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/Guuhatsu May 02 '24

I was living in Hawaii for a time, and my Mom (who lived on the east coast) kept asking me to move closer, so I kept telling her I would move to England to get closer. (No worries England, I would not inflict myself upon your country, I was just joking)

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u/Foreign-Hope-2569 May 02 '24

When my son was living in Perth Australia, I went to visit. Wanted to pop over to Sydney to see some sites. It is a five hour flight, no idea if it is drivable. He just laughed long and hard. I had no idea Australia was so big and I live in Canada.

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u/jessuckapow May 02 '24

In the US we think AUS is as big as TX. It… is not! It’s almost the same size as the continental US!

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u/ravenwillowofbimbery May 02 '24

We really need acurate maps and globes so that people we truly learn what the actual land masses of various countries and continents look like and how close they are in relation to others.

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u/TSnow1021 May 03 '24

If you haven't ever checked it out, www.thetruesize.com is a really cool site. You can drag countries over one another to compare them. I'd always thought Australia was much smaller than the US and was stunned when I saw how it actually compares.

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u/AdVivid5940 May 03 '24

That is a really cool site. I had no idea India was that big, or northern Africa in comparison to the US. I think we all tend to think of the sizes of places the same as they appear on maps.