IveGotThatLovingFeeling
94871
999
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Aug 22, 2023 3:30 AM
IveGotThatLovingFeeling
94871
999
16
brutalwookie
The best part is you still have your own car at your destination!
corgimas
Try Alaskans!!!!
thedarkcanuck
And also because airline travel is a fucking nightmare
badgesweedontneednostinkingbadges
Flew down to FL over New Years to see the son & fam. NEVER. FLYING. AGAIN.
MioTaalas
There's a break even point after which airplane is more economical and less expensive... And I'll tell you, it's around 10-14h travel time....
skittlebog
But it is cheaper to drive if you have a family, especially if you want to bring lots of extra stuff.
monkeymantpz
This is how I know I’ve been assimilated into the Midwest! 14 hrs is The exact number of hours it takes me to get to my home state from where I live currently. Can do it in a day but it’s long drive when there isn’t much to look at but fields!
FartsSmellBad
I'm legitimately considering doing that soon
Spartan04
I’m a midwesterner and to that I say hell no. When I was a kid we did long road trips but as I’ve gotten older my tolerance for long hours in the car has gone way down. Now anything longer than 3-4 hours drive and I start looking at plane or train tickets. Long distance driving sucks.
ministerm
All national flights should be banned anyway, we have a planet to save/protect.
TheMajesticHarpyEagle
Anything less than 10 hours isnt worth a flight, you spend as much time as you save dealing with the airport and rental cars.
shoeonheadanditsyou
i hate those
NatesSauceLab
14 hours? I used to drive from MN to CA like 3-4 times a year. It was fun. Remember those road trip breakfasts and the radio stations? Remember your crappy Motel 6 or dodgy campground with a six pack and a pizza?
loungeking1
Drove from Chicago to Dallas straight thru. Cost a tiny fraction of the price of flying . Worth the 12-13 hours
Hukkie
And if you get out of the city before traffic becomes a standstill, it is pretty relaxing to cruise at highway-speed with no end in sight.
yallmfsneedjesus
Listen, it takes that fucking long to fly, drive to airport, get thru security, boarding, waiting to take off etc. God forbid there be a delay or even cancelation and you are stranded or with no luggage. At least the 14 hour drive is on my terms and I can see cool stuff along the way. Honestly I'm never flying again unless it's more than 1000 miles. Fuck the airline industry. Flying is pure unadulterated hell, that you PAY for.
HighMagosSquidward
Even if a flight is 2 hours it still eats an entire day.
nanyatenyaa
I dont fly because the concept of the TSA seems so draconian to me and the fact every single other aspect of flying makes 0 fucking sense and seems designed to make everyone in all parts of the process unhappy.
LadyRex
Its 4am. We have an 11 hour drive in the morning, 3 nights in a stuffy inlaws attic, then 11 hours back. I'm very tired but it's worth it because the dog gets to come with us and I kind of love him.
TheShamkat
I would not mind a 10 hour drive; but that would be 20 h here due to traffic jams at construction sites and at junctions of 2 Autobahnen and not to mention at least 4 hours waiting at the borders if you want to leave EU. Took me 11 h for 500 miles last time within an EU border and 18 h for 630 miles with a EU border
SolidAqua
Americans and their big roads and big gas guzzling cars. Here in China we just take the high speed train.
yallmfsneedjesus
Yes I agree. It ebrages me nothing is being done to create/build high speed (or ANY speed for that matter) passenger rail in this country. Fucking oil company lobbyists and asshole politicians.
SolidAqua
Train stations are generally located in the middle of the cities so access is convenient. The time needed to wait in the station to board is also significantly less. From the stations, there are connection options using bus, taxi and subway trains. I really appreciate the well planned transportation infrastructure.
GhostOTM
In my experience in the US, it's right around the 6-9h driving range where, for a single traveler, assuming you can get someone to drop you off and pick you up from the airport, and you don't mind taking redeyes, it's cheaper to fly than drive.
Peffse
Are you driving a tank?? My car does a 486 mile drive with only 12 gallons of gas. Around $38.
