UAs >200K within 200 (driving) miles of your city.

Steely Dan · #1 Posted **May 29, 2023, 4:08 PM**

A pretty straightforward little exercise here to count up the number of Urban Areas with at least 200,000 people that are within a 200 mile driving distance from your city.

why 200K within 200 miles? 200K seems like a round enough arbitray cut-off for where a place starts to feel like it has some actual weight of its own and 200 miles driving distance (~3 hours) seems like a nice round upper limit for easy weekend getaways (people obviously drive further for weekend getways, but beyond 200 miles, the "time in the car" really starts to eat away at the "being there" time for a short little weekend escape).

parameters:

1. any UA with at least 200,000 as of census 2020 is fair game. if there's a nearby UA that qualifies on distance with like 196,000 people, you can round that up a touch. but don't get silly with the rounding.

2. driving distance is from center of UA to center of other UA, as determined by google maps. so for eaxmple, if you type in "St. Louis, MO" to "Evansville, IN", it spits back 167 miles driving distance, so it counts. typing in "St. Louis, MO" to "Springfield, MO" spits back 216 miles, so it does not count. like with population, if there's a qualifying UA that's only a handful of miles beyond the 200 mile threshold, say like 205 miles or something, you can go ahead and round that down a touch, but again, don't get silly with it.

3. some major metro areas (especially the cali ones) get chopped up into all kinds of smaller UAs by the CB, despite their contiguoisity with each other. you may count them all, and also denote their contiguosity with the main UA if you like. determining the driving distance to these might be a bit nebulous because of their lack of a true "center", but if they're contiguous, it won't matter much anyway.

anyway, here's the list for chicago, ranked by distance:

Round Lake Beach UA: 261,835 | 58 miles (contiguous with the Chicago UA)
Rockford UA: 276,443 | 89 miles
Milwaukee UA: 1,306,795 | 92 miles
South Bend UA: 278,921 | 96 miles
Madison UA: 450,305 | 147 miles
Kalamazoo UA: 204,562 | 147 miles
Fort Wayne UA: 335,934 | 162 miles
Peoria UA: 259,781 | 166 miles
Davenport UA: 285,211 | 176 miles
Grand Rapids UA: 605,666 | 179 miles
Indianapolis UA: 1,699,881 | 185 miles
Appleton UA: 230,967 | 195 miles
Green Bay UA: 224,156 | 207 miles

iheartthed · #2 Posted **May 29, 2023, 5:06 PM**

I counted 20 within 200 miles of driving to NYC:

Albany-Schenectady, NY - 593,142
Allentown-Bethlehem, PA - 621,703
Atlantic City-Ocean City-Villas, NJ - 294,921
Baltimore, MD - 2,212,038
Bel Air-Aberdeen, MD - 214,647
Bridgeport-Stamford, CT - 916,408
Harrisburg, PA - 490,859
Hartford, CT - 977,158
Lancaster-Manheim, PA - 394,530
New Haven, CT - 561,456
Philadelphia, PA - 5,696,125
Poughkeepsie-Newburgh, NY - 314,766
Providence, RI - 1,285,806
Reading, PA - 276,278
Scranton, PA - 366,713
Springfield, MA - 442,145
Trenton, NJ - 370,422
Waterbury, CT - 199,317
Worcester, MA - 482,085
York, PA - 238,549

Total w/o NY UA: 16,949,068
Total w/ NY UA: 36,375,517

And about 17 from Detroit:

Akron, OH - 541,879
Ann Arbor, MI - 317,689
Canton, OH** - 295,319
Cleveland, OH - 1,712,178
Columbus, OH - 1,567,254
Dayton, OH** - 674,046
Flint, MI - 298,964
Grand Rapids, MI - 605,666
Hamilton, ON*** - 785,184
Kalamazoo, MI - 204,562
Kitchener-Cambridge-Waterloo, ON*** - 575,847
Lansing, MI - 318,300
London, ON*** - 543,551
Lorain-Elyria, OH - 199,067
South Bend, IN* - 278,921
Toledo, OH - 497,952
Windsor, ON*** - 422,630

Total w/o Detroit UA: 9,839,009
Total w/ Detroit UA: 13,615,889

*Driving route <200 miles, but fastest route slightly over 200 miles.
**Slightly over 200 mile radius
***Based on Canadian metropolitan area designations

Docere · #3 Posted **May 29, 2023, 5:19 PM**

Toronto:

Barrie ON 68 miles
Buffalo NY 99 miles
Hamilton ON 48 miles
Kitchener ON 66 miles
London ON 120 miles
Rochester NY 168 miles
St. Catharines ON 69 miles

Oshawa is its own CMA, but it's part of the GTA so I didn't include it.

Boisebro · #4 Posted **May 29, 2023, 7:15 PM**

easy.

Boise:

zero

Atlas · #5 Posted **May 29, 2023, 11:27 PM**

Quote:

Originally Posted by Boisebro

easy.

Boise:

zero

Same for Salt Lake City and Denver

rds70 · #6 Posted **May 30, 2023, 2:44 AM**

Quote:

Originally Posted by Atlas

Same for Salt Lake City and Denver

Not true. Denver:

Colorado Springs - 765,000 - 70 miles
Fort Collins/Loveland - 367,000 - 70 miles

mobius42 · #7 Posted **May 30, 2023, 3:19 AM**

Quote:

Originally Posted by Atlas

Same for Salt Lake City and Denver

That’s not true for either city. SLC has Provo and Ogden UAs within 200 miles that are both well over 200,000.

softee · #8 Posted **May 29, 2023, 8:34 PM**

Quote:

Originally Posted by Docere

Toronto:

Barrie ON 68 miles
Buffalo NY 99 miles
Hamilton ON 48 miles
Kitchener ON 66 miles
London ON 120 miles
Rochester NY 168 miles
St. Catharines ON 69 miles

Oshawa is its own CMA, but it's part of the GTA so I didn't include it.

