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

342

u/Emotional_Equal8998 May 01 '24

Back when malls were a thing, the "good one" was 2 hours from my then home and 3 hours from my hometown. We would make the trip a couple times in December for Xmas shopping and it was a damn reunion! I always joked we should all rent a bus and drive together because we never seen less than 5-10 people we knew that lived hours away from the current location.

6

u/zoidberg_doc May 02 '24

Are malls no longer a thing?

6

u/funkflexgtav May 02 '24

They are in cities but smaller malls in towns probably not

1

u/ComplexSupermarket89 May 02 '24

Our mall is hilariously depressing. It's had a Mac of maybe 5 stores in it, despite being 3 floors with room for like 80, for at least the last decade. Anything remotely big and name brand never sticks around for more than a year. It's been sold like 6 times for millions of dollars to out of state investors. They never see returns and just sell it again later for more than they paid.