Inside Ring Roads

[Yuri]

I've always found ring roads very interesting pieces of infrastructure, allowing long distance traffic bypass cities core. Of course they were taken to extremes in the US with the infamous tight loops cutting of downtowns to the rest of the city.

Anyway, as I'm putting together all kinds of census tracts and district groupings, I got curious to know on how many people live inside ring roads all over the world. Time consuming, but fun. There might be tiny pieces of land/population that doesn't match perfectly due boundaries, parts inside, parts of, but it will be negligible.

Let's start with:

London - M25

Lenght: 188 km

--- 2021 ------- 2011 ------- 2001 --------- Growth ------------ Area -------- Density
9,775,759 --- 9,066,597 --- 7,996,351 --- +7.8% -- +13.4% --- 2,170 Km² --- 4,505 inh./Km²

It encircles the entire Greater London except for a small tip east of it plus several other jurisdictions comprising an extra 1 million people.

[Yuri]

And to keep US forumers engaged:

Houston - I-610

Lenght: 61 km

--- 2020 ---- 2010 ---- 2000 ---- 1990 ------ Growth ------------ Area -------- Density
520,576 --- 469,051 --- 456,912 --- 429,064 --- +11.0% --- +2.7% --- +6.5% --- 248.6 Km² --- 2,094 inh./Km²

It covers a relatively small area (a bit larger than Seattle) and for being the core of a 7 million people metropolis, it's striking how few people live inside that area. Growth it's also disappointing, half of the pace of the metro areas as a whole, indicating it will keep sprawling.

I'll revisit Houston soon as that's only the inner one. They have another two: Beltway 8 and the Grand Parkway.

[iheartthed]

FYI, the most famous ring road in the U.S. is the Washington Beltway. It is symbolically the border between the core of the Washington, D.C. metro area and the periphery.

[Yuri]

Originally Posted by iheartthed

FYI, the most famous ring road in the U.S. is the Washington Beltway. It is symbolically the border between the core of the Washington, D.C. metro area and the periphery.

It will be featured down the line. It will be one of the easiest to put together, because Washington DC and Fairfax County (and cities) take must of it. Houston was tract by tract. Good thing is I have a population of every single neighbourhood of Houston inside the ring.


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São Paulo - Rodoanel Mário Covas (SP-021)

Lenght: 177 km

--- 2022 ------- 2010 ------- 2000 --------- Growth ------------ Area -------- Density
16,907,787 -- 16,250,838 -- 14,419,370 --- +4.0% -- +12.7% --- 1,687 Km² -- 10,022 inh./Km²

The northern section is still under construction and after several delays and it's due to be delivered in 2027. Western section was finished in 2002, southern in 2010 and eastern in 2014.

When completed it will take away tens of thousands of cars from Marginal Tietê, which is reputed to be the busiest highway in the world. São Paulo is Brazil's only national hub, it's the country's crossroads, linking Brazil's South, Southeast and Northeast regions where 84% of Brazilian population live, so thousands and thousands of trucks cross it. As such it's arguably be one of the most important infrastructure project in the entire world. Important to note that are very few accesses to prevent it to be used by local traffic.

About the area surrounded by it, it encircles 12 municipalities that are part of metro area. São Paulo's Rodoanel is lightest shorter than London's M25, but almost 17 million people live inside it, leaving out some 5 million people that live in São Paulo metro area.

We have a glimpse of how dense São Paulo is over a very large area: 26,000 people/sqm. For comparison, New York (City, Nassau and Hudson) gets "only" 10,924,818 people within 1,635 Km² for a 17,300 people/sqm density.

[Echostatic]

Here's a few from around the US.

Minneapolis-St. Paul


Inside the I-494/I-694 Beltway:
2010: 1,216,101
2020: 1,333,576 (+9.66%)

Outside the Beltway, under Met Council jurisdiction:
2010: 1,633,463
2020: 1,829,528 (+12.00%)

Indianapolis


Inside the I-465 Beltway:
2010: 519,398
2020: 552,473 (+6.37%)

Outside the Beltway, in the Indianapolis MSA:
2010: 1,346,452
2020: 1,537,200 (+14.17%)

Atlanta


Inside the Perimeter:
2010: 759,034
2020: 860,560 (+13.38)

Outside the Perimeter, under Atlanta Regional Commission jurisdiction:
2010: 3,523,773
2020: 4,106,954 (+16.55%)

[Yuri]

Washington - Capital Beltway (I-495)

Lenght: 103 km

--- 2020 ----- 2010 ------ 2000 ------- 1990 ------------------- Growth ------------ Area -------- Density
1,959,381 -- 1,751,102 -- 1,656,355 -- 1,610,564 --- +11.9% --- +5.7% --- +2.8% --- 659.9 Km² --- 2,969 inh./Km²

Northern Virginia and Montgomery County were easy, but for Prince George I had to change to census tracts as census designated places didn't match.

