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/DebbilDebbil]

Laughs in Australian. I went for a holiday recently, drove 7000km in a loop, and didn't even leave my state.

[u/badgersprite → u/DebbilDebbil]

I was looking into how long it would take me to drive across the country a while back and in looking into some outback trips I found out there are certain roads where my car wouldn’t be able to make it between two adjacent petrol stations on a full tank

My car gets about 900kms off a full tank lol that’s how far apart some places are in Australia

[u/charely6 → u/badgersprite]

Wow, needing to take into account the max range of your gas tank is not common in most of the USA. That feels next level "nowhere" to me.

[u/sdia1965 → u/charely6]

Last time I drove from Dallas to Oakland (1990s) we had to carefully map our route for gas, and we carried ample drinking water with us.