# How close is close? **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [March 8, 2007, 7:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-close-is-close/395151 "2007-03-08T19:56:44Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 9\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Zeldar](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/z/b77776/32.png) [@Zeldar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Zeldar)\ **Post date:** [March 8, 2007, 7:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-close-is-close/395151/1 "2007-03-08T19:56:44Z")
On the assumption that the term “close” varies by individual and by mode of transporation and even perhaps by the region of the world where you live, what for you constitutes close, pretty close, and too far to be considered close? 1. Walking 2. On a bicycle 3. In a car 4. On public ground-based transportaion other than car 5. In a plane for me: 1. inside a mile, up to two miles, over two miles 2. inside 5 miles, 5-10 miles, over 10 miles 3. less than half an hour’s drive, 1/2-2 hours’ drive, over 2 hours 4. same as car 5. half a day, up to a day, over a day If you want to break these down by various parts of the country, feel free. By that I mean that in the Western USA, a car trip would probably be more like under 100 miles, 100-300 miles and over 300 miles. Just guessing here. ---
**Author:** ![Leaffan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/leaffan/32/299_2.png) [@Leaffan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Leaffan)\ **Post date:** [March 8, 2007, 8:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-close-is-close/395151/2 "2007-03-08T20:10:25Z")
That pretty much works for me. ---
**Author:** ![Santo\_Rugger](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/e95f7d/32.png) [@Santo\_Rugger](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Santo_Rugger)\ **Post date:** [March 8, 2007, 8:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-close-is-close/395151/3 "2007-03-08T20:29:15Z")
I’d change the car to: 10 min, 30 minutes, 1.5 hrs. Just MHO, YMMV (heh). ---
**Author:** ![Zeldar](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/z/b77776/32.png) [@Zeldar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Zeldar)\ **Post date:** [March 8, 2007, 8:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-close-is-close/395151/4 "2007-03-08T20:35:13Z")
[QUOTE=Pygmy Rugger] I’d change the car to: 10 min, 30 minutes, 1.5 hrs. Just MHO, YMMV (heh). [/QUOTE] Very interesting. That tends to refute my generalization about the Western USA and driving distances. If I can interpret your response, anything “in town” is either close or pretty close. Otherwise it’s “far?” ---
**Author:** ![Duckster](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/duckster/32/1244_2.png) [@Duckster](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Duckster)\ **Post date:** [March 8, 2007, 8:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-close-is-close/395151/5 "2007-03-08T20:42:54Z")
[QUOTE=Zeldar] Very interesting. That tends to refute my generalization about the Western USA and driving distances. If I can interpret your response, anything “in town” is either close or pretty close. Otherwise it’s “far?” [/QUOTE] Distances in the West are not measured in miles, but in six-packs. Or, it used to be back in college days. 😃 ---
**Author:** ![Praetor](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/58956e/32.png) [@Praetor](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Praetor)\ **Post date:** [March 8, 2007, 8:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-close-is-close/395151/6 "2007-03-08T20:47:12Z")
I’d say that for whatever form of transportation I’m using, travel time of 10 minutes or less is “close”, travel time of 30 minutes or less is “pretty close”, and travel time more than 30 minutes is “too far to be considered close.” I’d break it down by time instead of mileage simply because I can travel ~35 miles in a half hour on an interstate, but I can only travel ~15 miles in a half hour in town. Of course, this means that you’re never taking a plane to any “close” destination, but the whole point of airplanes (for transportation) seems to be to get you to a faraway place rather quickly. ---
**Author:** ![VenusProbe](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/v/e495f1/32.png) [@VenusProbe](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/VenusProbe)\ **Post date:** [March 8, 2007, 9:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-close-is-close/395151/7 "2007-03-08T21:00:53Z")
For me it depends a little on the weather for walking or biking, but in general [ol] [li]1 mile, up to three miles, anything over that[/li][li]up to three miles, four to ten miles, over fifteen miles[/li][li]less than thirty minutes, one hour to ninety minutes, over three hours. [/li][li]same as car[/li][li]up to two hours, three to four, five or more hours.[/li][/ol] ---
**Author:** ![Santo\_Rugger](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/e95f7d/32.png) [@Santo\_Rugger](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Santo_Rugger)\ **Post date:** [March 8, 2007, 10:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-close-is-close/395151/8 "2007-03-08T22:02:24Z")
[QUOTE=Zeldar] Very interesting. That tends to refute my generalization about the Western USA and driving distances. If I can interpret your response, anything “in town” is either close or pretty close. Otherwise it’s “far?” [/QUOTE] For the most part. It also depends what town I’m in. In my college town, and my hometown (populations around 10k), you could drive to any part of town within 10 minutes, so my definition of close and far were alot different then. Now, in heavy traffic, it can take up to 30 minutes to drive all the way down Cerrillos (Santa Fe’s main drag, population around 60 k). However, if you’re talking about purely highway driving, I’d go with your ranges. To qualify, it takes me about 45 minutes to get to work. I would say that’s pretty close. It could be faurther, but it’s not close. My home and college towns are two hours away, and I’d consider those kinda far, but not far. ---
**Author:** ![Fear\_the\_Turtle](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/fear_the_turtle/32/2926_2.png) [@Fear\_the\_Turtle](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Fear_the_Turtle)\ **Post date:** [March 8, 2007, 10:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-close-is-close/395151/9 "2007-03-08T22:19:00Z")
[QUOTE=Zeldar] Very interesting. That tends to refute my generalization about the Western USA and driving distances. If I can interpret your response, anything “in town” is either close or pretty close. Otherwise it’s “far?” [/QUOTE] Depend on the individual and target audience. To me: LA is close: 1-2 hrs Las Vegas is pretty close: 4 hrs San Fran is far 8-10 hrs Too far is overnight