Help settle this for me. I’m arguing with my bf about what qualifies as close and my take is anything between 30mins to an hour can be considered “close”. Depending on traffic and stoplights it sometimes takes 30 mins just to get to the other side of our town.
His argument is that anywhere within 3 hours is close. So 3 hours, one way, is close. I don’t think that’s anywhere near what you could call “close” but he is standing firm that
3 hours = close
1.5 hours = really close
30 mins = right next door
So question is, if someone told you that “it is close” in your mind how far does it take to get to it?
21 comments
Depends on what I am doing.
Getting a snack? 5-10 mins is close.
Visiting a friend for a quick drink/chat/dinner? 30 mins is close.
Making a monthly visit to inlaws? an hour is close.
Taking a sightseeing/relaxing trip? 3 hours is ‘close.’
Vacation? Several hours is close.
“Close” would be a 20 minute or less drive. That’s not to say that 30 minutes would be “far,” but at 30 minutes I will begin to seriously wonder if I actually want to go to this place.
It depends on what you are talking about. If you tell me a grocery store is close I expect it to be a lot closer than if you tell me that you live close to an international airport for example.
To me, it’s close if I can walk there.
If I have to drive, I don’t use the terms close or far. I just say, “It’s a thirty/sixty/2 hour drive.”
That’s pretty universal for my region. If you ask someone how far away something is, the answer 99% of the time is not distance, but time:
Q: How far is the hospital from here?
A: About a half hour.
I’d strongly assume this depends on what state/part of the country you live in. Additionally, it would also depend on how many miles you can cover in that time period.
I wouldn’t call 30 minutes of high speed interstate driving with traffic “right next door”. Right next door would be within walking distance.
In no situation that I’m familiar with would 1.5 hours be considered “REALLY close”. At best, it’s “kinda close”.
And 3 hours? Down in SoCal, that covers 200 miles of various terrains, including a large mountain pass and at least 150 miles through the vast Mojave Desert. There is no way anyone would consider that “close”. You might call that “relatively close” – in relation to something 5 hours away.
I live in a decent size rural county, so for me, it’s:
Down the road = 15 min
Close by = 30 min
A little ways = 1 hour +
This depends on where you live.
In the city close is within 15 mins.
In the suburbs, close is within 30 mins.
In the country close could be an hour +.
Picking up my friend and I call him to say I’m close= 10 minutes away.
Less than a half-hour is close
Like 15 minutes is close.
It depends. I live in a small town in a rural area so we are used to driving a bit farther but have less traffic to deal with. Driving 30 minutes is fairly close for a work commute or shopping. Driving 3 hours to visit family or friends would be kind of far to do frequently- maybe once a month or once a season. Driving 3 hours is not close for a work commute or shopping. 3 hours might be considered close if it is a show- like I might say “that show is pretty close to us. It is only 3 hours drive away.” I would mean that is was possible to there and back in one day and a lot of shows are much farther away.
Imho, 3 hours 1 way is NOT close for the majority of things.
Just past the Oak tree up yonder
Gave this some thought, using landmarks from me
I live right by a middle school (within a ten minute walk)
The gym is close (within a ten minute drive)
My drive to work is not that bad/pretty close (25 minutes)
Much more than that I would start saying kinda far. Part of it depends on traffic too. A friend lives 30 minutes away but you have to get on this awful highway…. I saw her yesterday and got there an hour early to avoid the rush hour traffic.
Grocery store: 30 minutes
Work: an hour
Going out to do something: under 2 hours
For me, close is a 5 mile radius.
If I can reach it without getting up.
There is a lot of variability.
If I am afoot it is within a 15 min walk. If I am in a car I agree with your 30 min drive.
One hour is close enough that I would feel comfortable going spontaneously like a “hey here’s free concert tickets – for tonight” kind of situation.
10-20 minute drive..
I think it really depends on your location and your frame of reference.
Distances in Texas are often described by time and not miles. Houston to Austin is about 2.5 hours; I’d say that’s close for Texas.
But when I lived in LA, I had stretches of time (6 weeks/two months) where my COMMUTE was 2.5 hours. That is not ‘close’.
On the third hand, I live in DC now and if I drove 2.5 hours I could probably pass through 3 or 4 states, so I would not consider my destination ‘close’.