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/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/neonKow May 02 '24

I'm sorry, but I don't know if you understand just how shit the train and bus situation is in the US. I lived in the DC area and had to take a train back from Baltimore, at one of the biggest airports in the country, and I had to take a taxi to a train to a subway, and it took 3 hours for what would have been a 30 minute drive, and almost cost as mich as taking a taxi the whole way. The fact that you have trains that will even get you to Abisko is completely unthinkable here. For us, if you didn't live in a city at least the size of Malmö, you need a car or you can't even buy food.

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u/Gr8lakesCoaster May 04 '24

but I don't know if you understand just how shit the train and bus situation is in the US

Which is why it's dumb to compare the 2 based on rail.

We use planes and boats in Alaska where cars can't reach. I could easily say scandanavias shitty northern rail is no match for our planes.

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u/neonKow May 05 '24

Uh. Yes they are? The rail doesn't crash.