I find this confusing

Synthoid · Post by **Synthoid** » Tue Dec 22, 2009 3:22 pm

We have friends in the UK that came to the US to visit Florida last year. They had a stop in Philadelphia, so my wife and I drove up to visit while they waited for the connecting flight.

They were amazed we would drive that far (an hour or so) for such a short visit. Apparently driving long distances is alien to some people in the UK. They often fly to destinations we would drive to--flying and staying in a hotel overnight is common. Seems expensive!

We think nothing of driving to the beach (two+ hours), staying for the day, and then driving home late the same night.

Post by **Sharp** » Tue Dec 22, 2009 4:24 pm

It's quite odd that they would say that. An hour driving is nothing to the average UK driver. Most people do that and much more just driving to work and back every day.

It's the same here in Ireland. A few hours driving is nothing at all. It's very common actually.

I went off for a spin on my own today with my camera and I clocked up 90 miles easily just doing nothing.

Regards
Sharp.

Timo · Post by **Timo** » Tue Dec 22, 2009 4:44 pm

Your experience doesn't sound representative of the rest of us in the UK. We regularly drive to destinations that are over an hour or more away to make day visits. I've never flown from one city to another in the UK, although I could see why people might fly from London to Scotland for example.

The big difference with England compared to America is that it's so heavily populated here given the available land mass.

Population density of England is 246/km² (people per square kilometre), where the USA is just 32/km².

To get to any given destination here you have to take a longer way in order to navigate around villages, towns and cities, otherwise it can be very chaotic and time consuming if you have to drive through them. There are villages and towns every five miles or so and cities every 10/15 miles, so you can be stopping and starting all the while if you have to go through them (national speed limit in urban areas is 30mph). Our terrain can be very variable, and roads are often winding. We can't just go to any destination in a straight line flat out at 70mph all the way, unless you have access to a motorway.

As a result, an hours drive would only get you 30 miles (48km) at most. After three or four hours of motorways and smaller winding roads, it gets tiring, and you might only have travelled 100 miles (160km) or so.

More urban areas like London can be chaotic. And rush hour is much worse.

Daz · Post by **Daz** » Thu Dec 24, 2009 4:12 pm

I am from the UK originally and have lived in the US for 5 years and I am still amazed at the complete difference in scale. Sure people in the UK would drive an hour, but to them that was an hour drive and to an America that was like a 10 minute drive

The UK land mass is equivalent to the the state of Oregon

Pennsylvania is massive in comparison. A friend of mine discussing their plans to drive from Connecticut to Colorado. They were surprised that I found the idea so staggering, and I kept looking at my map of the US in utter fascination. Now I want to do it myself. What blows me, even still to this day, is getting overnight or 1 day shipping of items from California or wherever.

America is an amazing country, I've been to all the States here in the North East but going to Arizona and Nevada was awesome ... it's a different country, some of it looks like a different planet out there in the wilds of Arizona.

Before I go, I learned something interesting recently. The percentage of the British population that is Americans is pretty much the same as the percentage of the US population that is British permanent residents like myself. About 0.5%. No wonder my local super market has a section of British ethnic (!) delicacies like Hob Nobs.

Happy Christmas guys ! I still haven't found anywhere that sells mince pies here

Daz.

X-Trade · Post by **X-Trade** » Thu Dec 24, 2009 4:35 pm

I have a friend staying in Oklahoma this year. and he's back here in the UK visiting for christmas.

I was talking to him and he too noted how in the UK if we say 'down the road' we probably mean a 10 minute walk at the most. By contrary, in the US, the super market is 'down the road', which happens to be almost an hour's drive!

Its simply a matter of scale. I quite liked the quotation of population density, which gives a good idea of the differences involved.

xmlguy · Post by **xmlguy** » Thu Dec 24, 2009 5:10 pm

Many times I have driven from San Diego to Orlando in two days, covering 2450 miles. I go from San Diego to San Antonio or Houston in one leg taking about 24 hours, get a full 8 hours sleep, then do the rest of the trip. Then after the vacation, I turn around and do the return trip. Yes, that's 5,000 miles in 4 days of travel time.

My last two vehicles have had 180K miles and 175K miles put on them. The odometers on my first two vehicles broke before I was finished with them, so I don't know how many miles I put on them.

Giner · Post by **Giner** » Fri Dec 25, 2009 12:59 pm

Absolutely true about the scale thing. When I first came to Canada I borrowed my brother-in-law's old 1971 Ford Torino and drove from Nelson BC to Edmonton AB, a distance of around 650 miles. When I looked at the map, I'd only travelled about an inch and a half.

Later, when we had some friends over from the UK on a ten-day holiday, they asked if we could all go to Niagara Falls. I said, sure, if you want to spend four days driving. All this space was a bit daunting at first, but I love it now.

sewa · Post by **sewa** » Sun Dec 27, 2009 8:45 am

I love to drive and I love those American open spaces. I drove a Mustang convertible in California, Arizona and Utah this year and it was a truly liberating experience:

http://files.me.com/sergiuszwaplak/ifi5v2

Europe is overpopulated so you permanently have to fight with traffic. In addition, there are plenty of eco-mentalist telling you that driving is bad and one should walk instead.

In addition, many European countries introduced heavy taxes on large capacity engines. A V8 is almost impossible to insure and maintain here in Europe. Add high fuel prices on top of that and there you have it

sewa

Timo · Post by **Timo** » Sun Dec 27, 2009 1:27 pm

Yes, fuel is nearly three times more expensive in England than America.

Americans pay $2.60/US Gallon
English pay $6.59/US Gallon (Diesel is even more expensive)

Giner · Post by **Giner** » Mon Dec 28, 2009 10:59 pm

Yeah, I wonder what happened to diesel. It takes less refining to produce and it always used to be cheaper than gasoline. The trouble is, whatever has to be transported, and that's practically everything, has to be transported either by rail or trucks, both heavy users of diesel. No wonder the price of just about everything keeps going up.

Timo · Post by **Timo** » Tue Dec 29, 2009 12:01 am

In the UK people were getting smart and were buying diesel cars as diesel fuel was cheaper, you get more miles per gallon, and diesel engines just run and run - they far outlive standard petrol engines, and also require less maintenance.

After watching people abandon petrol for diesel, the Government got smarter and placed additional taxes on diesel, and thus it's now more expensive than petrol.

You can never win (unless you walk everywhere)

X-Trade · Post by **X-Trade** » Tue Dec 29, 2009 12:29 am

you say that diesel is more expensive per litre/gallon, but I'm sure it will give you a similar price ratio per mile.

but then its been a while since i've driven or seen the price of fuel so I can't really comment!

Synthoid · Post by **Synthoid** » Tue Dec 29, 2009 1:18 am

Interesting comments... thanks.

Post by **mikemolloyuk** » Fri Jan 08, 2010 5:23 pm

I remember driving in L.A. once and I drove out of town for what must have been 3 hours thinking that the place I was looking at on the map where I wanted to go was fairly close. After 3 hours I looked at the map and was just a tiny fraction away from where I started at the hotel... I turned round and went back...!

3 hours driving here would get me a fair way up the island but only on a non conjested motorway... I found USA freeways much busier than UK ones...

Some journeys can be very long and boring...