You can see this commonly referred to in many conversations
If some one asks how far it is to a given place, instead of saying 180 miles (or 300 km), they will say 3 hours.
I see this happening more and more commonly and to a certain extent it annoys me
(It probably all goes back to the original Star Wars where Han Solo claims to do the kessel run in 12 parsecs - similar mixup of time and distance)
So it is all Harrison Ford’s fault:D
Around here (DC Metro) you use time because it is a MUCH more accurate representation of the distance 
If you use distance to describe how far something is, they will just respond with “how long does that take”
For example, I live 28 miles from the barn. It takes anywhere from 45-60 min. Tyson’s Corner is a major work area here, it is a mere 12 miles away, but also 45-60 minutes away during the week. I live 12 miles away from my job in Herndon. It is 20 minutes away, sometimes 30
Why else? It’s because most people have no idea how far things are. But they can remember how long it took to get there last time they went.
It annoys me, too. When they say, for example, something like, “It’s three hours away,” I usually ask, “On bicycle, mule or walking?”
In my experience, people have said that sort of thing as far back as I can remember, which is several decades before Star Wars came out.
People do it because more often than not they are more interested in how long it takes to get there than the actual physical distance. It’s really pretty simple.
How often do you travel for three hours using one of those methods.:dubious:
Thanks for the explanation. It still annoys me but I do understand what you are getting at.
Actually, during my bike rides, I will go for 3 hours (or more) at a time but I do see your point with the distances being measured in time. It still annoys me to a certain extent
Thanks
More often than you might think.
For what purpose would you need to know the actual mileage? Knowing whether you’ll make it on a single tank of gas, maybe… but most trips, you will be able to, and you can check your current fuel level at any time, and you’re going to get gas whenever it is you need it anyway.
By contrast, for what purpose would you need to know the time? That’s easy: You have to be at some place at some time, and you need to know when to leave. That applies to nearly every trip you make, whether it’s getting to work before 8:00, or getting to Gramma’s before dinnertime, or getting to the bank before it closes, or whatever.
Plus, it’s easier to measure times than distances, since there are timepieces all around us, and most of us carry one on our person. Some vehicles have odometers, but how often do you check them, and some modes of transportation don’t even have that.
It’s a joke, obviously, to make a point. It usually comes up when there’s an option of car vs. bus or train. That can make a big difference.
From my experience it’s a North American thing. I remember talking with a Norwegian couple who was taking a several week vacation across Canada. They told me that they found that strange. North America is so spread out that I think that the time traveled is more meaningful.
Definitely a North American thing. I’m always explaining to people that we Americans measure distance as time. I’m also often explaining that a six hour car ride is nothing for us, too.
If one wants to know simple geography mileage is fine. However, for travel reasons as Marelt said, time is much more accurate. For example, I’m about 15 miles south of Seattle. At 4 am it would take about a half-hour to get there. At 4 pm, it would probably take an hour and a half. Wouldn’t you be pissed if you asked me how far Seattle is at 4 pm and the only information I gave you is, “About 15 miles?”
Describing long distances by time must have preceded units of length. People knew how many days walk they would have to travel not how many cubits or whatever other small units of length they may have used.
I can drive from my mother’s house to mine (about 120km) in 1h, door to door.
In Barcelona with normal traffic, 1h gets me to the town limit. One time we were going to Barcelona, spent the usual 5 or 6 hours from home to Barcelona’s city limits, and after three hours stuck in traffic Dad finally said “ok, there’s a subway there, I’m going to park, we take what we need for tonight and I’ll come back get the car tomorrow”.
A common type of peeing contests among Spanish drivers is comparing driving times. A common way of cheating is counting from toll booth to toll booth rather than door to door. It is very common to give distance, method and time: “it’s about 100km; more or less 1h either by train or by car, door to door.”
Last I checked, Spain wasn’t in North America, but maybe we’ve moved?
Of course it can. But also in my experience, when there are such options, most people will specify. I’m from New York City. If someone asks how far something is, they don’t really want to know the linear distance, since that’s largely irrelevant to how long it takes to get there. And people will say whether the time means by subway, bus, or taxi (and also distinguish between rush hour and off hours).
It’s certainly not a new thing. I’ve seen distances specified as an amount of time since as long as I can remember.
George Gamow discussed the practice in his book One Two Three. . . Infinity, first published in 1947. (Brief Wikipedia overview.) ( FULL TEXT, 361 pages (PDF)
I mentioned it also in this recent post, on the subject of unit conversions.
Oddly enough I was just at a meeting in Southern California where the locals made a point of giving distances in time, especially commuting time. I live about 16 miles from work - which is 20 minutes or so on a very light day or an hour or more on a heavy day.
When we did our househunting trip we made the drive to work which seemed a breeze. But, bad mistake, we did it at 2 pm not when I was going to do it. I suffered a lot for that mistake.
Pakistan is in N America now? Or Spain (per** Nava’s** post). We do it all the time.
There are two Court complexes about 40 miles of where I live and I go to both of them often. One is 25 minutes away by car, the other is two hours away.
People ask for time rather than distance, because in most travel for people that os the relevant criteria, not milage.
10 miles away can mean be “there in a jiffy” or take an hour in bumper to bumper traffic. Decisions are made based on that.
Yes, it is precisely those moments when they don’t specify–and when there are various options–that it’s annoying. Especially in L.A., and people just assume that you’re driving, when actually you could be taking the subway.
And that’s the kind of very specific, exceptional situation where people almost always specify the mode of travel. But if I were from Europe, visiting Los Angeles, and I ask how far is Las Vegas, and someone says “an hour-and-a-half away,” what am I supposed to think? It’s not a very helpful answer, because I don’t know whether people normally drive or fly there. It’s the presumption of people thinking that everyone travels the same way they do that annoys.