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Geek Culture / Driving and driving distances UK/US

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DMXtra
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Posted: 21st Nov 2003 13:42 Edited at: 21st Nov 2003 13:53
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As Christmas is coming up, my wife and I are driving from Los Angeles to Northern California as we do each year for the holidays. Its pretty custom to do this in the USA. I wanted to see how much of a drive it is verses what it would be in the UK.

In California the drive is 545.77 miles(893km) and it will take 8 hours and 45 minutes to get there going one way and we are still in the State of California with many, many hours of driving left before we hit the Oregon border. It only takes 13 steps or turns to get to my destination using mapquest USA.

In the UK, this is equal to going from PENZANCE, PENZANCE GB (at the south tip of the UK all the way to EDINBURGH, EDINBURGH GB(yeah, thats Edinburgh, Scotland)

It takes 11 hours and 15 minutes to get there and its
554.7 miles (892.7km)

It takes 35 steps or turns via mapquest UK to get to my destination which is outside of England.

So you could basically, drive through almost the entire country from the amount of driving that we are going to do on December 19th and thats just going one way. We will drive back to Los Angeles on January 4th.

Could you imagine going from Maine and driving all the way to San Diego? Or driving from Alaska to Florida. Wow, that would be insane.

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Richard Davey
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Posted: 21st Nov 2003 14:21
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I wonder how much of your (Americans) lives are wasted behind a wheel

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WOLFY
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Posted: 21st Nov 2003 15:24
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That is so true. Me, my wife and 2 kids travel to Indianapolis from Pittsburgh a couple times per year. That is approx 7 hours driving. We don't think twice about the drive and usually only go out there for a weekend. Otherwise, we drive there on Friday, visit on Saturday, and drive home on Sunday.

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mm0zct
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Posted: 21st Nov 2003 16:17
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lol, an hour is a long drive for us here in scotland

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hexGEAR
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Posted: 21st Nov 2003 16:41
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man, the longest time i've spent in a ride was 11hrs, no easy task! set off at 8:00am and arrived at 7:00pm where and why is another long story

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Night Giant
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Posted: 21st Nov 2003 16:50
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heh, my family is planning to move in a few months, and we'll be driving from the west coast of california (well, i guess the only coast of california, lol) all the way to new york. that's about 6 days if we drive 10 hours a day, and average about 60 on the freeway, with no stops for sightseeing (neither of which are likely at all, heh). good times good times.
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Night Giant
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Posted: 21st Nov 2003 16:51
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oh, why does the same distance seem to take longer in the UK?
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WOLFY
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Posted: 21st Nov 2003 17:22
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'Cause you guys drive on the wrong side of the road

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OSX Using Happy Dude
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Posted: 21st Nov 2003 17:32
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Probably due to the fact that we've got fewer straight roads and fewer motorways.


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Dazzag
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Posted: 21st Nov 2003 17:41
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More likely is to do with that the rural areas are really really really rubbish for roads. Also we have more congestion on the bigger roads. I go on the M4 to work everyday. If I beat the worst of it then it can take about half an hour to do about 15 miles. And that is on a road with a 70mph limit and 3 lanes. When it's really bad (ie. every day, between 8 and 9 am) then it gets stupid.

As to straight roads, then yeah. We just don't have the area to dig up a massive straight road. There is always something in the way. Put it this way, the UK has nearly double the population of any US state (total US size is about 250 million, UK is about 60 million), and yet it's size is teeny in comparison. Not too surprising.

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Chris K
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Posted: 21st Nov 2003 18:38
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Quote: "oh, why does the same distance seem to take longer in the UK?"


We like to stop and admire the pot holes

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OSX Using Happy Dude
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Posted: 21st Nov 2003 18:41
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And the dead hedgehogs, which in turn causes further accidents and delays...


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David T
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Posted: 21st Nov 2003 18:47
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Quote: "Could you imagine going from Maine and driving all the way to San Diego? Or driving from Alaska to Florida. "


I think that's called a rally

ANd alaska-Florida would go through canada

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spooky
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Posted: 21st Nov 2003 18:53
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In London we also like to stop at traffic lights every two minutes, drive carefully over speed humps that are everywhere, avoid buses and taxis that pull out unexpectedly, stop to pay £5 for London's Congestion Charge, take large diversions around constant roadworks.

I used to drive once or twice a week to work the 9 miles from my house in South London to the City centre - it took anything from 45 minutes to an hour and a half!

