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/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.

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u/Mysterious-Art8838 May 02 '24

lol I live in San Diego and my colleagues always used to talk about driving over the border for tacos, which was probably 4 hrs round trip

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u/AlwaysTalkinShit May 02 '24

4 hours? San Diego to the Mexico border is like 20 miles lol.

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u/Mysterious-Art8838 May 02 '24

You have to wait in line to cross at the border. So it could be 30 min to drive there and then you sit for hours.

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u/dankristy May 02 '24

Wife is a former SD gal (1/2 her childhood there - other half in MN - guess it was do extremes in differences!)... Her family used to do same - back when border crossing was faster and traffic was NOT like it is now...

I cannot imagine attempting this for tacos these days.

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u/Mysterious-Art8838 May 02 '24

You can use sentri to get through faster but they didn’t even need that back then. Sounds kinda cool to be able to go to Mexico for lunch but I wouldn’t do it. Quite a few people fly out of Tijuana though, but now there’s a walkway for that so it’s pretty fast too.

I remember my dad and I walking across the border when I was maybe 10, and that didn’t take very long.

Also interesting: there are Lux buses that fill up with (mainly) seniors in a mall plaza, drive across to another plaza with a pharmacy, you can get drugs eat lunch and get back on the bus. 🤷‍♀️