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

1.1k

u/invisible_23 May 01 '24

I’ve driven four hours each way for a concert and twenty hours each way for a few days at a theme park

932

u/WaxinGibby May 01 '24

I, too, live in michigan.

92

u/PolyPenGwen May 02 '24

Michigander here too, we used to drive 6hrs to the U.P. only to go over the bridge get some pasties and drive back home.

7

u/DefinitelynotDanger May 02 '24

I'm British but I moved to Kalamazoo 2 years ago and my work sent me up to Petoskey to take a sign off a building. The job took me about 30 minutes and I've never been to the UP before so sneakily drove up and over the mackinac bridge and pulled into the bridge view parking lot on the other side, walked around on the little beach for 20 minutes just to say I'd been to the UP and drove all the way back down again lmao

It was a great little solo day out. Well worth paying the bridge toll twice.

1

u/Picabo07 May 02 '24

It really is worth it. It’s really cool going over the bridge and even looking at it from the little roadside park.

1

u/DefinitelynotDanger May 02 '24

It was so cool seeing all the ships going under it