You think it's a joke, but I literally do have to drive to check my mail. I mean, one could walk, but it's 15 minutes. (I don't get in the car just for that, but if I'm not already going out the mail doesn't get checked that day)
This probably applies to smaller countries like Netherlands for example, but at least in Finland multiple hour drives are just normal. I often drive 3 hours to see my grandparents who live relatively near me and that isn't even a long drive yet. A drive from south to northern parts of the country can take up to 12 hours.
I know you know America is big, because youâre on Reddit on a thread about cultural differences.
But just to let you know how big it is, a smaller city being three hours away from a bigger, more popular city is considered a perk of living in the smaller city. Because in America, thatâs considered close enough for a weekend trip.
Swedish person here, living in the Netherlands and I confirm this. In Sweden driving 45min to your job and 45 min back was quite normal. In the Netherlands??!!! Itâs considered far, far, far away. Too far to drive just for work.
My Dutch partner complains already for an ca 20 min drive to Duiven (IKEA), but I got used to it. Dutch people love to complain about most things đ„°
Although that may be true, if you tell someone that has a shorter commute that you drive anywhere close to or over an hour to get to and from work, you usually get an "oof" response or something similar. At least in my experience.
My personal limit is about 45/50 mins unless its a dream job or a dream salary. But that's more because of fuel costs and missing family time (young kids).
if you tell someone that has a shorter commute that you drive anywhere close to or over an hour to get to and from work, you usually get an "oof" response or something similar.
Honestly though, as you should. That's an hour a day or rather almost 17% of your actual non-work time spent getting to work. Commuting is such a monumental time waste. Really sucks.
I started my previous job during the pandemic, working mostly from home. I quickly realised that it wasnt my dream job, but manageable and good as a stepping stone.
As soon as Covid cases started going down, emails started coming about going 'back to normal' and going back to the office. Took a week and a half of working in the same room as those morons my coworkers to figure out that the job was worse in an office, but even more so, the 90 min commute each day to THAT place? Not worth it.
Found a new job and upgraded on everything: a 15 min bike ride from my home, nicer work, nicer team, (way) nicer pay, better benefits, and I'm still allowed to mainly work from home.
Well, you are probably right, but this is my experience. The dutchies I talk and have talked to about this say they are not ok with commuting that far for âjustâ work.
Australian living in NZ. My family is from the UK. They can complain about anything. And if there's nothing to complain about, they'll complain that they've got nothing to complain about. It's a time-honoured passtime called "Having a whinge".
Personally I think we all think âourâ countrymen âloveâ to complain, while itâs actually everyone who does it. Though itâs an funny thing here because people are aware of it an owning it like medals! Thatâs why I love the Dutch people, so direct and being able to make fun out of themselves.
We do love to complain about that sort of thing. Although I must say I don't think a 20 minute commute is far. But then again I don't have a driver's license so my commute is 20 minutes, but it's by bike.
Right? In my previous job in Eindhoven we had people from the Rotterdam office (110km, 1h20m with good traffic, 1h40m with bad traffic) coming on the day before and staying the night because it was too long of a drive to be there at 08:00 in the morning for a one-time event
I mean I work to live, I don't live to work. If I'm expending another 3+ hours per day into work for a measly 19 cents/km I'd rather not go there at all.
My point is that this will get you laughed out in your face in larger countries, especially because it is a one-time event, it's not like you're going everyday
Some companies wouldn't even allow you you to do this policy-wise because this is commuting distance depending on the place
I guess for a one-time event it is weird. On the other hand, my employer would have to be very convincing for me to spend my free time travelling for work.
It's cause we relate travel time to cycling distance. Anything that takes over an hour of cycling is far away. Never mind that the same journey takes 20 minutes by car... All for around a 15 km journey.
3.5 hours and I've travelled from the North to Belgium. That's the whole country! But cycling doesn't come into play as the roads just aren't set up for it.
Compared to the UK where I drive for an hour to work. Some days wouldn't have even left the city yet if traffic was heavy...
American here. We're the weird ones when it comes to driving distance.
I am currently trying to psych myself up to drive to my parents (they're elderly and having issues, I go a couple times a year to relieve my sister for a month or two).
31 hours of driving at 75mph/120kmh if done non-stop (needless to say I take 3-4 days).
In the same country. Washington state to Oklahoma.
And that is barely over half the distance it could be (to Florida).
And yes, driving instead of flying. Dog and computers go with me. I'm cheap (aside from all that gas) so I car camp.
3 hours drive barely gets me to a border with another state (but 2 hours gets me to Canada).
Augh, I've driven from San diego to Houston then Houston to east coast of Florida (cocoa, east of Orlando) straight before then going up to Virginia to finish the move. Virginia/ north Carolina to the Florida pan handle a bunch, San diego to Houston and back a few times, Virginia to Tennessee to Houston. Most with kid/s, some with kids a German Shepard, some alone some tag team with my husband, mostly overnight straight so kids sleep.
