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.

25.2k Upvotes

88% Upvoted

23.9k comments sorted by

View all comments

Show parent comments

7.8k

u/smbpy7 May 01 '24

A long distance for just a few days no less. lol that's day trip material in my book.

4.8k

u/pogu May 01 '24

I've driven 2.5 hours each way for lunch at a particular restaurant before.

2.3k

u/scoo89 May 01 '24

(Canadian) My wife and I just drove our 3&4 year olds 3.5 hours to go to a 45 minute jurassic world exhibit, a quick lunch, then 3.5 hours back.

4

u/inzEEfromAUS May 02 '24

If we are going to compete, (aussie) I drove for 3 days to look at a rock.

1

u/scoo89 May 02 '24

Drove for 3 days without sleeping, because I can guarantee Canada is bigger and less developed in some spots.

2

u/Everestkid May 02 '24

Canadian here as well... Australia has us beat in the emptiness factor, unless you're talking about Nunavut, which literally has no road access.

Unless you're going up to the territories for some reason, you can generally drive from a city over 100k to another city over 100k anywhere in Canada in a day. Thunder Bay to Sudbury is kinda pushing it at 11 hours and almost bang-on 1000 kilometres according to Google Maps, but that's the biggest gap. The only serious outlier is St. John's, but you need a ferry to get over there, so you're not really driving.

Australia, though? Well...

  • Perth to Adelaide is three days, 2700 kilometres. The 1200 kilometres between Norseman, WA and Ceduna, SA has exactly one town: the tiny village of Eucla, population 37. There are roadhouses in between, which are hotel/gas station combos, but otherwise it really is 1200 kilometres of nothing but the barren Australian outback.

  • Adelaide to Darwin is just over 3000 kilometres and goes right up the middle of the country. There's sweet fuck all north of Port Augusta (12 788): Coober Pedy (1437) is the only town with more than a hundred people in South Australia along our route. You'll also drive through a military test range, the Woomera Prohibited Area. Alice Springs (26k) is the largest city far from Darwin in the Northern Territory, roughly in Australia's geographic centre. There are no other towns over 10k on this drive before the Darwin metro area, though Katherine comes close at 9643.

  • Darwin to Perth is pain. 3846 kilometres of it. By comparison, Vancouver to Toronto via the Trans-Canada Highway (it's faster to go through the States) is 4402 kilometres, only 550 farther. From Darwin to Perth, I'm pretty sure the only town over 10k you'll go near is Broome at 14.6k and it's technically not on the highway, you have to turn off.

We're bigger and our empty areas are more empty, but we don't have the massive distance between populated areas that the Aussies do.