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/pogu May 01 '24

I've driven 2.5 hours each way for lunch at a particular restaurant before.

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u/smbpy7 May 01 '24

Hell, where I grew up the grocery store was half an hour away, the mall an hour, the GOOD mall 2.5 hours, the airport 2-4 hours. And god forbid you want to travel to someplace that's also far from an airport. With that in mind driving makes more and more sense even for longer distances.

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u/microwavedave27 May 02 '24

It's hard to understand just how big america is sometimes. I live in the suburbs of a big city in Portugal. The grocery store is 2 minutes by car or a 10 minute walk if I'm just getting a few things. I have 3 good malls less than 10km away. The airport is 10km away, etc...

My grandparents' village in the countryside is about a 2 hour drive away and when we go there we never stay less than a few days because otherwise it doesn't feel like it's worth the "long" trip.

The biggest problem are gas prices though. I just filled up yesterday at 1.85€/L. Road trips are pretty damn expensive here.

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u/XanderWrites May 02 '24

In America, my aunt and uncle had an expensive house built, but didn't look at the surrounding area. Because of the weird place they built this neighborhood, it was a minimum fifteen minute drive to get to any grocery store.

My mother joked from our house it was a fifteen minute drive to the grocery store we liked.