While ignoring other data points like miles driven, time spent in cars, etc?
I mean, as almost always, single-metric comparisons are pretty much meaningless.
Consider this: on a good day I can make it to work in 35 minutes, but I always consider it a 1 hour drive (especially in winter), because it can frequently take that long (50 minutes really, but I consider it killing an hour of my time). And I live in a large city - my job is 15 miles away.
Other than China, I can’t really think of a country who has the space, drivers, and cars in a way comparable to the US. Australia has the space, but few people (by percentage of drivers) really drive the vastness.
Consider this - in a western US state, it could take 3-5 hours to leave the state, at 70mph. This is with no stops. Kansas is an 8 hour drive, Texas is 2 days, realistically.
Dallas to Austin is a couple hours (3 iirc), a good 4 or more to San Antonio. New York to Florida - 20 hours.
It makes sense to control for socio-economic development so that you can rule out other variables that would make the comparison less meaningful.
While ignoring other data points like miles driven, time spent in cars, etc?
I mean, as almost always, single-metric comparisons are pretty much meaningless.
Consider this: on a good day I can make it to work in 35 minutes, but I always consider it a 1 hour drive (especially in winter), because it can frequently take that long (50 minutes really, but I consider it killing an hour of my time). And I live in a large city - my job is 15 miles away.
Other than China, I can’t really think of a country who has the space, drivers, and cars in a way comparable to the US. Australia has the space, but few people (by percentage of drivers) really drive the vastness.
Consider this - in a western US state, it could take 3-5 hours to leave the state, at 70mph. This is with no stops. Kansas is an 8 hour drive, Texas is 2 days, realistically.
Dallas to Austin is a couple hours (3 iirc), a good 4 or more to San Antonio. New York to Florida - 20 hours.