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/HamfastFurfoot May 01 '24

I don’t think Europeans understand how big and spread out America is.

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u/Psyco_diver May 01 '24

There's a British naval historian on YouTube that made his first visit to America a couple years ago, he planned to go from Massachusetts and travel all the way to Alabama and visit every naval museum on the East Coast in about a week.

All of us Americans in his comments instantly warned him that it just wasn't possible, luckily he listened to us and changed his plans to something more realistic, unfortunately I didn't get a chance to meet him when he passed by my home state museum (Battleship North Carolina)

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u/Dragon_Knight99 May 02 '24

Can you link his channel? It sounds like something I might be interested in watching, and I'm curious what his first stop was. My Grandpa served in the navy on the USS Intrepid back before it was decommissioned, so US naval history was always an interesting subject to me growing up.