Why do Europeans hate time as a unit of distance?

[The Almighty Aardvark]

I've never seen this dislike before.

Honestly though, even if I had, I couldn't tell someone the distance in km if I wanted to. If I had to guess the distance from my work to my home I'd guess... 25km? *checks* Apparently it's 20km, so not too bad. But I guessed that based on the time that it takes to get here, not the other way around. If someone asked me how far it was I'd just say 30 minutes by car, an hour to an hour and a half by transit.

Frankly, I'm surprised how people actually know the distance irrespective of the time it takes to get there. There's also the fact that multiple routes can be very different distances, but take similar amounts of time. Given that time is really what you care about when it comes to a route (If a route was twice the distance but took half as long you wouldn't take the shorter distance route) I don't understand why you'd give a distance.

 

[happyninja42]

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.

Because using time as a measurement of distance (aside from astronomical reasons with speed of light) is very vague. When you tell me "it's about 40 minutes away", how fast are you talking about going? Speed limit? 5-10 miles above the limit? Which route? Maybe it's 40 minutes if you take the interstates, but if you take a backroute, maybe it's only 30 minutes, or maybe 50+. Now, if you are giving a specific route "take I-53 for 12 miles, and then exit onto Maple Highway, this route will take roughly 30 minutes", that's perfectly fine in my opinion. You've given me a specific route, and estimated a time, and I in fact do this myself. I usually assume the time taken is based on the speed limit for the area, but that might still be a mistake. Maybe you always go 10 miles over the limit, and thus your calculations are off.

I'm terrible with distances, and never really track the actual distance required to get to where I'm going. I only look at the travel time estimate. But I do understand that it's only an estimate, and that some people would prefer to be told the mileage for the trip, so they can estimate the time themselves.

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.

because time isnt a measurement of distance, when asked how hot something is do you comment on its shape?

yes it is, in astronomic circles, they use it all the time to measure distance. Light minutes, light hours, light years, etc.

 

[vallorn]

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?

When you stop crashing spacecraft because your engineers can't convert it then maybe we will stop. Maybe...

 

[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?

When you stop crashing spacecraft because your engineers can't convert it then maybe we will stop. Maybe...

That only happened once, right? Plus, it's because nobody TOLD the other guys.

 

[Drops a Sweet Katana]

I have never heard of any such hatred. Most people use travel time when discussing going places since it's easier to get to grips with.

 

[ObserverStatus]

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.

It's because Europeans use the metric system to measure time. When you give them distances in antiquated units like minutes and hours, it just makes you sound like a rube to them. They might react better if you tell them it's 18-22 kiloseconds from Montreal to Toronto, 9 kiloseconds from Montreal to Quebec City, or 2.4 kiloseconds from "your place" to "their place." Don't give them any of that base 60 crap.

 

[RikuoAmero]

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

I'm Irish, and we use time as a unit of distance too. Off hand, I can remember ads for a McDonald's in Dublin city centre saying things like "2 minutes that way" or words to that effect.

 

[Nielas]

I experienced similar frustration when I went to visit my brother in a town that I've never visited before, but he'd been living in for 5+ years. He was very blasé about how it was impossible to get lost and how the place I was staying in was only 15 minutes away from his house and only 20 minutes away from the centre of town... but when I was left to my own devices after the pub and had to walk back on my own from his house in the dark, did it only take me 15 minutes to get there? Did if fuck. The vague directions he gave me and short-cuts he showed me were useless to someone who wasn't intimately familiar with the area.

Let's be fair. If you brother described the distance in kilometers or miles, you would have been just as lost. You would be upset that what was supposed to be X miles turned out to be actually X+Y miles after you walked in circles for an hour.