Considerably shorter than London's or São Paulo's, the Capital Beltway covers an area larger than the city of Chicago. Relatively low density shows it's mostly suburban, but at least it's growing faster and faster. Between 1990-2000, this area has grown +2.8% opposed to +16.0% of the metro area as a whole; between 2010-2020 it changed completely: +11.9% and +13.3% respectively. A very positive trend.

Detailing now:

---------------------- 2020 ---- 2010 ---- 2000 ---- 1990 ------ Growth ------------ Area -------- Density
Washington --------- 689,545 --- 601,723 --- 572,059 --- 606,900 --- +14.6% --- +5.2% --- -5.7% --- 158.3 Km² --- 4,356 inh./Km²
Maryland suburbs --- 635,620 --- 576,779 --- 557,860 --- 531,947 --- +10.2% --- +3.4% --- +4.9% --- 274.7 Km² --- 2,314 inh./Km²
Northern Virginia ---- 634,216 --- 572,600 --- 526,436 --- 471,717 --- +10.8% --- +8.8% -- +11.6% --- 226.9 Km² --- 2,795 inh./Km²

Washington and Maryland side growth catched up Northern Virginia's.

[JManc]

The only part of inner loop Houston that has any meaningful development is west of downtown, just north of it and parts of downtown itself. Otherwise, it's stagnant and has little opportunity for growth anytime soon; industrial, low income, high crime neighborhoods.

[dimondpark]

Originally Posted by Yuri

It will be featured down the line. It will be one of the easiest to put together, because Washington DC and Fairfax County (and cities) take must of it. Houston was tract by tract. Good thing is I have a population of every single neighbourhood of Houston inside the ring.


------------------------------------------------------------------


São Paulo - Rodoanel Mário Covas (SP-021)

Lenght: 177 km

--- 2022 ------- 2010 ------- 2000 --------- Growth ------------ Area -------- Density
16,907,787 -- 16,250,838 -- 14,419,370 --- +4.0% -- +12.7% --- 1,687 Km² -- 10,022 inh./Km²

The northern section is still under construction and after several delays and it's due to be delivered in 2027. Western section was finished in 2002, southern in 2010 and eastern in 2014.

When completed it will take away tens of thousands of cars from Marginal Tietê, which is reputed to be the busiest highway in the world. São Paulo is Brazil's only national hub, it's the country's crossroads, linking Brazil's South, Southeast and Northeast regions where 84% of Brazilian population live, so thousands and thousands of trucks cross it. As such it's arguably be one of the most important infrastructure project in the entire world. Important to note that are very few accesses to prevent it to be used by local traffic.

About the area surrounded by it, it encircles 12 municipalities that are part of metro area. São Paulo's Rodoanel is lightest shorter than London's M25, but almost 17 million people live inside it, leaving out some 5 million people that live in São Paulo metro area.

We have a glimpse of how dense São Paulo is over a very large area: 26,000 people/sqm. For comparison, New York (City, Nassau and Hudson) gets "only" 10,924,818 people within 1,635 Km² for a 17,300 people/sqm density.

The Rodoanel reminds me of freeways in California.

[Yuri]

Originally Posted by JManc

The only part of inner loop Houston that has any meaningful development is west of downtown, just north of it and parts of downtown itself. Otherwise, it's stagnant and has little opportunity for growth anytime soon; industrial, low income, high crime neighborhoods.

Yes. I group the census tracts according to the official neighbourhoods: Downtown, Midtown, parts of South, West, Northwest are growing. The rest is falling. And it's crazy how segregate Houston (and the US) is: you have like 90% Blacks on several tracts of East and 90% White on West.

