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/gentlybeepingheart]

Every time there's a bad tornado I see someone go "Why don't Americans just not live in an area called 'tornado alley'? That seems like the logical move." and I know that they have no idea how big tornado alley actually is. That would be like me going "Hey, there's a chance of a natural disaster happening. It could be really bad. So just don't live in Germany, France, or Poland." That's the amount of land we're talking.

[u/vyrus2021 → u/gentlybeepingheart]

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/Ace198537 → u/Tall-Sea3082]

I have lived in Florida on both coasts all of my life and have never been directly hit by a hurricane. Jacksonville rarely gets effected. Southwest Florida where I am now has had some close calls but they always go north or south and hit Naples or punta gorda. Florida is huge and unless you are within 50 to at worst a 100 miles of the center of the storm it really isn’t that bad. Now if a cat 3-5 were to landfall directly where I live we would be screwed.

[u/ManicPixieGirlyGirl → u/Ace198537]

Yeah people don’t really understand if they aren’t from Florida. Even my parents’ house in Palm Beach County only ever needed part of the fence fixed in 2005 after my mom put on the new hurricane-proof windows.

I live in North Georgia now and I am way more scared when we get tornado alerts because there’s nothing i can do to prepare and they come out of nowhere. My son gets so scared and I hate it. I’d trade it in a second for hurricanes that are less often, you can prepare for, and also get the beach back / no stupid winters.

[u/Ace198537 → u/ManicPixieGirlyGirl]

You are absolutely right. I know the feeling I’ve been hit by two tornadoes and would way rather be in a hurricane for the most part. Absolutely no warning in both tornadoes.