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I think Europeans may not really get how big some of these places are until they experience it first hand - it can easily take 9 hours at freeway speed to drive

I think Europeans may not really get how big some of these places are until they experience it first hand - it can easily take 9 hours at freeway speed to drive from one corner of WA state to the other (Blaine to Walla Walla), and that's if you stick to the freeways and highest possible speed highways, keep cruise control on at 115-120 km/h wherever possible, and take an absolute bare minimum of stops for gas and restrooms only. On the other hand just the province of British Columbia is the size of a good chunk of all of western Europe added together, in square km, and can take a very long time to get from Vancouver to somewhere in the far north (or a far off coastal location by combination of roads and ferries), due to its many mountain ranges and thousands of km of coastline.

Gordonjcp 4y ago
> I think Europeans may not really get how big some of these places are until they experience it first hand Conversely, I think most Americans don't get how big the UK is, or how much longer it will take to get around than you think. Look at a map of Scotland. If you start at Glasgow on the west coast about a third of the way up, and drive to Scrabster, the northern end of the A9, that will take you at least 9 hours too.
- baggsie 4y ago
  And how dense England is - I'm from Leicester and one hours drive (give or take) I can reach Nottingham, Derby, Coventry, Birmingham, Sheffield, Northampton, Lincoln. Two and a half hours drive and it's London, Manchester, Liverpool, Bristol, Cambridge, Oxford....
  - deleted 4y ago
    [deleted]
- alistairSH 4y ago
  And if you’re a tourist, add even more time because you’ll stop every 20 miles for a stunning view, castle, or picturesque village. ;) Driving time in Scotland is largely due to road size/design, not absolute distance. Once you get north of the Glasgow/Sterling/Edinburgh zone, you have a few “major” dual carriage ways and a lot of smaller roads. And the Highlands and Hebrides have single track, so if you’re going to a small coastal village or similar, you might be stopping every few miles to let somebody by in the other direction.
  - Gordonjcp 4y ago
    And if you're not a tourist, you'll be somewhere in the mile-long queue of cars stuck behind them, pottering along at 25mph gripping the steering wheel with white knuckles like they've just lapped the Nurburgring in a Veyron and panic-braking every time they see a sheep within 200m of the road.
    - alistairSH 4y ago
      Or worse, tourist in a caravan. Most terrifying part about driving in Skye is oncoming caravans with no sense of their own width.
jacquesm 4y ago
> and can take a very long time to get from Vancouver to somewhere in the far north > due to its many mountain ranges and thousands of km of coastline. And let's not forget the weather. In some times of the year the North of BC might as well be on another planet considering how accessible it is.
haspok 4y ago
I think Americans may not really get how big some of these places are until they experience it first hand... Consider a San Diego - Boston route, which crosses pretty much the whole US (OK, not Alaska), is around 3000 miles and 45 hours net, give or take. This compares surprisingly well to a route between Lisbon, Portugal and Tallinn, Estonia, which crosses pretty much the whole of Europe (OK, not the nordic countries, also not even the UK), is around 2700 miles and 44 hours net, give or take. And this is not even an extreme, for example a Gibraltar - Tromso, Norway route (South - North) is 3300 miles, and would take more than 55 hours! It is also easy to forget that Europe (the continent) does not stop at the EU borders. But some might consider adding the Russian plains cheating!
another2another 4y ago
>... it can easily take 9 hours at freeway speed ... I think most Europeans would have built high speed railways to get around in half the time to be honest.
- concordDance 4y ago
  7.5 hours from Strasbourg to Perpignan via train. 9 hours via car at an average of 100kmh. So the train is approximately freeway speed.
  - EmilyHATFIELD 4y ago
    Lille (Northern France) to Marseille (Southern France) - 1000Km 10 hours via car at highway speed - 5 hours with train For long distances you'll be using the TGV (300km/h) if you need to go to smaller cities the trains will go roughly at highway speed
    - Mountain_Skies 4y ago
      What percentage of cities in Europe have TGV lines?
      - alistairSH 4y ago
        TGV is France’s intercity high-speed rail system, so not many. But, just about every major and secondary city in the EU has high speed rail service. As you move into central and Eastern Europe, the speeds drop quite a bit, but are still faster than anything Amtrak offers (except the short section of Acela line that can actually go fast). https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/b/bf/High_Speed_Railroad_Map_of_Europe.svg/1920px-High_Speed_Railroad_Map_of_Europe.svg.png https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/b/bf/Hi...