I can't even park in my own street without paying the council for a parking permit.


Boo!
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ReD_eYe
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Posted: 21st Nov 2003 19:26
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i spent 26hrs on a coach to italy, it was a school skiing trip twas so much fun same time goping back aswell but seemed to go quicker


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OSX Using Happy Dude
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Posted: 21st Nov 2003 19:52
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Quote: "I can't even park in my own street without paying the council for a parking permit."

Thats why I walk everywhere (or take public transport).


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klariza
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Posted: 21st Nov 2003 19:53
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2 it all - its just as quick hopping onto a train and disappearing off to london (60 mile south to london from bedford)
driving is just not worth it anymore to get to london - toooo much damn traffic on the roads.

I am obsessed by Toasters - especially talking ones...bizaare really isn't it?
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Dazzag
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Posted: 21st Nov 2003 19:57
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Nope. Don't drive to London.

Don't forget that all those protesting farmers chucking sheep onto the automobileways can get pretty pesky.

Cheers

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klariza
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Posted: 21st Nov 2003 20:18
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lol
whats is deadly annoying is tractors on the main A roads, especially when the gits don't bother moving over to the side when there is a back log of a queue behind them.

I am obsessed by Toasters - especially talking ones...bizaare really isn't it?
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Dazzag
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Posted: 21st Nov 2003 20:22
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Darn. I was just getting into a fake English living type effort.

My next post was going to be about small chimney sweeping boys that kept appearing out of manholes in the roads (like whack-a-rat), asking for money for some tee please Guv. Am sure it wouldn't have been questioned... (seen Trigger Happy TV?)

Cheers

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Dazzag
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Posted: 21st Nov 2003 20:26
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Actually, on the subject, I once almost convinced a friend of mine that once he got to Dubai (work related, and I had just been for a few months) he must be careful to bow to all dark windowed cars (arabs). Also added a few more things like letting a man with a beard go to the front of any queue. I was mainly doing this because I was fooled into taking a coat, because it is cold in the desert in the night. I stepped out of the plane and it was 32 degrees (ie. hot) at 1am. And I was wearing a leather jacket. F**kers!!!! I was going really well, with his believing everything (inc. taking a brolly cos it rains a lot - once a year actually like a typhoon for a week), until he got the idea that lions might not actually be prowling the streets. Sigh, you just go that little bit too far....

Cheers

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Phaelax
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Posted: 22nd Nov 2003 05:16
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I've driven to poconos in PA several times in the past few months. From central Ohio, its 500 miles one way, 8 hours. Then I drove to SC and back in the same weekend, over 700 miles, 12 hours 1 way.
So I've driven about 25k miles this past year.
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DrakeX
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Posted: 22nd Nov 2003 07:15
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people around where i live mostly work in baltimore or DC.. meaning a 1 or 2 hour long commute each way. i personally don't know how they can stand it.

it's half an hour to my school.

it's ten minutes to my closest friend's house (well not counting my friend across the street).

my one grandma lives in florida, which means a two day drive from here. and the whole day the first day and half a day the second.

it's a 5 hour drive to the nearest beach. and we live close (compared to the poor bastards in the midwest!).

my great grandmother lives in northern michigan, which means a LONG day of driving, or preferably two.

to get across my state the short way (due north), it takes a good 6 or 7 hours.

it's a day's drive to the next country.

just to give you a few examples of how far places are here

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Dazzag
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Posted: 22nd Nov 2003 17:09
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I remember reading somewhere that 90% of Americans had never even seen the sea in real life. Now that is strange for someone from the UK, but understandable when you think about it.

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Chris K
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Posted: 22nd Nov 2003 18:49
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I can't imagine having never seen the sea.
I've always lived on the coast.

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Ian T
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Posted: 22nd Nov 2003 19:42
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'I wonder how much of your (Americans) lives are wasted behind a wheel'

Far too much .

Dazz- I doubt that's accurate. Like the 'half the people in the world have never used a phone' lie, it's probaly stemmed from some small company's survey that wasn't even meant to be quoted like that anyways. I know easily 75% of all American's I've met, in Seattle and Manchester, and everywhere inbetween, have seen the sea.

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Ian T
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Posted: 22nd Nov 2003 19:44
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By the way, when we moved from Seattle, Washington (state) to Manchester, New Hampshire, we drove all the way.... ~3000 miles I think. Wonder how far that would be in the UK .

