Why do Europeans hate time as a unit of distance?

[Zontar]

Alright so this is something I've noticed Europeans, both tourists and businessmen, seem to dislike when coming here to Canada, and it's the fact that we use time as a unit of distance. Examples of this are Montreal to Toronto, which is about five to six hours depending on traffic, or from Montreal to Quebec City which is about two and a half hours, or from "my place" to "your place" which is about "40 minutes". It's something we Canadians do to the point where ads use them for telling you the location of whatever business the ad is for.

Why do Europeans hate this? It's only logical since you're trying to figure out how far something is.

 

[Hoplon]

Because we live in a place that never takes the same amount of time to travel the same distance.

 

[mad825]

Not quite sure what Europeans you are on about but us Brits do it. We do it exchangeably depending on the context and formality of the conversation

 

[Secondhand Revenant]

Hmm never thought about that. I live in the US and it makes the most sense to me to give travel times (depending on traffic and all). I don't really pay attention to the distance in miles because, well, it's not actually useful.

 

[Casual Shinji]

Yeah, I've never heard of this dislike.

But then I've never heard anyone mention time as a unit of distance unless that time actually mattered, like for an ambulance or something.

 

[stroopwafel]

Because we live in a place that never takes the same amount of time to travel the same distance.

Basically this. And this is espescially true for highway traffic. I live in one of the densest population areas in the world and reaching the same location can last anything from 20 minutes to well over an hour depending on the time of day(and this is for a relatively short distance).

I make sure never to leave at either late morning/early afternoon or late evening/night. Any other time and you can be sure the roads are clogged. Fortunately I don't have to travel for work in the early morning b/c that's an absolute fucking nightmare here. That's one thing people in hick towns don't have to worry about.

 

[baddude1337]

Never heard of this here in the UK. people give the travel time a lot for things like that, including estimations for traffic.

 

[seventy two]

Basically this. And this is espescially true for highway traffic. I live in one of the densest population areas in the world and reaching the same location can last anything from 20 minutes to well over an hour depending on the time of day(and this is for a relatively short distance).

This is not unusual for the US either, but time is still used to indicate distance. I would argue that under your circumstances time would be more useful that distance since you would be able to provide an estimate of when you will arrive since distance is no longer an indicator. If one stretch of 10 km takes you 10 minutes and another takes 30, is the distance still useful information? If you tell me you are 10 km out I have no idea when you will arrive.

 

[FalloutJack]

Well, I'll tell you what, Europe. You stop bothering the US about the metric system and we won't harp on you about this, okay?

 

[Smooth Operator]

It's logical to determine distance with units that do not apply to distance?
Right mate... then you might as well describe everything in green and purple pumpernickels.

 

[Dornedas]

Right mate... then you might as well describe everything in green and purple pumpernickels.

But a Pumpernickel is always dark brown.
And I'm sure we here in germany have a law how long a Pumpernickel is supposed to be. So in theory you could use it.

The only time I have ever heard someone use a time unit for distance was when saying that France is 25 tankhours wide.

And with light years I guess. But that is distance pretending to be time.

 

[GundamSentinel]

Well, I can tell you why I personally dislike it.

Where I live (The Netherlands), there are forms of transport other than cars that can be equally or even more valid depending on the distance and destination. If you just tell me the distance and I know the destination, then I can decide for myself whether I'll take the car, get my bike, take a train or whatever.

Telling me how long the trip will probably take is pretty useless info to me as it assumes something I might possibly not do. And that's even without the fact that traveling times vary wildly depending on the time of day.

 

[OneCatch]

I came to this thread thinking it was going to be about the Kessel Run and parsecs...
Ah well. I've never really noticed this in the UK - people use both methods. If this is indeed a thing then perhaps there's more of an emphasis on actual distance in Europe because fuel is more expensive or something? Or maybe because of long distance public transport being a thing? Iunno

 

[Zykon TheLich_v1legacy]

UK here and while we do in my experience use time a lot, it's usually in response to "how long will it take to get there?", not "how far is it?", if someone is asking the latter, they want a physical distance, not travel time.

 

[Fdzzaigl]

I don't really hate it, it works for a place like Canada I guess. A lot of people here also use that way of pointng out things btw; but mostly those people who live close to their destinations and travel by bike.

As another poster pointed out, it's useless to point out thngs that way if you travel longer distances by car in Europe. There are too many traffic jams for that to ever be accurate.

 

[Pseudonym]

Dutchman here, I never noticed that Europeans hated it. We often discuss both the time we expect to travel as the distance.

It might just not be the answer somebody is used to or looking for. Once you think of everything in distance, it becomes hard to suddenly switch over to time as you have less frame of reference for what 3 hours travel means as opposed to 200km. Or maybe they just wanted to know the distance and not the time to travel.

I also agree with the people who say that the time to travel to the same location varies depending on a variety of factors and so isn't always useful.

 

[Akjosch]

Going between my workplace and my home can take anything between 45 minutes and over 3 hours in one direction (just using the car in both cases). The distance is the same, 70 km (90 km on the road).

Visiting my family still living where I was born can take anything between 4 and 20 hours (depending on the method I chose and whether I make a stop at a hotel on the way). The distance is still the same, 810 km (1000 km if I'm driving, 900 km in the air + 150 km on the road if I'm taking a plane).

Giving anyone a time estimate when they're asking for distance just makes no damn sense - it's way too imprecise.

 

[Amaror]

Pretty easy. Because it's not usefull. Yes it's usefull if i want to know how long it might take me if i take the car, but if i want to know than i will ask you that. If i ask for a distance, than that's what i want to know. The distance. Maybe i want to ride my bike there or go by foot depending on how long the distance is. Telling me that it takes x amount of time by car is completely useless in that situation.
Additionally it's usually also not very accurate. I don't know about Canada, but there's a lot of traffic over here, you are not going to take the same amount of time from A to B twice in a row.

 

[jklinders]

Oh hell.


I get why using time as a distance measurement may be a little weird, but I don't even know the approximate distance from here to work. I do know it's about a 15 minute drive, 20 by bus. Leaving the city where I live I am more likely to use actual distance as a measure but intra city, I will always use time. Distance varies by route, the time can be made consistent by picking the right route at the right time.

 

[fenrizz]

Why do Europeans hate this? It's only logical since you're trying to figure out how far something is.

I'm European (Norwegian to be exact) and I use time as a measure of distance all the time, though I also use kilometers and/or miles.
Never heard of a strong dislike of it, but I'm not an expert of all tings European.

Normal conversation:
Tourist: How far to the city?
Me: About 30 minutes by car, 45-50 by bus.