100 mile plus urban expanses (metro, suburban, Atlanta, Boston)

[frsno1]

Hi everyone, I'm new to the forum, but I have been on here reading with great interest for a while, and this will be my first post.

I have been wondering what metro areas have a continued urbanized built up area of at least 100 miles or more. Off the top of my head, I would say that the only metro areas that could truly qualify would be Miami going north to south, and Los Angeles going east to west. I think the Bay Area may also qualify, but not too sure.

Are there any others I may be missing?

[tablemtn]

Well, the NYC metro area sprawls out into northwest New Jersey, southwest Connecticut, and deep into Long Island. From west to east, Allamuchy Park in New Jersey to Calverton Airport in eastern Long Island is about 120 miles.

[mdp_az]

I would say that no "urban" area exists for 100 miles or more, however the MSAs in the northeast all tend to run together beginning from south of DC all the way up to Boston. The same thing is happening now as growth in the south fills in former farm and forest land along the I-85 corridor between Greenville, SC Richmond, VA. I'm guessing in another 20 years the drive from Atlanta all the way to Boston will be through mostly developed areas, whereas just 20 years ago the southern half of that drive passed quickly through some southern towns and cities and passed largely through rural areas in between.

[WildWestDude]

Tri-State area of IL-IN-WI. This area has all the Chicagoland suburbs including NW Indiana and up into the Milwaukee area!

[Chicago60614]

There's a built up corridor from Kenosha Wisconsin, down through the suburbs on the north lakeshore in Illinois, down through the heart of Chicago, and then out to Chesterton, Indiana.

That's 110 miles.

There's roughly 3 miles of open land between Kenosha and Racine, and 4 miles of open land between Racine and the south areas of Milwaukee. That land is fairly rapidly being developed, but if you include those 7 miles, you can connect the north side of Milwaukee to Chesterton, Indiana.


That's about 155 miles from one end to the other - with around 148 miles of that being urban/suburban areas.

[WILWRadio]

Originally Posted by mdp_az

I would say that no "urban" area exists for 100 miles or more, however the MSAs in the northeast all tend to run together beginning from south of DC all the way up to Boston. The same thing is happening now as growth in the south fills in former farm and forest land along the I-85 corridor between Greenville, SC Richmond, VA. I'm guessing in another 20 years the drive from Atlanta all the way to Boston will be through mostly developed areas, whereas just 20 years ago the southern half of that drive passed quickly through some southern towns and cities and passed largely through rural areas in between.

Drive I 91 from North Haven to New Haven and then merge onto I 95 south in New Haven and take that all the way into NYC. That is roughly 100 miles of urbanized and developed area. And the corridor from NYC to Philly to Wilmington, DE along I 95 is also virtually a concrete jungle too.

[Rachael84]

I don't think Miami. If you drive on Tamiami trail, it's pretty desolate once you hit like 20 miles outside the city.

NYC definitely. Our suburbs seem to go on forever. I guess the same could be said for LA.

[mike0421]

Here is an example of the NYC area, by zip code. Those with over 1000 people per square mile are yellow, those over 5000 are orange, and over 15000, red. These three shades to me would comprise a metro area. That's how I altered this map, anyway. Someone else might have a different opinion, threshold wise, on what constitutes a metro area.

[johnatl]

Originally Posted by Rachael84

I don't think Miami. If you drive on Tamiami trail, it's pretty desolate once you hit like 20 miles outside the city.

NYC definitely. Our suburbs seem to go on forever. I guess the same could be said for LA.

That's because the Tamiami Trail heads West to the Everglades and Naples. You won't see it in that direction.

Head North on I-95, US 1 or the Turnpike, and it is a solid mass of urbanity from South of Miami to North of West Palm Beach.

[frsno1]

Thanks for all the replies. I'm pretty sure about Miami though. If you head say from Tequesta to the north to Homestead to the south, it's definitly uninteruppted solid development the entire stretch...easily over 100 miles.