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Chris K
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Posted: 22nd Nov 2003 19:52
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You can't go that far in the UK

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spooky
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Posted: 22nd Nov 2003 21:08
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Furthest distance is 874 miles from Land's End to John O'Groats!


Boo!
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Dazzag
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Posted: 22nd Nov 2003 22:18
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Mouse - Fair enough. Although a hell of a lot of land is inbetween a lot of people and the sea.

And, remember, that at least if we drove the 874 miles, we wouldn't be that worried if we broke down in the middle of nowhere. ie. walk a couple of miles down the road and there will be civilisation of some sort. Something I wouldn't be so confident about in the middle of the USA. Esp. with me totally believing all those movies where your mobile phone receptions are extremely dire.

Cheers

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mm0zct
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Posted: 23rd Nov 2003 23:29
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by the way, u.k. miles are longer than u.s. miles
that is why it takes longer to drive the "same" distance in the u.k.

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the_winch
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Posted: 23rd Nov 2003 23:39
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It's not the only reason. The UK is smaller and an island so there is less chance that there will be a good direct road for your journey making it take longer.

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Dazzag
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Posted: 24th Nov 2003 00:54
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Umm, it's not the reason at all.... uk miles being the same as any other miles anywhere...

Um, don't know why being smaller and an island is any different. More likely to have a road somewhere, because it's smaller.

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Ian T
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Posted: 24th Nov 2003 01:41
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'ie. walk a couple of miles down the road and there will be civilisation of some sort. Something I wouldn't be so confident about in the middle of the USA.'

I swear I did not see a single living human being driving through all of North Dakota. Not one.

'Esp. with me totally believing all those movies where your mobile phone receptions are extremely dire.'

Yes, it's awful .

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Dazzag
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Posted: 24th Nov 2003 02:04 Edited at: 24th Nov 2003 02:05
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Heh, and those hillbilly cops running you out of town for doing 51mph

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empty
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Posted: 24th Nov 2003 11:32 Edited at: 24th Nov 2003 11:40
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Quote: "uk miles being the same as any other miles anywhere..."

Except for nautical miles.
Also the traditional Irish mile was 6720 feet.

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build a little fire this midnight. It's good to be back home with you.
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Andy Igoe
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Posted: 24th Nov 2003 15:38 Edited at: 24th Nov 2003 15:40
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Quote: "It takes 11 hours and 15 minutes to get there"


This is what domestic flights are for. I did St Neots to Edinburgh and found it was both faster, cheaper, and less tiring to drive to Gatwick and hop on a Go plane. One sweet to the check in girl later and I even had the seat by the exit door with lots of leg room.

By contrast in a country like Norway where there is 550 miles between houses on the same cul-de-sac the natives (small pale humanoid things) dont think anything of a 2 hour drive to go out for a meal.

Doing that in England where 2 hours driving might land you in Wales would be considered a horrific journey.

Doing the same 2 hour drive in Majjorca would be a lifetime adventure to a country where most people dont even travel on the islands only motorway to the capital more than once or twice in their lives.

EDIT: Note that driving for 2 hours in Majjorca is not recommended unless you can find a traffic jam or a ferry as most cars cannot float.


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mm0zct
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Posted: 25th Nov 2003 18:24
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Quote: "uk miles being the same as any other miles anywhere..."

sorry but u.s. road miles are shorter than u.k. road miles. if you compare a u.s. road mile to a kilometre it is not the same ratio as u.k. road mile to a kilometre.

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Ian T
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Posted: 25th Nov 2003 18:40
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Google says: 1 kilometers = 0.621371192 miles

Google is US based.

So what is a UK mile in kilometers?

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mm0zct
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Posted: 25th Nov 2003 18:47
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online conversion.com says:1 mile [statute, UK] = 0.999998 mile [statute, US]
:p

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OSX Using Happy Dude
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Posted: 25th Nov 2003 18:47 Edited at: 25th Nov 2003 18:52
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Its the same as far as I can tell 1Km = 0.621371192237334 miles.


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mm0zct
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Posted: 25th Nov 2003 19:07
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online conversion.com says:1 mile [statute, UK] = 0.999998 mile [statute, US]

it isn't a huge difference, but over long distances in large traffic jams it adds up

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mm0zct
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Posted: 26th Nov 2003 01:17
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btw, i know i have contradicted myself about the difference between a u.s. and a u.k. mile and a have politely told my original source of info how wrong they were.
sorry if i missled anyone

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