Edit: speak up, annoyant... "Distance" is "standing apart". It is not confined to space - in fact, the original meaning is that of "diverging in stances" (i.e. a quarrel), and the geometric one comes one century later. And there exist languages where speaking of "distance in time" is language in use - so, if in your neighborhood they don't speak this way, it is a problem of your neighborhood.
What you don’t appreciate is that it’s not just the added distance, it’s all the extra uncertainty. Losing an extra hour due to getting stuck on the highway behind an accident is a thing you have to account for.
So in the end you end up having to leave like 4 hours or more before your flight.
I live 400 miles in a straight line and I can drive to downtown Atlanta faster than I can fly to the Atlanta airport.