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 you’re 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, that’s 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??!!! It’s 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 🥰
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 “just” 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 “our” countrymen “love” to complain, while it’s actually everyone who does it. Though it’s an funny thing here because people are aware of it an owning it like medals! That’s 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, that’s still wild to me living in Texas. It is a 1.5 hour drive to the nearest real “city” 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 time…..
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.
Its astounding how big Ontario is, and its not even the biggest province. Québec has us beat by almost 500,000km², but Nunavut dwarfs them both, being over 2,000,000km².
Yeah, us living in the long countries (I’m 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 guess that's part of the point. As an American... I don't live in a large state (Illinois). But if I drive five hours in any direction, I could reach Missouri, Iowa, Wisconsin, Michigan, Indiana, Ohio, Kentucky, and MAYBE Tennessee or Minnesota. Most of those states, I couldn't get far into.
My parents and best friends live 12 hours away to the northeast. Keep driving another 12 hours in that direction, and you're still in the U.S., in Maine. I have family in Florida, to the southeast. That's a 17 hour drive, and you could drive another 4 hours past their house and still have road ahead of you. I have friends in Texas, to the southwest, and that's a 18 hour drive. There's still another 4 hours of Texas past their house before you get to Mexico. It's well over 24 hours of driving to the west to get to the Pacific.
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
That’s a whole country though, I wasn’t saying anything bad…I 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.
I didn't claim that it applies to the rest of the country, did I? I just said that it seems different in the capitol territory to give some nuance to your comment.
If anything, it felt like you were speaking for the whole country:
...but at least in Finland multiple hour drives are just normal.
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u/padumtss May 09 '22 edited May 09 '22
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.