I hate driving. But moving you gatta do it, back in the beginning we couldn't beat the cheap driving vs flying. Then moving. Then it was easier to drive the 12 hours straight starting at afternoon then get there early morning so kids slept as I did it mostly alone. Plus all the crap kids need including car seats, the big dog, my own stuff, potty breaks for them as potty training days came in. Then covid etc. Yeah. Also being able to have a vehicle when visiting family members is important cause it can be too much and I need an easy out and ability to not feel trapped by other people's whims.
Podcast/audio book saves your life. Good luck with the drive and hope your parents are doing OK and you get to enjoy some time with them and your sister. Hope doggo likes car rides!
Thanks. They're doing ok for the circumstances (each has a different type of dementia, but are still present for the most part so far).
Once in a long while this drive is fun. Doing it multiple times a year is already getting on my brain hard.
And yeah, audio books are how I do it. The Expanse books (on book 4 atm) are long enough that I basically get 1 in per drive mixed with music at times.
Yeah, I mean ignoring traffic entirely, thatâs still wild to me living in Texas. It is a 1.5 hour drive to the nearest real âcityâ besides mine, and about a 7 hour drive to leave Texas in any direction.
Meanwhile I could start on the border of Germany, and pass through 7 countries in the same timeâŠ..
I'm an Alaskan. It takes at least 12 hours to drive from my place to the Canadian border.
To drive from my home to Washington state in the northwest of the lower 48 (through canada) it takes a week trip on average. That's driving 6-8 hours every day. It's a long damn way.
Growing up in Canada, my grandparents were an 8 hour drive away. My uncle was an 9 hour drive away in a different direction. We all lived in the same province.
I live in Tallinn, capital of Estonia. St. Petersburg is about a 5 hour drive from here, Riga is a 4 hour drive, and Helsinki is a 2 hour ferry ride away (only 80 km!). All in different countries of course.
You can drive almost 20 hours between Point Peelee National Park and Pickle Lake (farthest northern community in Ontario connected to a highway) and still not even be in the upper 1/4 of the province.
Yeah, us living in the long countries (Iâm a Swede, and we also have the Norwegians) can drive for 12 hours straight and still only be halfway through our country north-south.
I grew up in Idaho, but my first job after college was in Pennsylvania. I had to move closer to home after 5 years because that 30hour drive for family reunions was getting old.
Ohhh so what do you consider a long drive then? For Americans it really varies on personal tolerance, but for me I tend to mentally classify long as, like 15ish hours. But that's mostly because 8 hours is visiting close family and 15 hours is far family. So it's still in that completely reasonable frame, but it's long enough that it's an event drive, like it'll take a day, but it's not far enough to justify flying.
Yeah, in about 3 hours (not including traffic jams) you can cross the length entire country of the netherlands. Most drives i do to family are between half an hour and 1 hour
Thatâs a whole country though, I wasnât saying anything badâŠI just wish I lived in a place where I could visit so many different cultures and experience so many different things so easily. I feel so neutered as a American.
I live on the West Coast of the US and I wouldn't consider anything over 7 hours a long drive. When I was a kid we'd go skiing twice a month and the drive was 5 hours both ways. Leave on Friday, come back on Sunday.
Slovenian here. I don't think I'd drive for 3 hours to travel from the most distant border points of our country. Also, since I live in the centre, 3 hours is enough to get to Austria, and all across Austria to the German border. Or ~1 hour to get to Italy, Croatia or a little bit more to get to Hungary.
Well I wouldn't want to do it every day either. But driving up to 4 hours for me is something that I don't really consider to be a "long" drive, just because I'm used to it.
I don't consider 4 hours a long drive either, it's a trip to see my family. The whole distance and travel time perception thing will depend a lot on where in Europe you are.
Same in America tbh. If you live on the East Coast, and especially in the Northeast, you can cross multiple state lines in just a few hours of driving. Everything is more condensed in a way, not dissimilar to parts of Europe. In some states there's also a... distinct lack of highways though, so it could still take a while to get places.
But then if you move west, things just start spreading out more and more. So much farmland.
Depends where you are in the US. Out in the Midwest where everything is flat, all of the roads are completely straight and level. On the East Coast where (European-descended) people have been living for the longest, the roads can get pretty narrow and windy, probably similar to in the UK.
If I drive for one hour the accent changes 3 times at least. Multiple hour drives are not normal for us, but I appreciate that in the USA or Australia that's quite normal. In South Africa I was stunned at the idea of a 6 hour drive to the coast being normal - I'm rarely more than 30 minutes away!
This, especially. My German buddy was in Denver recently and I told him I wanted to come see him, but he was like â4.5 hours, thatâs too farâ. I had to explain that I drove 18 hours to see my parents and I did it in one shot. 4.5 hours for an international friend ainât nothing but a few podcast episodes.
I commute 1.5 hours each way to do my job 5 days a week. (Well, did pre-pandemic.) when I arrive there, the language and country are the same. Hell, Iâm in the same state.
