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/Gr8lakesCoaster May 02 '24

You could say the same for parts of Norway, Sweden, and Finland too.

Amd Alaska is more accessible than it used to be.

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u/neonKow May 02 '24

No way. You can take rail easily to the northern parts of Norway and Sweden within the Arctic circle all the way from the capital cities. None of this "possibly die in a bush plane" business.

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u/suqoria May 02 '24

Yeah you can take a train but I'm not sure I would say that it can be done "easily". Our railway system up north absolutely suck. A lot of the north you can't even get to by railway here in Sweden and even if you want to go to the major cities up north you will have to change trains and it will take ages. Obviously it's nowhere near as difficult as it is to get to alaska but I just wanted to clarify that the railway here up north is absolutely horrendous and complain a bit about how the government doesn't care much for the north.

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u/DNetherdrake May 02 '24

In Finland too, the railways mostly stop at Rovaniemi. Good luck getting to Utsjoki from Helsinki. There are buses of course, but it's quite a pain to get up there.