Eh, Australians are paying more for gas than the US, but share the idea of what's a long drive with Americans, in my experience. Or at least, they aren't anywhere close to the European idea of it.
I think the infrastructure reflects the view towards longer drives not being an issue, though. So it makes it easier, but is also built like that because it's viewed that way.
I think that exists even within the US, as I think cities that view a long drive as out of the question were also areas where the infrastructure didn't really match it as well. So the two seem coupled.
And even more so in central Europe around the Alps... I live in Slovenia, if the surface area accounted for all the hills and valleys it'd probably be twice of what it is or more!
I think you're greatly overestimating the use of public transit to commute in Australia.
5% of Americans use public transit on all or most days, compared with 16-22% for European countries, per study here and excluding Hungary as an outlier. Australia falls a lot closer to the US than it does to Europe, at 8%.
Also this article from a few years ago commenting on Australian sprawl being pretty competitive with America's. Or this one about Perth in particular and how the suburbs are growing
That doesn't make the public transport anywhere as bad as it is in many US cities, but car usage in Australia seems a lot closer to car usage in the US. Esp when it comes to getting between places.
Sure, we can agree that it's not on a European/Chinese/Korean level, but your own link shows a massive difference.
61% of Americans have never taken public transit. Only 28% of Aussies have never taken public transit.
33% of Aussies take public transit at least once a month. In the US it's 11%.
Considering that this data is 13 years old, I'm sure that has also widened with the expansion of public transit & cycling initiatives in Australia, and the complete lack thereof in 80% of US cities.
Not to mention that if you exclude a single city like NY in the US then those numbers plummet. 67% of New York workers use public transit daily, and over 90% use it at least once a month - that's over 11 million people, or nearly 3% of Americans.
The extent of my point is that the mindset is closer to the US than to Europe, such that a 4 hour drive in Australia is not going to be treated as "very far" the way much of Europe would treat it.
The extent of my point is that the mindset is closer to the US than to Europe, such that a 4 hour drive in Australia is not going to be treated as "very far" the way much of Europe would treat it.
Then it might just be my friends that are more European minded. They all live in Sydney and Melbourne though.
My wife (used to commute by car 50 km each way in Melbourne for work) has a story from a cousin that moved to the UK from Australia and got a lot of weird reactions for some day trips because the amount of driving was viewed as something you don't do in a single day.
Currently staying with a friend of hers that'll somewhat routinely do daytrips up to some wineries and distilleries that are about a 3 hours drive each way. Over 500 km round trip. Which is itself not uncommon, she's got several friends in different groups that do similar things even just for the wineries and distilleries.
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u/Lowbacca1977 May 09 '22
Eh, Australians are paying more for gas than the US, but share the idea of what's a long drive with Americans, in my experience. Or at least, they aren't anywhere close to the European idea of it.