Gordonjcp 4y ago

> I think Europeans may not really get how big some of these places are until they experience it first hand Conversely, I think most Americans don't get how big the UK is, or how much longer it will take to get around than you think. Look at a map of Scotland. If you start at Glasgow on the west coast about a third of the way up, and drive to Scrabster, the northern end of the A9, that will take you at least 9 hours too.

baggsie 4y ago
And how dense England is - I'm from Leicester and one hours drive (give or take) I can reach Nottingham, Derby, Coventry, Birmingham, Sheffield, Northampton, Lincoln. Two and a half hours drive and it's London, Manchester, Liverpool, Bristol, Cambridge, Oxford....
- deleted 4y ago
  [deleted]
alistairSH 4y ago
And if you’re a tourist, add even more time because you’ll stop every 20 miles for a stunning view, castle, or picturesque village. ;) Driving time in Scotland is largely due to road size/design, not absolute distance. Once you get north of the Glasgow/Sterling/Edinburgh zone, you have a few “major” dual carriage ways and a lot of smaller roads. And the Highlands and Hebrides have single track, so if you’re going to a small coastal village or similar, you might be stopping every few miles to let somebody by in the other direction.
- Gordonjcp 4y ago
  And if you're not a tourist, you'll be somewhere in the mile-long queue of cars stuck behind them, pottering along at 25mph gripping the steering wheel with white knuckles like they've just lapped the Nurburgring in a Veyron and panic-braking every time they see a sheep within 200m of the road.
  - alistairSH 4y ago
    Or worse, tourist in a caravan. Most terrifying part about driving in Skye is oncoming caravans with no sense of their own width.

jacquesm 4y ago

> and can take a very long time to get from Vancouver to somewhere in the far north > due to its many mountain ranges and thousands of km of coastline. And let's not forget the weather. In some times of the year the North of BC might as well be on another planet considering how accessible it is.

haspok 4y ago

I think Americans may not really get how big some of these places are until they experience it first hand... Consider a San Diego - Boston route, which crosses pretty much the whole US (OK, not Alaska), is around 3000 miles and 45 hours net, give or take. This compares surprisingly well to a route between Lisbon, Portugal and Tallinn, Estonia, which crosses pretty much the whole of Europe (OK, not the nordic countries, also not even the UK), is around 2700 miles and 44 hours net, give or take. And this is not even an extreme, for example a Gibraltar - Tromso, Norway route (South - North) is 3300 miles, and would take more than 55 hours! It is also easy to forget that Europe (the continent) does not stop at the EU borders. But some might consider adding the Russian plains cheating!

another2another 4y ago

>... it can easily take 9 hours at freeway speed ... I think most Europeans would have built high speed railways to get around in half the time to be honest.

concordDance 4y ago
7.5 hours from Strasbourg to Perpignan via train. 9 hours via car at an average of 100kmh. So the train is approximately freeway speed.
- EmilyHATFIELD 4y ago
  Lille (Northern France) to Marseille (Southern France) - 1000Km 10 hours via car at highway speed - 5 hours with train For long distances you'll be using the TGV (300km/h) if you need to go to smaller cities the trains will go roughly at highway speed
  - Mountain_Skies 4y ago
    What percentage of cities in Europe have TGV lines?
    - alistairSH 4y ago
      TGV is France’s intercity high-speed rail system, so not many. But, just about every major and secondary city in the EU has high speed rail service. As you move into central and Eastern Europe, the speeds drop quite a bit, but are still faster than anything Amtrak offers (except the short section of Acela line that can actually go fast). https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/b/bf/High_Speed_Railroad_Map_of_Europe.svg/1920px-High_Speed_Railroad_Map_of_Europe.svg.png https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/b/bf/Hi...