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I think the tool doesn't have very low-level population or density data. It seems to have some larger level data, but not sufficient to correctly extrapolate the population for each boundaries. For example, if you drop 1.1 mile radius circle on DTLA, it'll give you mostly 69,125, which is higher than known DTLA populations, even though 1.1 mile radius circle do not cover the entire DTLA. But once you drop the same circle around the Financial District, it'll give you 202,813. That is exactly the same figure when you drop the circle on Westlake, Pico Union. For Historic South-Central, University Park and Fashion District in DTLA, it gives you and 130,051.
I think the tool doesn't have very low-level population or density data. It seems to have some larger level data, but not sufficient to correctly extrapolate the population for each boundaries. For example, if you drop 1.1 mile radius circle on DTLA, it'll give you mostly 69,125, which is higher than known DTLA populations, even though 1.1 mile radius circle do not cover the entire DTLA. But once you drop the same circle around the Financial District, it'll give you 202,813. That is exactly the same figure when you drop the circle on Westlake, Pico Union. For Historic South-Central, University Park and Fashion District in DTLA, it gives you and 130,051.
Doesn't the radius tool warn that its accuracy can be off for radii under 3mi?
Interesting how Boston is 6th by “population within 50mi” but 31st by “urban area density”. Do the other cities just have really tiny urban areas?
I think we have to realize that density and walkability dont always go hand in hand when talking about urban and metro areas. Boston is certainly much more walkable than LA or Las Vegas, but the later have high density suburban sprawl. Sometimes suburban sprawl creates more density than the urban variety when looking at the urban area as a whole.
Yeah the key is, car centric development decrease walkability. You can have suburbs of 15,000 ppsm and it coud not be walkable (ie, some NJ burbs, Miami suburbs, NOVA, etc)... On the flip, town squares and centres that promote walkability can be significantly less dense but highly walkable (Salem NH, Rockport MA, Newburyport MA, Huudson Valley towns, etc)
Its more or less whether you are car centric or not, rather density.. although higher density does help support the walkability of an area.
I think we have to realize that density and walkability dont always go hand in hand when talking about urban and metro areas. Boston is certainly much more walkable than LA or Las Vegas, but the later have high density suburban sprawl. Sometimes suburban sprawl creates more density than the urban variety when looking at the urban area as a whole.
But the 50 mile radius is a standard land area. Since Boston is 6th in population by that metric, then it’s 6th in density over that area. Herein lies my confusion.
I think it’s that 50 mile radius results in a pretty huge area. Boston is not so dense on a small scale, but the larger region is dense/sprawling. Like, 50 miles from Boston almost gets you to Manchester.
Last edited by Boston Shudra; 09-06-2020 at 01:18 PM..
But the 50 mile radius is a standard land area. Since Boston is 6th in population by that metric, then it’s 6th in density over that area. Herein lies my confusion.
I think it’s that 50 mile radius results in a pretty huge area. Boston is not so dense on a small scale, but the larger region is dense/sprawling. Like, 50 miles from Boston almost gets you to Manchester.
The numbers I gave were for the urban area, not the 50 mile radius.
Went through and did a side by side comparison of the two radius tools. For the most part I do think the true radius tool will give a close to accurate idea of a city's influence. The biggest outliers are Dallas, Houston and Atlanta which I think are way off. Other high growth Sunbelt cities also appear to have artificially low numbers for current population as well. I took out Hartford, Providence, San Jose, and Baltimore from this list since their radius' disproportionately overlap with larger cities. Here they are ranked below using the numbers from the county level tool.
Location: That star on your map in the middle of the East Coast, DMV
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Originally Posted by mjlo
Went through and did a side by side comparison of the two radius tools. For the most part I do think the true radius tool will give a close to accurate idea of a city's influence. The biggest outliers are Dallas, Houston and Atlanta which I think are way off. Other high growth Sunbelt cities also appear to have artificially low numbers for current population as well. I took out Hartford, Providence, San Jose, and Baltimore from this list since their radius' disproportionately overlap with larger cities. Here they are ranked below using the numbers from the county level tool.
........ ....County Level tool.. True Radius Tool
1 New York ....20,372,815.... 18,569,970
2 Los Angeles .14,060,805.... 14,614,210
3 Chicago ........9,306,096...... 9,643,619
4 Philadelphia ....8,672,794...... 8,089,757 Washington .... 8,084,676 (tool omits Fairfax County)...7,276,711
5 San Francisco .7,739,378...... 7,085,782
6 Boston ...........7,406,952..... 6,643,365
7 Dallas .............7,360,274..... 5,457,419
8 Houston ..........7,066,141..... 4,909,283
Thanks for this break down again, just wanted to re-post this with the given accurate complete county info for Washington, again I don't know if there are any other cities counted on that tool with their largest county omitted from the count like Fairfax is, but it changes the rankings a bit here for Washington. This would apply to the 50 mile radius of Baltimore too which essentially is 6th. Has anyone else noticed omissions like this with their city?
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