Quote:
Originally Posted by lastcardcharlie
Out of curiosity, do all Americans use "block" as a unit of distance, or is e.g. an East Coast thing?
It's more or less all Americans who live in a city or town, as said by mrbaseball.
In a rural area, there really aren't blocks, so the measurement is meaningless. They will say something like "drive about 10 miles until you get to the next major road" or some other landmark, like a Super 8 sign, gas station, red light, or other.
It's always fun to try and explain a "block" as a unit of distance to people who isn't familiar with it. A block is an arbitrary distance that doesn't have a good explanation, yet oddly, has the exact same meaning no matter where you are (or where I've been).