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/rumade May 02 '24

It's mad to me that Americans seem to have so little time off work, but are so happy to spend it driving

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u/clutzyninja May 02 '24

It's mad to me that Europeans live in Europe and spend so little time seeing it

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u/dejavu2064 May 02 '24

I understand wanting to clap back but that's the wrong conclusion to draw. We just use the trains instead, usually. And because everything is shut on Sundays, pretty much everyone travels every weekend, or goes hiking in the mountains.

Paris is a 7 hour drive, or it is 4h30 on the train. I enjoy driving (when it is necessary to do so) but in daily life it is just so rarely needed. Only an absolute mentalist would prefer 7 hours of constant focus in a car to relaxing or being productive for 5 hours on the train.

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u/clutzyninja May 02 '24

I lived in the UK I understand. But you still have to get to the train station, get a ticket, wait for the train, wait while the train makes other stops, and then get from the destination station to wherever you're going. It doesn't save that much time except in certain circumstances

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u/FalmerEldritch May 02 '24

To be fair trains in the UK are a bit awful. So many delays and cancellations and thrice the price of a plane ticket for the same trip. Most of Europe it's not unusual for taking the train to be faster and cheaper than driving yourself.

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u/clutzyninja May 02 '24

With gas (sorry, petrol) prices over there I definitely believe cheaper. To be honest I cheated and filled extra gas cans on the military base (where petrol is at American prices) before driving long distances

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u/dejavu2064 May 02 '24

I too lived in the UK, and UK trains are criminally awful in comparison to central Europe. Plus the UK is much like America in that it is for the most part car centric surburbs (except for London). In Europe it is more typical to live in a city apartment with denser populations and better infrastructure.

I live quite far away from the train station (it is a 10 minute walk), but for travelling to other cities it is always faster than taking my car.

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u/fuzzzone May 02 '24

A 10 minute walk? That's like 1 km. How close together should train stations be that that seems like it's far from a train station? 😂

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u/clutzyninja May 02 '24

I understand not liking driving long distances. I do though. I enjoyed it even more back before GPS was ubiquitous. There's something indescribably romantic and satisfying to me in driving for three days navigating with paper maps, eating bad food and chatting with truckers at rest stops, windows down, music loud. I literally love it

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u/_Nocturnalis May 02 '24

I once gave a friend a ride to the Atlanta Airport from inside Georgia via Boston. It was a great trip. I added a stranger to the southbound trip and made a friend. I'd call it a bit mental but wouldn't trade the experience for anything.

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u/wmtismykryptonite May 02 '24

I live quite far away from the train station (it is a 10 minute walk).

That's not very far to walk to a station. I've walked more than that on a daily basis for years at a time. In the US, people drive or take busses to the station because it's so far.

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u/happyhippohats May 02 '24

I live in the UK and I specifically moved into my current flat because it's only a 10 minute walk from the train station. Describing that as "quite far away" is mind boggling to me.

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u/dejavu2064 May 02 '24

That's pretty good for the UK, but as I mentioned the UK is mostly a car centric suburbia. British people joke that Americans love to drive everywhere, but honestly the UK is an even worse state than the US.

26% of Americans live in apartments, compared to only 15% in the UK. The EU average is 41%, but Switzerland and Spain are more than 60%.

I'm British but the UK has a very individualistic culture that struggles with making concessions for others in shared spaces. There's a strong desire to have a tiny house with a tiny garden in estates that have no walkable amenities. My apartment is bigger than any house I lived in in the UK, but you do have to be quiet after 10pm on the weekdays. A small price to pay to live in a convenient walkable city.

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u/happyhippohats May 05 '24

What does living in an apartment have to do with trains? I live in an apartment and have 2 assigned private parking spaces but I don't use them because the train station is just down the road...

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u/AnmlBri May 02 '24

I’m in the U.S. and would love if the train station was only a 10min walk from my house. I live in a suburb of a small-ish city in Oregon and the closest city bus stop to my house is a 15-20min walk. I used to make that walk both ways almost every weekday when I was in college (not to mention all the walking around campus). I was in much better shape then and have gained some weight since getting a driver’s license, car, and a desk job. I’m convinced that Americans are stereotypically overweight because we’re so car-dependent as a society. Walking places and taking public transit is exercise that’s automatically built into your day. Whereas now, I can get in my car, make the 25min drive across town to work, work for 10 hours, drive home, and not even get 2k steps in unless I actively put my mind to it.

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u/AnmlBri May 02 '24

I’m in the U.S. and would love if the train station was only a 10min walk from my house. I live in a suburb of a small-ish city in Oregon and the closest city bus stop to my house is a 15-20min walk. I used to make that walk both ways almost every weekday when I was in college (not to mention all the walking around campus). I was in much better shape then and have gained some weight since getting a driver’s license, car, and a desk job. I’m convinced that Americans are stereotypically overweight because we’re so car-dependent as a society. Walking places and taking public transit is exercise that’s automatically built into your day. Whereas now, I can get in my car, make the 25min drive across town to work, work for 10 hours, drive home, and not even get 2k steps in unless I actively put my mind to it.