Major cities in the US and Canada by count of nearby major cities

[SIGSEGV]

Originally Posted by iheartthed

I've been a frequent business traveler for over a decade. Nobody that I know would regularly use their personal vehicle for work travel unless they worked for a shitty company that required them to use their own cars.

Right, and many people will rent cars instead of driving their own. I have to go give a talk at Madison next week. At the reimbursement rate, it's cheaper for the university for me to rent a car than it would be for me to drive a personal car (which I also don't have, but that's not the point). The bus is cheaper still but I have to carry some large equipment back...

[Docere]

Originally Posted by edale

Exactly. Obviously LA and the IE are one big metro area, even if the census keeps them as separate MSAs. Same with SF and San Jose. DC and Baltimore are separate cities. They are separate media markets, have their own sports teams, urban culture, architectural vernacular, cultural institutions, etc. They've somewhat sprawled together at this point, but it's a totally different situation than LA and Riverside, which is all just one big sprawled region with shared TV, radio, and newspapers, same regional rail provider, etc. LA is the urban center for the IE. The downtown areas of Riverside and San Bernardino feel like the commercial centers of small towns, not a metro of 4 million people.

There's a methodology involved (commuting patterns) but "MSA" doesn't capture the distinction. There's definitely a difference between LA/Riverside and San Franciscco/San Jose vs. DC/Baltimore.

I find most CSAs too extensive but when I provide stats I combine LA/Riverside and San Francisco/San Jose.

[BnaBreaker]

Originally Posted by iheartthed

Limited to the 37 metros in the US and Canada with populations of 2 million or more.

Count of +2 million metros within roughly 300 miles by city:

1. Cleveland 9
2. Chicago 7
3. Cincinnati 7
4. Detroit 7
5. Indianapolis 7
6. Pittsburgh 7
7. Columbus 6
8. Baltimore 5
9. Philadelphia 5
10. Washington 5
11. Austin 4
12. Dallas 4
13. Houston 4
14. New York 4
15. San Antonio 4
16. St. Louis 4
17. Boston 3
18. Las Vegas 3
19. San Diego 3
20. Toronto 3
21. Atlanta 2
22. Los Angeles 2
23. Miami 2
24. Montreal 2
25. Orlando 2
26. Phoenix 2
27. Portland 2
28. Seattle 2
29. Tampa 2
30. Vancouver 2
31. Charlotte 1
32. Kansas City 1
33. Nashville 1
34. Sacramento 1
35. San Francisco 1
36. Denver 0
37. Minneapolis 0

Nashville has Atlanta, St. Louis, Cincinnati, Indianapolis within 300 miles... Columbus about 330ish... Charlotte about 340ish

[iheartthed]

Originally Posted by BnaBreaker

Nashville has Atlanta, St. Louis, Cincinnati, Indianapolis within 300 miles... Columbus about 330ish... Charlotte about 340ish

Yeah, good catch. I'll update it.

ETA: I just saw that you pointed out last year too, but I missed that comment.

[BnaBreaker]

Originally Posted by iheartthed

Yeah, good catch. I'll update it.

ETA: I just saw that you pointed out last year too, but I missed that comment.

Haha, sorry about that... I didn't intend to repeat myself... to be totally honest, I didn't even realize this was an old thread and I had already said that on here. Yikes!

[TWAK]

Originally Posted by Docere

There's a methodology involved (commuting patterns) but "MSA" doesn't capture the distinction. There's definitely a difference between LA/Riverside and San Franciscco/San Jose vs. DC/Baltimore.

I find most CSAs too extensive but when I provide stats I combine LA/Riverside and San Francisco/San Jose.

Awe I like the inflated CSA and MSA's, but that's because it's rather lonely in a M(Micro)SA.
For sure though some places like the Bay Area, LA, NY and a few others are ok. They can be one metro while being incredibly huge and spread out.

[Emprise du Lion]

Originally Posted by Crawford

A bullet train would unquestionably be cool, but does anyone seriously think it would be a remotely Japan-like scenario? In deep-red, truck-loving, postindustrial Ohio? Yeah, there would probably be some ridership, but OH has very little transit ridership, and it has heavy rail, right now, something few states have.

If there were really an OH bullet train, it would be deeply subsidized (by who? The right-wing state leadership?) and run a few trains a day. State is way too decentralized, balkanized and auto-oriented.

The primary problem in the U.S. isn't the lack of transit infrastructure, but the lack of transit orientation.

While not a bullet train, there's really no excuse why their major cities aren't better connected by plane or Amtrak. If the people of Missouri can get onboard with a train from Kansas City to St. Louis, then I'm sure there would be ridership between the three Cs.

Originally Posted by jmecklenborg

It's the same problem as St. Louis's light rail system - the Red Line travels on an available ROW, meaning most of the station locations are not within walking distance of neighborhood business districts.

In the suburbs the MetroLink acts more like a commuter system, but in the city itself there's no question that the MetroLink connects to the job centers in a walkable fashion. Downtown and Downtown West have six MetroLink stations. Additionally, the Central West End has two stations and downtown Clayton also has two. Those are our major job centers in the region's core.

What the MetroLink fails at in the city is connecting the people in the neighborhoods to said job centers. If you don't live in the Central Corridor, then the MetroLink is useless to you as a city dweller.