Anyway, my original point, which has gotten lost somewhere, is that travelling 300 miles in a straight line in Europe (taken as a whole), or China, or India, or Africa, or most places that aren't the US or Canada or Australia, is a lot different than travelling 300 miles in a straight line in the United States. Thus, they cannot be directly compared.
Unless the line leads into the ocean, in which case the results of the trips will be identical.