That's a rough gig to say the least. What are you still doing over here ? Presumably it would be better back in the UK where your business contacts etc are?

I get what all you guys are saying and I take everything on board. I try to be a sponge for information particularly on something that I am actively pursuing.

I didn't want to go into a lack of detail hence alot of people jumping on this 'you don't know what your doing band wagon'

I've been researching this for well over a year now so I am well aware and much more clued in than most on the massive differences across the country and also individual states, counties and cities.

Ian please note the commas in my post. After each comma is a different point.
Also anyone who doesn't realise that California is a state and Houston is a city should really be sent back to school.

That probably includes a lot of American adults.

Agreed - I do a minimum 25,000 miles a year (and average 30,000) and have done every year since I came here.

13 months to the day since I bought my last car - 6,753 miles. Guess I'm a home body.

Less than 4k miles so far this year for me... but I do live and work in a walkable city with "reasonable" public transportation.

My wife and I manage to run up around 30k per year between us. Mostly due to the daily drive to work and back.

On the flip side, when we lived in the UK me and hubby would do 25,000 between us just commuting to work. Here we do 3,500

*Jealous*

It would be great to live that close to work. Still, whilst the milage i do here is higher than i did in the UK, the time spent driving it is probably less.

Typing on the ipad makes me sad. And mad. But mostly sad.

In fairness, I work from home now, but hubby's office is only 6 miles away. The vast majority of people who live in this area have less than a 10 mile commute to work. You wouldn't choose to live here if you didn't work here, the high cost of houses mean you would be much better off living anywhere else.

I know what you mean about the time though. My 30 mile commute in the UK would take between 50 and 90 minutes, normally nearer 90. Even when I lived in LA, my 20 mile commute would only take me 40 minutes.

Right?! I do 250/wk on commute plus another 80 to play footy.
My commute varies between 25 min to 1.25 hrs though depending on time of day

I have a 4 mile round trip to work. Summer, I cycle. Autumn and winter, I wuss out and drive

Well said.

I once worked with an Iranian engineer in Albany (NY).
His opinion was that "Americans' hearts are too far apart".
Now, I like the way he couched those words as to not sound too offensive or judgemental.

To fill out the spaces between his words, I have found throughout years in America that an immigrant's chances for empathy or affirmation are all-too rare. When they come, the words really tend to stay with you and they gain a real value.

I am now convinced that it takes a certain type of person to be a successful immigrant. A type of person with a certain background. Further, If you are not like this, then it will be a struggle at best.

For myself, it is a relief to have reached the point in my mid-40's where the sense of anger and resentment at being marooned has now evaporated. The loneliness of living here certainly isn't acceptable, but it is now understood. I really think I have it sussed now and that's nice, because from "this place" it will be much easier to walk away with no regrets.

On the off chance that makes any sense, good luck fellow traveller.

Yes, because you obviously haven't bothered to read page 2 of that report, look at column 5 in that table and compare that to the US, which apparently is somewhere around 13%. Bear in mind those European countries have been around for a long time as distinct nations, the US is an immigrant nation but has roughly the same % of foreign-born people.

Compare the US with Canada or Australia for example. Australia is around 25% and Canada is around 20%.

Obviously it depends on the city, but I would say on average public transport is worse than here.

My real concern with it is what America plans to do with all of the retiring baby boomers? Public transport becomes a real issue when you get too old to drive. And the healthcare situation as well is pretty grim.

All developed countries are going to have these problems but in the US it seems like it will be worse than others.