If you focus on 'diversity', you miss the bigger picture, because of course every place is unique. The US has for example far more pronounced extremes of urban vs rural (which many too forget). The real issue is distance, and how Europeans and Americans in general have vastly different concepts of what's far.
If you're in the US or Canada, driving for 10 hours means you're going to visit your aunt. Doing the same anywhere in Europe means you're likely 2 countries over, and it becomes a 'huge trip' in people's heads. Heck, I know several people who have driven more than halfway across Canada, in Europe no-one who drove e.g. from Paris to Istanbul.
And while the European market is supposedly unified, in practice there are significant variations in pricing and availability as soon as you cross a border, simply because that's something few people do. And of course the language difference means most local media is opaque to outsiders.
So I would say that the US is definitely diverse, but it's a gradual diversity, that transitions smoothly from ultra-urban to no-one-for-miles rural. It works on very large distances, and is mediated by a shared media, politics and language. European countries meanwhile are much more homogenous on the inside, but there are a lot of forces keeping each one unique.
Why drive that distance when there are decent trains or, much more common these days, excellent low cost airlines? [Pretty common for people to fly for 4+ hours to go on vacation from the UK to Turkey].
Heck, I know several people who have driven more than halfway across Canada, in Europe no-one who drove e.g. from Paris to Istanbul.
Abstract away the vast distances of road and think of it as nodes on a directed graph. How many nodes (ie: inhabited locations of distinct identity) did you pass through from source to destination? That's a kind sociocultural or even ecological distance you traveled, and it can actually be larger on a Paris-Istanbul trip than on a cross-Canadian trip.
I was actually saying "Paris-Istanbul is more diverse than cross-Canada". North America has large distances between "significant nodes" on the map, Europe/Asia has smaller distances.
So you replied in agreement with a tortured graph theory analogy devoid of concrete ties to reality? I'm confused. Usually when people say "actually" they are correcting someone.
If you're in the US or Canada, driving for 10 hours means you're going to visit your aunt. Doing the same anywhere in Europe means you're likely 2 countries over, and it becomes a 'huge trip' in people's heads. Heck, I know several people who have driven more than halfway across Canada, in Europe no-one who drove e.g. from Paris to Istanbul.
And while the European market is supposedly unified, in practice there are significant variations in pricing and availability as soon as you cross a border, simply because that's something few people do. And of course the language difference means most local media is opaque to outsiders.
So I would say that the US is definitely diverse, but it's a gradual diversity, that transitions smoothly from ultra-urban to no-one-for-miles rural. It works on very large distances, and is mediated by a shared media, politics and language. European countries meanwhile are much more homogenous on the inside, but there are a lot of forces keeping each one unique.