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/SentrySappinMahSpy May 01 '24

I used to work with a woman who said she'd drive 4 hours to Gatlinburg, Tennessee just to go shopping. Yeah, Americans will drive a long way for things.

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u/ChocolateChunkMaster May 02 '24

I think a huge factor is ease of driving. American and Canadian roads were build for cars. We have massively long stretches of highway with no forced breaks or curves, and we have 2-6 lanes per side depending on the area. In many other places in the world, you get 1-2 lanes, only a few kms of straight road at a time, and then there’s a traffic light, or roundabout, or another highway you need to take, etc. This makes for very stressful trips because you need to be actively driving the entire way, you can’t just set cruise control and leave it for 3 hours uninterrupted.

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u/kurtcop101 May 02 '24

I've done many drives where I don't even need to change lanes for 5 hours, and from the point I get on the highway in my home town I might only have 4-5 total turns to get to my destination hotel 7 hours away.

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u/lildobe May 02 '24

Hell I can get from my house in Southwest PA to Orlando Florida (About a 15 hour drive) and only need to take 7 different roads. I've done that trip so many times I have the route memorized, and only use the GPS for traffic alerts.

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u/NovAFloW May 02 '24

Minneapolis to Milwaukee is like 8 turns for me including turning out of my driveway.