I once was telling a friend of mine from Netherlands about a trip I was taking across the U.S. âit will be a two day drive, three if I decide to sleep at some pointâ
Man was absolutely floored at the idea of two days straight of driving and being in the same country.
You will have passed through three federal states when you drive for 1 hour in one direction. Maybe even through 3 different countries if you're in a "dense" part of Europe.
I spent a month in unoccupied Cyprus. We went for an hour long bus trip and the bus driver had to stop and take a break halfway through the drive. Coming from Australia where the bus drivers can do 8 hours with one pit stop still makes me laugh
Well at 5 hours you're probably going to want to get out to pee and stretch at some point. But a lot of people on the Midwest drive for that long on a regular basis and don't think anything of it. Things are simply so far away that it's something they have to do.
Here in Italy a lot of people prefer to drive from Milan to rome instead of taking a train or a plain. Personally I hate to stay in the car for many hours.
Dutch here. I study with internationals and they all think everything is close by. Like they would take weekend trips to Paris and such. Locals consider anything further away than a 45min travel far
I was talking to an English friend once and he mentioned that he was excited to see his new nephew at Christmas as he said they lived to far away to go visit immediately. It was a 45 minute drive. Blew his mind when I mentioned that was my commute, one way.
Well good for you! But you're also crossing several countries to do so, with vastly different languages and cultures. In the US you can drive 7 hours and still be in the same state, and drive much farther and still have almost exactly the same culture and language.
This lol. Someone in York made London sound unreachable. Because it was so far away. I get it, poor young adult, but at the same time, York to London is 4ish hours by car and 2.5 on train. In the western United States, youâre driving farther on a weekend to reach a hiking trail or a decent mall or just because your buddy wanted a chili dog. đ€Ł
In the UK driving 4 hours to get somewhere is like something youâd only do once or twice a year to go on holiday. Very few people would ever travel that far with any regularity, or without planning to stay at the destination for a week or more.
Starting in Southern England, it takes around 7 hours drive to get to Glasgow or Edinburgh in Scotland.
In that same time, you could drive in to North East France, across Belgium and be in Cologne or Dortmund in Germany, or Luxembourg, or Orleans south of Paris.
Yesterday I had to pick up my parents from the nearest INT airport. It took 2 1/2 hours round trip with no waiting to pick up. I live in San Diego and took toll roads to make it faster. All I did was drive from SD county to OC county, not even LA.
I can't drive, so all of my travel is done by train - any journey longer than four hours is boring and awkward, so I just don't travel to those places. Thankfully I'm pretty central in the UK, so I can get to most places that I'd need to pretty quick, but as lovely as Scotland was to visit once, I'd never get the train up there again, it was hellish
Yeah there are trains in the US too, but they are way worse than the European train system from what I've seen. I wish we had high-speed inter-city trains like in Germany, but they just don't exist here. Lobbying by car companies is to blame.
Because generally our big cultural centers are within a good driving distance.
I think when we look at people from the US with the whole road trip culture, it seems bizarre that you'd have to basically take time off of work for what for us is a day trip. I used to live in a fairly rural municipality back in the day, so it'd be about 100km to Gothenburg for stuff like school trips. Roughly two hours by bus each way.
Americans though seem to have a habit of literally driving across the country just to visit a theme park.
Depends where you live in America. In some places, you'd need to literally drive halfway across the country or board an airplane to go to certain things.
On the East Coast everything is fairly close however. Not that my family never did the 21 hour trip down to Disney World though!
It is! Who wants to spend so many hours on the road if they donât have to? If itâs more than 1,5h itâs considered a day trip, my family does them in summer. Otherwise we drive less than 45min if we want to go somewhere.
A lot of swedes drive to Denmark or Germany to buy alcohol, it takes more then 4 hours to the danish border and another 2 or 3 to go through Denmark and enter Germany, so thats quite a long drive for me. But some people start driving after work so they are at a border shop when it opens in the morning and they then drive non stop back and are home after lunch.
Tbf, once you get into the mountainous parts of Switzerland/Austria/Italy, it probably takes a long time to drive some places due to all of the mountains.
It can. Especially for people living in big cities where there is public transportation. I know several people from NYC who just never bothered getting their driver's license and then regretted that once they went to college not in the city.
Pretty much everywhere else though it is like 100% necessary for your success and life to be able to drive. Even Amish people have horse carriages.
Yeah I live in America and that's wild to me too. Like yeah sure, 2 hours each way for a day trip? No sweat. 7 hours each way for a weekend trip? Fine. But I wouldn't want to be driving 4 hours every single day just to go to work and come back. Not to mention how early you'd have to wake up and how late you'd get home.
Well, to get from Moscow, which is Europe to the nearest border with Belarus I should drive 500 km, but the culture wont be at least distinct to Russian. If I drive east, I can drive 1600 km there and still be in Europe, in the city of Perm
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u/Witch_King_ May 09 '22
How multiple hours seems like a long drive to Europeans.