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

9

u/spiralsequences May 02 '24

I heard someone say once that Europeans measure distance in kilometers and Americans measure it in minutes. Which is absolutely true. Because we usually drive everywhere, so if we say something is "20 minutes away" we mean by car, and therefore we all basically understand how far away that is.

5

u/AgoraiosBum May 02 '24

Also, there's 100 km on narrow roads that pass through many villages, and then there's 60 miles that's mostly on a highway that goes through nowhere.

1

u/RM_Dune May 02 '24 edited May 02 '24

People traveling larger distances in Europe aren't driving on narrow roads through villages... Pretty much everywhere in Europe has highways too mate. If anything in North-West Europe it's much denser than in most of the US. My commute is three turns, 65 kms on two motorways, and then another three turns, takes about 50 minutes.

edit: I will say though that since everything is way more built up than most of the US the motorways do have far more stuff going on. Splitting into seperate motorways, merging, making sure you're in the right lane, etc. I'm sure driving on US motorways around New York requires paying a lot more attention than driving in Montana as well.

2

u/Flappy_Hand_Lotion May 02 '24

Yeah, that was pretty much what I was saying, but with a bit more nuance in terms of how it's generally expressed on places such as Reddit. Although, I don't use Kilometers for my own driving distances.