I'm already working on the second ring, the Beltway 8. I have all the west and southwest neighbourhoods/suburbs between it and I-610 done. As they are the most populated and hence with the biggest numbers of tracts, I'll soon finish it.

Originally Posted by dimondpark

The Rodoanel reminds me of freeways in California.

It has no traditional road infrastructure, like gas stations, and that's on purpose. They really don't want no one who lives in São Paulo metro area using it. And no development is allowed either, such as logistical warehouses, industrial parks, which are everywhere on the "Big 12 Highways" the Rodoanel connects.

Many truck drivers still avoid it and prefer to cut through the city (Marginal Tietê) because the southern portion has a longer detour. This problem will be completely solved when the northern section finishes.

[hipster duck]

Originally Posted by Yuri

And to keep US forumers engaged:

Houston - I-610

Lenght: 61 km

--- 2020 ---- 2010 ---- 2000 ---- 1990 ------ Growth ------------ Area -------- Density
520,576 --- 469,051 --- 456,912 --- 429,064 --- +11.0% --- +2.7% --- +6.5% --- 248.6 Km² --- 2,094 inh./Km²

It covers a relatively small area (a bit larger than Seattle) and for being the core of a 7 million people metropolis, it's striking how few people live inside that area. Growth it's also disappointing, half of the pace of the metro areas as a whole, indicating it will keep sprawling.

I'll revisit Houston soon as that's only the inner one. They have another two: Beltway 8 and the Grand Parkway.

That's a lot lower than I thought, too. I thought there would be a million easily inside I-610, but then I forget just how physically big the City of Houston is. I'm guessing there's more people inside Atlanta's perimeter than Houston's, which is not something I would have ever predicted.

If you land at Houston Hobby airport and come in from the west, the city seems a lot denser.

[Yuri]

Originally Posted by Steely Dan

^ a quick google maps area take off exercise shows that the area inside Houston's inner loop is ~100 sq. miles, while the area inside the perimeter in Atlanta is ~250 sq. miles. That's not a small difference.

I didn't do Atlanta, but the city proper has 498,715 inh. within 350.5 Km² for a 1,423 inh./Km² density. It manages to have a density a good 1/3 lower than I-610's Houston. Crazy.


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Moscow - MKAD

Lenght: 109 km

--- 2021 ------- 2010 ------- 2002 --------- Growth ------------ Area -------- Density
10,966,684 --- 10,364,011 --- 9,518,930 --- +5.8% --- +8.9% --- 887.3 Km² --- 12,360 inh./Km²

Arguably one of the most important/meaningful in the world, as it used to be the official boundaries of Moscow city proper itself, before they started to annex those bizarre shaped areas out of it - Los Angeles-style. As result, it made my work much easier as we have the districts completely alligned with it.

Moscow have another three rings aside MKAD, two inside of it and other out, cycling the whole expanded metro area (I guess there would be 17-18 million inside it) but it will be very hard to put them together as administrative borders don't allign.

MKAD covers an area much smaller than either London and São Paulo. More similar to Washington's Capital Beltway. Unsurprisingly, density inside it it's extremely high (32,000 people/sqm), higher than São Paulo's, almost 3x higher than London's and more than 4x of Washington.

Even though population is still growing quite fast inside the ring despite the already high density, Moscow is sprawling very fast. Some districts out of the ring had absurdly high population growth. Nekrasovka, for example, jumped from 7,800 (2002) to 104,900 (2021) or Yuzhnoye Butovo from 105,000 (2002) to 205,000 (2021). This century marked the very strong population growth of Moscow and St. Petersburg (the latter started a bit later) fueled by mass migration from all parts of Russia and former Soviet republics. It's another case of the primate city rising in a demographically challenged country.

[Wigs]

Yuri, when you get a chance could you please do one for Buffalo?

It'll be much smaller in population but I'm curious how many live between Interstate 190, 198/Scajaquada Expressway, the 33/Kensington Expressway and the border formed by Elm Street joining I-190 to the 33

I added that in red to complete the inner ring

[Emprise du Lion]

I'm curious how many people live inside of I-270 & 255 in metro St. Louis. Google Earth is saying the square milage of the area is approximately 354 sq miles. I'd bet there's got to be about 1.3 million or more people living inside of that inner loop.

[Yuri]

If you want, I'll keep going!

