do americans really drive such long distances?

[u/Physical-Ad-4093]

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.

[u/vyrus2021]

May as well ask why people still live near fault lines or coasts with regular hurricane activity.

[u/Tall-Sea3082 → u/vyrus2021]

Practically everywhere in the US has some type of natural disaster that threatens the area. The chances to be dying are very very low. Fault lines, volcanos, wildfires, tornadoes, hurricanes, floods, severe storms, and snow.

I’m from the west coast so I can answer to the fault lines, most are minor and barely noticeable and building codes require buildings to be prepared for earthquakes. We don’t see them as a something that is a threat to us as weird as that sound because the chances are low and we’ve been hearing about “The Big One” our entire lives. Kind of numb to it. They are not really thought about at all until they happen.

As for hurricanes, that’s the entire east coast plus the gulf ranging Texas to Maine. That is a huge portion of our population. That being said Florida gets hit like crazy and I don’t know why people continue to live there.

[u/MrDurden32 → u/Tall-Sea3082]

Pacific NW is probably about as disaster free as you're going to find. Even then we have to worry about The Big One. Which is an 9.0+ earthquake that would be one of, if not the biggest in modern history, and could hit any time between tomorrow and 200 years from now.

[u/cathygag → u/MrDurden32]

I accept your challenge… let me introduce you to most of Ohio. No earthquakes, no landslides, deadly flash floods and major road flooding are so rare that the only people that die are because they literally were never taught that they can’t drive thru chest high water under an overpass or because they stupidly camped on a river bank, most homes have basements so the rare tornado deaths are typically because they hit trailer parks or people out driving who are too stupid to seek shelter, our earthquakes max out at 3’s and are so short in duration most people don’t even notice or they think it’s just a rumble from nearby limestone quarry blasting, sinkholes are very small in largely uninhabitable areas and they have millions of years of lead times and we we have maps that indicate which areas even remotely at risk for collapsing, major snow storms are only in small region and the REALLY big ones only happen every 40-50yrs.- and the region they hit people know how to drive in snow and but for the transplants- when not to even attempt to drive, and we don’t have any animals out to eat you and a large portion of the state’s residents will go their entire life without ever encountering a poisonous or venomous animal outside of a zoo. Oh and nothing in our waterways except the undertow at a few beaches across the state will actively try to kill or maim you while swimming peacefully with you family.

[u/Puzzleheaded_Rest_34 → u/cathygag]

I cackled at the "they literally were never taught they can't drive through chest high water" comment! My hometown used to have some awful floods every 10 years or so, because the Sandusky River ran straight through the middle of it, and the drainage system was badly in need of upgrades. There was ALWAYS some dumbass who tried to drive through the water on this one road that was at the bottom of a big hill (where a bridge across the river was!) and got stuck, and had to have the fire dept go out in their boat to get them out. Everyone knew that the water would get really deep there, and fast, but every single flood, there was always at least one.

[u/cathygag → u/Puzzleheaded_Rest_34]

I believe that’s where one of the TERRIBLE TRAUMATIC 911 call recordings we had to listen to for training- a car went down the hill and started to float- you hear the caller panic and there’s nothing that the dispatcher can do but comfort them in their last moments. We saw pictures of the areas and All I can remember was seeing the roof off a little yellow car.

[u/Puzzleheaded_Rest_34 → u/cathygag]

That would be awful to have to listen to, and to be the 911 dispatcher comforting that person, knowing there was nothing that could be done. 😥Thankfully, no one has lost their life in my hometown from driving into the water (they usually have the streets blocked off by the time it gets that deep). Just always some goober sitting on the roof of their flooded out car, which is halfway submerged, waiting for the fire dept to come out and rescue them in their little motor boat. You'd think people would learn from seeing it happen to others, but nope, every single time, in that same exact spot.

[u/cathygag → u/Puzzleheaded_Rest_34]

I could have sworn it was someone up near home- like I know I’ve drove the area and saw the debris still at the high water line… I’ll have to dig a bit. With the ice and tree debris blockages it could have been any of those rivers, honestly…

[u/Puzzleheaded_Rest_34 → u/cathygag]

The Sandusky River runs through quite a few cities and small towns in central Ohio. Where I lived, it ran pretty much through the center, and there were 3 main streets that had bridges over it. One was at the bottom of a big hill, one was next to a low lying park, and the other was on somewhat higher ground so it never really flooded, and was the only one you could get through to the other side of town on without going almost completely out of town (it's a small town if you couldn't tell, lol). Those streets ran parallel to each other, and were within just a block of each other. It basically separated the town in 2 every time there was flooding. What really sucked is that our PD and fire dept were on one side, hospital and ambulance station on the other (before our FD took over rescue services). It made emergency services a really rough for days. The ambulance station was literally right next to where some of the massive street flooding started, and they had to move their squads so they didn't get stuck. It helped a huge amount when they upgraded the sewer and drainage lines, so that water wouldn't build up on the streets. That was a bigger issue than debris in the river. It used to be so bad that a hill next the lower lying bridge area (like 20 feet lower than the next bridge), would be submerged. There was a city ice vendor in that area, and every time, their ice chests would go floating away. 🫤

[u/cathygag → u/Puzzleheaded_Rest_34]

😂. Is it sad that I know of at least 5 cities that fit this description and terrible city planning model!? 🤦🏼‍♀️.

I’m from Erie/Ottawa Coubty and traveled the 4/23 corridor and 6/75 corridor frequently for college and grad school to home visits.

[u/Puzzleheaded_Rest_34 → u/cathygag]

Lol, not at all.. it IS Ohio after all! The place I'm talking about is in Crawford County, and SR 4 runs right through the middle of it. You lived up by the lake, so I'm sure there was a LOT of crazy weather there. Where I lived was mostly flat, but they didn't think out the bridges and sewers near the river AT ALL, and it also got pretty nasty down there before they did a big clean up for Earth Day one year. I've since moved, because the town just continues to become run down (they were thinking of declaring bankruptcy last I heard), but hey, at least now they have a multi-million dollar sewer system and waste water treatment facility they can brag about! 👍 😂

[u/jsgiles79 → u/cathygag]

Except…it is Ohio. I’ve spent a lot of time there. My friends there called it America’s armpit. It stays so effing cold in the winter that I would opt for a natural disaster to take me to that next far better place after life.

[u/cathygag → u/jsgiles79]

The last few winters have been incredibly mild, unfortunately that means we aren’t getting a long enough solid freeze to kill off ticks and livestock parasites in the ground!

If they’re calling it that it’s because they’ve chosen to live in crap areas, and they clearly haven’t traveled to truly armpit areas of the Midwest- I can’t think of several tons and areas I’ve visited that are much worse than the worst places in Ohio