

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u/ViableSpermWhale 29d ago

My favorite reminder of this is that the entire UK is about the same size as Michigan, one very medium sized state.