GhostOTM
Average gas price in the US is about $4 (just checked). That's $50 for 500 miles, as compared to about $80 for a flight from SF to SD. Compare that to the roughly $300 in gas alone your pay to go across US by car and $180 you'd pay for one way flight. 6ish hours driving is about the inflection point. It's not exact, but I stand by the math.
Peffse
Let's test the math. Driving 6 hours at 70 mph means you drove 420 miles. My ratio of 486/12 mpg means I'm getting 40.5 mpg. I'd have used only 10.3 gallons of fuel in a 420 mile (6 hour) drive. At $4 per gallon, that's still roughly $41.20 total for fuel. Half the price of the flight, plus I get to bring bags free. At $80 in fuel I could go 810 miles (11.5 hours). And... where did you get $80 or $180 for a flight anyway?? Those numbers seem low. Are you forgetting taxes and fees in the total?
VillainousFiend
I drive 9 hours about once a year to visit my sister. Doesn't help that it's 2 hours to the airport or 1.5 hours to a town with a train station. Both are more expensive and going through the airport sucks.
nekuth
Being in the UK, about 14 hours of driving would get you from lands end (most south west) to John o'groats (most north east), and at least 500 different terms on what a bread cake is called.....
HighSorcerer
Why should I sit uncomfortably for two hours on a plane when I can cruise in leisure and leg room for fourteen?
Magpiebones
Sitting in a car is hell too? Or is it just me?
HighSorcerer
It depends on the car, mine is very comfortable to sit in for long periods of time.
incendiumsatus
Bah 14 hours is only half the trip here and we're only travelling in the one State. Welcome to Queensland 😝
ProbablyABitDrunk
No booking in advance, no delayed or cancelled flights, no restrictions on what I can bring, flexible timetable, yeah I'd rather drive. =P
Hukkie
Can stop to check out cool scenery as well. Also I like driving, it is about as close to zen as I can get.
HenryLongfellowIII
No expensive rental car at the other end. No a-hole poking you in the nuts at the airport and taking away your jumbo sunscreen.
Hukkie
No naked, unwashed feet poking through onto your armrest (It really should be legal to stab those people in the foot btw).
zafner
I travel for work, and the cutoff for cost effectiveness seems to be about ten to twelve hours, depending on the length of the job (the longer the job, the more expensive the car rental becomes).
stardraigh
I hate flying. We've taken the majestic act of flying and turned it into a shitty experience. I'll drive 2000 miles their and 2000 miles back to visit family each year. I can be as comfortable as I want in my car. I can stop wherever I want. If I need to use the bathroom I can use a full size bathroom at a rest area instead the tiny one on an airplane. Gas for my car costs less than air fare. I don't have to pay for extra baggage when I can just put my stuff in the trunk or backseat of my car.
Hukkie
Better legroom in my car, no loud morons or having to climb over people to take a piss. Also driving is relaxing, while flying is mostly just annoying.
melmboundanddown
You guys should get some trains, you'd love them.
theskepticinme
We have some trains. But they take even longer. Because we don’t have enough
Whooa
Let me tell you about Scott Walker…
rabiddolphin87
We tried, Republicans ruined it.
UniqueUsernamesWhatIsThis2005
i like trains
ryansmVillain
Are you not into trains?
MissingForeskin
Lol, our trains are literally half the speed of driving for the routes I’m traveling.
monkeymantpz
Way up North If you want to take a vacation to Glacier National park the slow way, trains are great! Other wise, yeah it’s a long trek.
Dukenukemx
You think you do, but you don't.
ArgonSpark
Then you still need to rent a car when you get where you're going.
Magpiebones
You should get some buses, you'd love them.
dangerspouse
Texas is on it, actually. They're planning a new route between Dallas and Houston, with Japanese Shinkansen bullet trains running at 330kph
ficklemission
In an interesting twist, freight lines take priority over passengers on US rail lines. So not only do we need more trains we need more track. To build more track we would need to take land from people and businesses (slow, costly, and subject to protests). Also all the old stations were demolished so we need those and parking. It's a real mess over here.
