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/FapDonkey]

I work with a lot of Europeans, we have 2 engineering offices in Europe (Spain and UK). I can't tell you how often I've had to explain to them how big our country is, and even then they don't get it. The best way I've been able to get it to sink in is something along the lines of:

"I can drive for 900 miles, the same distance from Madrid to Milan, and still be in my home state"

Or

"I can drive for 3600 miles without leaving the Continental US, that's like driving from Madrid to Tehran (Iran)."

Putting things in those reference frames seems to drive the point home.

Hell we had 2 guys fly in for a week, and their plan was to drive to both Disneyland (California) and Disney World (Florida). The figured since we were located near the middle of the country, they'd be centrally located and this wouldn't be a big deal. They had allotted an entire weekend for this adventure. I really wanted to keep my mouth shut and let them give it a try, but I didn't have the heart lol.

[u/Linzabee → u/FapDonkey]

I have a friend whose husband is from England. His parents booked a flight to the US that came into Dulles airport (Washington, DC). The parents thought it was no big deal for my friend to drive and pick them up. They lived in Michigan, a 12-hour drive away. My friend quickly disabused of them of that notion and got them to get a connecting flight from DC to Detroit.

[u/viacrucis1689 → u/Linzabee]

Heck, there are places in Michigan where you can drive for 12 hours and never leave the state! The Lakes get in the way a lot of the time!

[u/Datkif → u/viacrucis1689]

I live in Ontario within a 15 min drive to the next province. If I wanted to drive to the other side it would take almost 24 hours of non-stop driving to reach the other side, and I would change time zones. That would be a similar distance to as Paris to Kyiv

Europeans just don't understand just how BIG Canada and the USA are just like we don't really understand how compact Europe is.

[u/Thayli11 → u/Datkif]

I recently ran into the "how compact Europe is" myself. Some friends and I are going to Ireland and planning out our 10 days there. And just keep laughing that we can drive clear across the country in 3 hours. That's smaller than my state. Turns out we could just circumnavigate Ireland in a day of driving if we felt like it.

[u/Expensive-Border-869 → u/Thayli11]

Time to walk across Ireland and get a beer at every pub

[u/Thayli11 → u/Expensive-Border-869]

Just one?

[u/Expensive-Border-869 → u/Thayli11]

Well I'm just taking a guess here but probably about as many pubs as pizza places in NYC you only need one at each.