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Location: That star on your map in the middle of the East Coast, DMV
8,129 posts, read 7,572,838 times
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Gnutella
Downtown
1. Philadelphia
2. Washington DC
3. Houston
4. Miami
5. Atlanta
6. Dallas
I graded them based on a combination of height, area, population, building density, and ambiance. Philadelphia is the only one with all four qualities. Washington DC has the area, ambiance, population and building density, but no height whatsoever. Houston has the height, area and building density, but no population or ambiance. Miami has the area, population and building density, but lacks height compared to Philadelphia and Houston, and has spotty ambiance. Atlanta has the height, but lacks the population and ambiance, and its area is artificially inflated by extremely low building density. Dallas has height, and nothing else.
MSA
1. Atlanta
2. Washington DC
3. Houston
4. Dallas/Fort Worth
5. Miami
6. Philadelphia
Atlanta spreads out along the Piedmont like kudzu. Washington DC does too, but it hides its development a little bit better. Houston sprawls to the north and south, but dies pretty quickly to the east and west. Dallas/Fort Worth doesn't seem very centered in its highway layout, with most of its development seemingly north of I-30. Miami spreads out far along the Atlantic coast of south Florida, but dies instantly 10 miles inland. Philadelphia hides its MSA the best, with lots of green belts, a thick tree layer, and only peeks of development along the highways.
Traffic
1. Philadelphia
2. Miami
3. Houston
4. Dallas/Fort Worth
5. Atlanta
6. Washington DC
Philadelphia seems to have the least traffic, and Miami's traffic has never been bad when I've been there. Houston's traffic wasn't as bad as its reputation suggests. Traffic in Dallas/Fort Worth was worse. Atlanta and Washington DC have the worst traffic.
Highways
1. Houston
2. Atlanta
3. Dallas/Fort Worth
4. Miami
5. Philadelphia
6. Washington DC
Houston's highways are modern marvels of civil engineering. Atlanta's highways are very wide, but not as extensive as Houston's. Most of the highways in Dallas/Fort Worth seem to be south of the center of population. Miami has a tangle of north/south highways with a few east/west connectors. Philadelphia only has a few highways, and the one with the highest traffic volume is obsolete. Washington DC doesn't have much aside from its beltway.
I never understood that one, 295, 395, I-66, I-270, Route 50 in MD, I-97 if your talking AA county and the new ICC in Montgomery County MD-200, Dulles Toll Road, are all highways, and that's not to mention the parkways i.e. BW pkwy, GW pkwy, Suitland pkwy, Fairfax County pkwy etc. or Rt. 1 or 301 which have traffic lights so can be omitted. Granted the highway system here is not superior to those southern cities, but it certainly is more than just the Beltway.
To me, Dallas doesn't feel "big," but it does feel "endless" in a certain way. Kind of like metro Detroit, actually. You can drive and drive and drive, and drive across a lot of land, but not encounter much "stuff," if that makes sense - just a lot of low-density repetition, sort of like those cartoons where a character runs down a hallway, and the hallway loops over and over and over...
To me, Dallas doesn't feel "big," but it does feel "endless" in a certain way. Kind of like metro Detroit, actually. You can drive and drive and drive, and drive across a lot of land, but not encounter much "stuff," if that makes sense - just a lot of low-density repetition, sort of like those cartoons where a character runs down a hallway, and the hallway loops over and over and over...
1.Downtown size (Vibrancy)
1.Philly
2. DC
3. Atlanta
4. Miami
5. Houston
6. Dallas
2. Metropolitan area (size)
1. DC
2. DFW
3. Houston/Atlanta
5. DC
6. Philly
3. Subjective feel of size of city from being in the downtown
1. DC
2. Philly
3. Atlanta
4. Miami
5. Houston
6. Dallas
4. Subjective feel of size of city from driving across the metro
1. DFW
2. DC
3. Miami
4. Atlanta/Houston
6. Philly
5. Which has the worst traffic
1. DC
2. Atlanta
3. DFW
4. Houston
5. Miami
6. Philly
Overall Conclusions:
Philly; "feels" most like an urban, vibrant city than the rest but metro does not
DC; has the most overall vibrancy, big-city feel
Atlanta; (with midtown included) feels most big-city/vibrant southern city in it's core area
Houston; feels the most massive
DFW; seems the most endless metro but has the least vibrant city center
Miami, seems the most compact and contiguous in development
Location: That star on your map in the middle of the East Coast, DMV
8,129 posts, read 7,572,838 times
Reputation: 5791
Quote:
Originally Posted by Trimac20
Dallas - 6.5 million
Houston - 6.0 million
Philadelphia - 6.0 million
Washington D.C. - 5.7 million
Miami - 5.7 million
Atlanta - 5.4 million
Rank in terms of:
1. Downtown size
2. Metropolitan area size
3. Subjective feel of size of city from being in the downtown
4. Subjective feel of size of city from driving across the metro
5. Which has the worst traffic
6. Which has the most extensive freeway system
No other comparisons (like prominence, worldliness, skyline, attractiveness, public transport, entertainment, parks) just focus on these criteria.
DC's is truly much larger than 5.7 million, but if this is some kind of way to put it on the same platform as the others then ok whatever....Miami's "metro" stretches 100 miles north-south. Dallas, and ATL's is a much larger amount of land space taken up to "feel big." Oh, but if DC's goes 15-20 miles east and north and your in another major "metro area?" In terms of feel it definitely feels large to me, stretching from the Chesapeake bay to the Blue Ridge mountains. And probably truly containing more like 6.7- 7 million in those boundaries.
1.Downtown size (Vibrancy)
DFW; seems the most endless metro but has the least vibrant city center
If you are referring to the actual bounderies of Downtown Dallas then 10 years ago I would fully agree with you but now I would put it above Miami, Houston, and Atlanta. Uptown and Downtown Fort Worth are above it.
... again, it's TWO metro areas in one. There is no real 'center'. It's multiple.
The changes to metro definitions made it so that almost every metro area is a combination of multiple metros.
The difference between all other metros (including MSP) and Dallas is that all others have a true center while DFW doesn't.
Although MSP is a combination of two distinct cities, the core is the smooched area of Minneapolis and St Paul.
The difficulty in DFW is that they are not as close as MSP and they are not as distinct as SF and Oakland.
I can't think of any other metro where the main cities are as big as DFW but so far apart physically. Minn and ST Paul are both powerful cities but their cores merge to form one core.
Dallas is clearly the leader in DFW, so by default it is the center of the Metro, but the metro still feels disjointed. Oakland is big but grew as a result of people leaving SF for some reason or the other, so SF is clearly the core in the SF metro. Miami has big competition too, but Miami is the Core.
DFW will always be a region, no matter how much the physical cities run into each other because the cores are so far apart and because both core are big, distinct cities.
Quote:
Originally Posted by dollaztx
If you are referring to the actual bounderies of Downtown Dallas then 10 years ago I would fully agree with you but now I would put it above Miami, Houston, and Atlanta. Uptown and Downtown Fort Worth are above it.
LOL, DT Dallas above Miami, Houston and ATL????
Ha Ha Ha Ha ha.
Miami has the most vibrant core of the Bunch, Houston has the biggest, Atlanta is the best connected by PT.
Even with Uptown I don't see any advantage of Dallas over the others. DT plus Uptown Dallas is still smaller than the cores of Miami and Houston and smaller than DT plus Midtown ATL. It has the smallest pop of the 4 and does not compare with Miami and ATL in entertainment.
Miami for one seems more impressive in infrastructure and nightlife everytime I visit it.
Last edited by HtownLove; 04-18-2012 at 10:23 AM..
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