Buffalo, Rochester, and St. Catharines are a lot closer as the crow flies.

dave8721 · #9 Posted **May 30, 2023, 3:52 PM**

Miami is pretty isolated, everything is over 100 miles away (because it takes 100 miles to get out of the urban area driving north):
Port St.Lucie: 115 miles 437,745 population
Bonita Springs/Estero: 133 miles 425,675 population
Vero Beach: 140 miles 174,292 population
Cape Coral: 158 miles 599,242 population
Palm Bay/Melbourne: 174 miles 510,675 population

almost 200k: Port Charlotte: 177 miles 199,998 population (just missed out by 2 people)

ckh · #10 Posted **May 30, 2023, 5:06 PM**

According to this source: https://www.freemaptools.com/find-population.htm

For Syracuse NY, places such as Ottawa, Buffalo, Rochester, Albany, Scranton, Springfield MA, Harrisburg, Allentown, Burlington VT, NYC, Toronto, Hamilton, Bridgeport and Hartford are within that radius in direct line terms. Some of these places are more than 200 miles in terms of a drive though. New Haven, Montreal and Erie PA are just outside of that radius.

muertecaza · #11 Posted **May 30, 2023, 8:16 PM**

Phoenix is pretty isolated as well:

Phoenix-Mesa-Scottsdale is the primary Urban Area for Phoenix metro, population 3,976,313 as of 2020 census. Urban Areas that meet the criteria:

1. Phoenix West-Goodyear-Avondale | 419,946 | 19 miles. Technically a separate Urban Area, though it's all contiguous and part of Phoenix Metro.

2. Tucson| 875,441 | 112 miles.

Edit: 3. Nogales | 232,303 | 181 miles.

If we were doing MSAs or CSAs, Yuma (203,881, 184 mi.), Prescott-Prescott Valley (236,209, 99 mi.) and Lake Havasu City-Kingman (213,267, 193 mi.) would qualify. But the Urban Areas for these metros are under the 200k population threshold; Yuma is 135,717, Prescott is 92,427, and Lake Havasu is 59,017.

iheartthed · #12 Posted **May 30, 2023, 8:25 PM**

So far it looks like the northeast corridor, the Great Lakes states, and coastal California are the densest regions.

dave8721 · #13 Posted **May 31, 2023, 3:05 AM**

Quote:

Originally Posted by dave8721

Miami is pretty isolated, everything is over 100 miles away (because it takes 100 miles to get out of the urban area driving north):
Port St.Lucie: 115 miles 437,745 population
Bonita Springs/Estero: 133 miles 425,675 population
Vero Beach: 140 miles 174,292 population
Cape Coral: 158 miles 599,242 population
Palm Bay/Melbourne: 174 miles 510,675 population

almost 200k: Port Charlotte: 177 miles 199,998 population (just missed out by 2 people)

If you want to include boating distance then you could include:
Nassau, Bahamas: 184 miles 246k population
and almost Havana, Cuba 228 miles from the center of Miami (less than 200 from the southern edge of the metro)

SFBruin · #14 Posted **May 29, 2023, 8:24 PM**

I think for Seattle, it's just Portland and Vancouver, BC.

SFBruin · #15 Posted **May 30, 2023, 3:28 AM**

Quote:

Originally Posted by SFBruin

I think for Seattle, it's just Portland and Vancouver, BC.

Apparently, Seattle also has Bremerton and Olympia.

hipster duck · #16 Posted **May 31, 2023, 2:16 PM**

Quote:

Originally Posted by SFBruin

Apparently, Seattle also has Bremerton and Olympia.

There's also Victoria BC (450k).

The shortest distance route to Victoria is 111 miles, but it involves two ferries and a border crossing:

Edmonds - Kingston
Port Angeles - Victoria

SFBruin · #17 Posted **May 29, 2023, 8:26 PM**

Delete.

benp · #18 Posted **May 29, 2023, 8:31 PM**

Buffalo:

St. Catherines ON 33 miles
Hamilton ON 65 miles
Rochester NY 75 miles
Toronto ON 99 miles
Kitchener ON 105 miles
London ON 142 miles
Barrie ON 151 miles
Syracuse NY 152 miles
Cleveland OH 189 miles
Pittsburgh PA 205 miles (shortest route, not preferred route)
Akron OH 207 miles (shortest route, not preferred route)

Innsertnamehere · #19 Posted **May 29, 2023, 8:38 PM**

Hamilton:

1. St Catherines
2. Kitchener / Waterloo
2. Toronto
4. London
5. Barrie
6. Buffalo
7. Rochester
8. Windsor
9. Detroit

honorable mentions:

1. Syracuse (210 miles)
2. Flint (210 miles)
3. Erie (197,000 people in UA)

Hamilton excels more at the 4-5 hour drive mark, which draws in most of Michigan, Pittsburgh, Cleveland, Ottawa, etc. The 7-8 hour mark gets you to a huge chunk of major US/Canadian cities - Chicago, entire US eastern Seaboard like Boston, NYC, Philadelphia, Washington, the three major Ohio cities, Indianapolis, Louisville, etc.. Much better for long-weekend road trips than a regular weekend road trip. I try to do at least one or two long-weekend road trips to a major US city every summer - last year was Chicago.. still have to figure out this year.

westak · #20 Posted **May 29, 2023, 10:03 PM**