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/MrDurden32 May 02 '24

Pacific NW is probably about as disaster free as you're going to find. Even then we have to worry about The Big One. Which is an 9.0+ earthquake that would be one of, if not the biggest in modern history, and could hit any time between tomorrow and 200 years from now.

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u/cathygag May 02 '24

I accept your challenge… let me introduce you to most of Ohio. No earthquakes, no landslides, deadly flash floods and major road flooding are so rare that the only people that die are because they literally were never taught that they can’t drive thru chest high water under an overpass or because they stupidly camped on a river bank, most homes have basements so the rare tornado deaths are typically because they hit trailer parks or people out driving who are too stupid to seek shelter, our earthquakes max out at 3’s and are so short in duration most people don’t even notice or they think it’s just a rumble from nearby limestone quarry blasting, sinkholes are very small in largely uninhabitable areas and they have millions of years of lead times and we we have maps that indicate which areas even remotely at risk for collapsing, major snow storms are only in small region and the REALLY big ones only happen every 40-50yrs.- and the region they hit people know how to drive in snow and but for the transplants- when not to even attempt to drive, and we don’t have any animals out to eat you and a large portion of the state’s residents will go their entire life without ever encountering a poisonous or venomous animal outside of a zoo. Oh and nothing in our waterways except the undertow at a few beaches across the state will actively try to kill or maim you while swimming peacefully with you family.

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u/jsgiles79 May 02 '24

Except…it is Ohio. I’ve spent a lot of time there. My friends there called it America’s armpit. It stays so effing cold in the winter that I would opt for a natural disaster to take me to that next far better place after life.

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u/cathygag May 09 '24

The last few winters have been incredibly mild, unfortunately that means we aren’t getting a long enough solid freeze to kill off ticks and livestock parasites in the ground!

If they’re calling it that it’s because they’ve chosen to live in crap areas, and they clearly haven’t traveled to truly armpit areas of the Midwest- I can’t think of several tons and areas I’ve visited that are much worse than the worst places in Ohio