When giving directions should you use distance or time?

Simply ask how many miles to Preston.

I know people have heard this many times well, if I was you, I wouldn’t start from here
But many years ago when we were touring Eire we wanted to visit the birth place of Henry Ford. We stopped someone and that’s exactly what he said ?

I use both miles and time, perhaps both at the same time.
A lot depends on the circumstances.
If asked in the city centre.. how far to City Hall….. the answer would have to be time. If asked how far from Belfast to Dublin I’d say a couple of hours and 100 miles.

The French always use minutes, and beyond about a couple of minutes it is infuriating because it is so unreliable depending on time, weather and traffic conditions.

Thinking about the question 'How far is it to Preston?'. Well I know where it is and where I am, I would probably ask the person what they needed the information for and frame my answer accordingly. If they were just curious, I would probably hazard 'over 250 miles'. If thinking collecting a purchase there from ebay. I would say 'the round journey will be a long day's drive.

If they asked about York, where DS lives the answer would be 199 miles and it usuall takes between 3.5 and 4 hours to go there.

I prefer to know in time, 5 miles on a motorway is very different from 5 miles on country lanes.

When I was younger and drove more I found that I could only understand directions given by other women, not by men. I know that sounds daft but it really happened several times.

I think that knowing the distance to a place would be more useful to me than the time it takes someone else to get there, but now I have realised that apart from the places that I have visited frequently over the years (like my or OH's childhood homes), I haven't a clue of the distance to many places I have visited only occasionally .

For instance, in September we went to Lacock, then Weymouth. I could give a close estimate of the time these journeys took us, but the distance? No idea!

I think my OH could give the distance though. He plans the journeys very carefully.

I thought using time was a Scottish thing. Interesting it is not unique to us.

Think I would respond in distance but append with 'take you about--- on foot' or by car or wbatever.

Unless it is a relatively short distance, a driver looking for the local post office, some one asking directions, I would expect to know the person asking the question and how they and how they are travelling and would frame the answer accordingly.

At various times and with different transport I would give the answer in miles, kilometres, hours or minutes.

PS I assume that I would know the person asking me or that the person is in front of me, so not likely that they are in a powered wheelchair.
I’m very vague about mileages but I know how long it usually takes me to drive somewhere.
TBH these days I would expect them to Google the destination and get the mileage and times of travel online.

Why is this annoying? If you ask without specifying how you will be travelling. Giving distance in miles or Kms will not be very helpful either, depending on how you travel- as you train journey may make a big detour via another town.

I don’t find it annoying, miles or time is fine with me.
Unless they say ‘I’m walking to Preston’ I would assume that they mean by car.
If they say ‘ I’m catching a train to Preston’ id say ‘well good luck with that, it’s like asking how long is a piece of string’.

I’d also ask how they were travelling makes more sense to me.

I had a friend who used to express a distance by amount of fuel she used in her car! So she might have been to a place that was about two gallons away.

I think if you’re talking to someone you know, you’ll also know whether they’re driving/walking/bussing there. I can cope with miles or time.