How do you measure travel distance, time or miles?

Just for fun, how do you measure travel distance, by time or miles? I have been made fun of for this many times and I read a thing about Iowa the other day and two things just about killed me...

You know you are from Iowa if you measure distance in time rather than miles.

and

You know you are from Iowa if your high school had a "drive your tractor to school" day.

Uh...yes I measure distance in time, and yes I have participated in drive your tractor to school day, my brother drove us so that makes it ok right? :rofl:

Sooo. I accidentally hit Time - when I actually meant "Other"

Really. I give people landmarks. or "I'm the third traffic light down the last street"

We have a drive your tractor to school day where i live..

And it just depends! some times by miles, some times by time, usually longer trips get hours while shorter gets miles.

I think most people use travel time as a measure of distance, if someone asks me how far away I live and I say the miles it means nothing to most people I know lol.

I'd agree, I think distance by time is very common where ever you are....

Now, "drive your tractor to school day" on the other hand, is something I've never witnessed nor heard of.

Im from Iowa and I actually think the opposite. Here where you have mostly open land you can usually average close to 60 mph so I find people usually say "miles". But at 60 mph 1 mile= 1 minute. In the bigger cities it seems to me that people usually use time since 1 mile could take you 20 minutes or more depending on time of day and what streets you are on.

I grew up in a farm community just across the border from Iowa (in MN), and we certainly never had a "drive your tractor to school day." As far as the time/distance thing goes, I voted miles/km, but I think there should be another choice simply labeled "yes." I tend to do both; it's 11 miles to work; usually about 15 minutes to get there, etc.

I go by miles... But then again I'm an engineer so I know I don't represent the majority on this one.

There wasn't a drive your tractor to school day at my high school, but living in coastal Florida nobody has one anyway.

And I never drove the tractor to school, but atv, dirtbike, snowmobile, yes.

Miles and time. They go together.

i voted other because i always measure both

I use miles but most around here use land marks by who used to own something 20 years ago. Like turn left at the old Miller place. I am from a small town in SW Missouri so we had a tractor day and a horse day so that just seems normal to me. Back when I was in highschool mid to late 80's poularity got you on a good hay crew.

A bit nerdy, but I hook up my ipod for music when I go on long trips. I then measure everything by how far through my playlist I am. For instance, when I am driving from Waco, TX to Yuma, AZ - I know that once I reach just over the halfway point then I should be rolling into town soon. Haha.

Not sure if this qualifies for an answer. :banana:


As for planes and stuff. Totally by Time. Planes make my cranky.

That does remind me of something, when i fly I totally measure it by time. I always explain it as a 3 hour flight never miles.

Lol I'm glad there are a bunch of others that measure distance in time! My cousin loves to give me hell for living in Iowa. He's in VA, but was born here. Last time he was down he told me he counted 17 different jello dishes at the potluck sort of thing we were at. He said he has never seen so many different ways you can make jello until he came to Iowa, rofl. And of course you can only image what he said about tractor day! I'm glad to hear there are some fellow tractor day kids!

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I voted other because I do both. It kinda depends on the situation. I generally say I live like 5 minutes away from my school and not 2 miles from the school because 5 minutes sounds closer than 2 miles to me.

Both, but we tend to use time here as well. Back when we lived on an Air Force base the nearest large city with things to do in was 45 minutes away. When we moved to another small town near there everything was still 45 minutes away. Now since I still live near the college I graduated from it usually takes 15 minutes to pull into work, but up to 45 on a bad day (ie the first week of school when everyone is still showing up or finals week). The actual distance is somewhere around 12 miles, but getting off of University Ave is more than half the time the drive takes.

i live hour by hour not by miles so time is more important a measurement in my opinion

Time. I don't care how far it is, I only care about how long it will take me to get there. A 1 mile trip through midtown Manhattan is a LOT different than a 1 mile trip down the turnpike.

I go back and forth. Like when I went home for Christmas it was about 22 hour drive and over 1,000 miles. Time is more common for me to use, but since people will drive at different speeds (we all drive the speed limit here right :rolleyes:) it's hard to give someone directions biased on time. When giving directions I tend to use landmarks, like turn left at the 4th street light.

Money.... then amount of time :)

Quote:

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Originally Posted by JulieInNJ

Time. I don't care how far it is, I only care about how long it will take me to get there. A 1 mile trip through midtown Manhattan is a LOT different than a 1 mile trip down the turnpike.

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Exactly this... I don't care how many miles it is, just tell me how long it's going to take so I know when to leave my house...

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Inknsteel

Exactly this... I don't care how many miles it is, just tell me how long it's going to take so I know when to leave my house...

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Um no! Miles, why would anyone in their right mind want to travel in Manhattan or the turnpike!!!!!

I think measuring distance would = miles, measuring ETA or duration of trip = time
I guess its all how you look at it though

Both.. I know it normally takes 9 hours to travel the 500 miles to my sisters in TNN but I do it in 8. I've had to learn exactly how many miles it is from the interstate to the road my job is on, and then from that intersection to the plant simply because I have to give directions often.

I don't use miles when selling BPs locally though. I just tell people who are picking up from me or meeting me which interstate I'm off of and go from there. Miles make no sense where I live. It's suburbia hell.

Time, almost always.


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Time for me

I can make the same trip everyday to work, its always the same amount of miles, time changes due to many factors. Also if the girlfriends mom would of told me their cabin was 4 hours north that it took them instead of where it was at, i would of passed it at the 3 hour mark.

most people use miles around here for distance.