SirDigger13
I still wonder if its a genius move to have the 2 lanes of highways and interstates sperated by a wide green meadow... that could easily spare 30ft in the middle for a double track...
Spartan04
Actually by law it’s the other way around, at least for Amtrak, not sure about other passenger rail. Freight railroads are legally required to give Amtrak priority but typically ignore it since it’s difficult to enforce. So there’s a common misconception that freight gets priority by law when it’s more they just illegally do so.
ficklemission
I stand corrected.
TheGoatEmporium
1800's tech? Ew, gross. I don't think so. Here we have cars, and crumbling / congested infrastructure. It's a mess and we like it, thank you very much!
HeNeverSawMollyAgain
And Texans. Nothing more depressing than driving for a day and a half and realizing you haven’t left the state yet.
TinyLiehon
Why not take the night train and just sleep and night and a half?
FrankTheThunderbird
Well you must have been lost as fuck because it’s a 20 hour drive from Omaha to Vegas.
ameranthe
I can drive ten hours south and still be in California. And I'm not even at the top, I'm somewhere in the middle.
The3rdwheel
as an albertan and you also realizw you drove for 12 hours and you are FINALLY about to cross the border into saskchewan
ronin1031
*laughs in Ontario*
idontlikepickingusername
Hello from Ontario.
BobHubert
After living around Oklahoma and Texas, it roughly doubled my estimated time I was willing to drive and call it “close” or a “weekend trip”. Suddenly 4 hours could be a day trip when it used to be a whole weekend thing, 8 hours for a weekend when we’d usually do that for a whole week trip
Thekindofkindlyman
Hey there Delilah what’s it like in Houston Texas? I’m 600 miles away and yet somehow I’m still in Texas.
Whorville
AyrA
Meanwhile in Switzerland you just cross the country in 4 hours
littlecoatfatguy
*Laughs in Liechtensteinian*
meatstain
I live in Alaska and driving through Texas was very nice... I didn't even have to carry extra fuel with me.
Mercenarity
Save the polar bear mace for the chupacabras.
littlecoatfatguy
Ontario here. Y'all are adorable.
GooteMoo
I was gonna say. There is way more Western Ontario than there ought to be.
archfile101
Australia here, I don't even know if you can drive to see my customer in the morning, certainly not in a day
littlecoatfatguy
You're both a whole country and a whole continent, that's different
tooomanystevesgotbanned
littlecoatfatguy
Bit different when both Ontario and Texas each have cities with twice as many people as all of WA combined
dogbeachesarethebestbeaches
Yes, the beauty of west australia is that it's almost completely empty
tooomanystevesgotbanned
What do you mean? How does population affect distance?
littlecoatfatguy
Lots and lots of people have reason to drive across Ontario and Texas every day.
tooomanystevesgotbanned
OK, fair point.
UffDahImSurroundedByIdiots
I was planning a trip from Minneapolis MN to Corpus Christi TX. A friend familiar with the trip gave us itinerary. 12hrs from MSP to Oklahoma City...hotel overnight. Next day 12 hrs to Corpus Christi. I was flabbergasted stating "That's 11hrs driving thru TX!" Yep.
AnthropomorphisingEverything
Made the drive from Dallas to LA several times. 24 drive time, and the halfway point is El Paso, TX
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Milnoch
El Paso to LA to further than El Paso to Dallas.
Recidivous
Don't come to Corpus, man. It's not as great people keep visiting thinks. I live here.
supercoolfresh
Anything for Salinas tho..
FloatingOnACloudOfTitties
Corpus is great to grow up in & retire. It’s shite in-between, lol…
pmathew
Damn, that’s really accurate.
Recidivous
Yeah. I wish I hadn't spent my 20s here, but the job market sucks.
FloatingOnACloudOfTitties
I was born & raised there & couldn’t get out fast enough, lol. Great small city, but would never try to have a career there. I used to want to retire there, but TX is not the state I left, so, I may never permanently move back there…