Interestingly, Wikipedia don't have an article for neither Buffalo or St. Louis.

About Buffalo, I've noticed they have a ring road formed by I-190, I-290, I-90, NY-179 and NY-5.

Regarding St. Louis, I checked quickly and we'll have to make some compromises on the edges. Several census tracts are bisected by it. It's possible to have a very close estimate though. Your population figure is probably right. Maybe a bit more. St. Louis county and city plus the two IL counties had 1,829,475 in 2020. As good chunks of the three counties are out of it I'd guess something around 1.4 million. And population inside that ring is falling in a quite fast pace.

EDIT looking closer to St. Louis, they have an inner ring, formed by 67, 61 and 50. This one matches perfectly with the census tract. We could cross the river with the road 3, but it seems almost no one live between it and the river.

[Wigs]

Originally Posted by Yuri

About Buffalo, I've noticed they have a ring road formed by I-190, I-290, I-90, NY-179 and NY-5.

What I mentioned would be the inner ring/loop (what most would think of as Buffalo's core or inner city), and then the second ring/loop would would be the one you've noticed. I forget NY-179 is also known as Mile Strip Expressway, a West-East connector for the southern suburbs.

Good eye, Yuri!
I'm glad all of Buffalo's proposed highways never got built. The city would have been cut up so much more than it is.
'Concept 5' plan from around 1970 when the Buffalo MSA hit its peak of 1.35 million.
https://americascanceledhighways.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/08/buffalo-concept-5.jpg?w=1338

[SIGSEGV]

Chicago doesn't have a ring road but the combination of the tristate tollway (294 + small section of 94 near Indiana border) Indiana 912, and virtually extending the Eden's spur east (or, alternatively, just using Lake-Cook Road) is sort of close. I suspect it would be something between to 3.5-4 million or so?

[iheartthed]

Originally Posted by Yuri

MKAD covers an area much smaller than either London and São Paulo. More similar to Washington's Capital Beltway. Unsurprisingly, density inside it it's extremely high (32,000 people/sqm), higher than São Paulo's, almost 3x higher than London's and more than 4x of Washington.

Interesting how Moscow and New York have very similar population densities.

[bilbao58]

Originally Posted by hipster duck

That's a lot lower than I thought, too. I thought there would be a million easily inside I-610, but then I forget just how physically big the City of Houston is. I'm guessing there's more people inside Atlanta's perimeter than Houston's, which is not something I would have ever predicted.

If you land at Houston Hobby airport and come in from the west, the city seems a lot denser.

The entire population of Atlanta proper (area 132.4 mi²) in 2024 was several hundred inhabitants less than the Houston Inner Loop population in 2020.

[Yuri]

Originally Posted by Wigs

'Concept 5' plan from around 1970 when the Buffalo MSA hit its peak of 1.35 million.
https://americascanceledhighways.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/08/buffalo-concept-5.jpg?w=1338

Horrible!

Originally Posted by SIGSEGV

Chicago doesn't have a ring road but the combination of the tristate tollway (294 + small section of 94 near Indiana border) Indiana 912, and virtually extending the Eden's spur east (or, alternatively, just using Lake-Cook Road) is sort of close. I suspect it would be something between to 3.5-4 million or so?

I intend to work with places like New York, Boston or Chicago that don't have a ring for obvious reasons, but are completely encircled by a highway system that works as a ring road.

Originally Posted by iheartthed

Interesting how Moscow and New York have very similar population densities.

Moscow is even denser. New York City + Hudson County: 9,529,044 people, 897.8 Km² and 10,613 inh./Km². Moscow gets an extra 1.4 million people over the same area. No wonder their subway system is so busy.

[iheartthed]

Originally Posted by Yuri

Moscow is even denser. New York City + Hudson County: 9,529,044 people, 897.8 Km² and 10,613 inh./Km². Moscow gets an extra 1.4 million people over the same area. No wonder their subway system is so busy.

We often add Hudson County for the purposes of discussion on this forum, but it's not New York City. Hudson County is also much less dense than New York City is on average.

New York City is not quite as populous as Moscow, but they have about the same density. New York City's population density is 29,302/sq mile versus Moscow's 32,000/sq mile. I don't think any other city in Europe or the Americas has 8 - 10 million people living at roughly 30,000/square mile.