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LOL at airport traffic. Talk about a silly measure. That's almost purely location based. Look closely at those numbers. they are useless.
Don't get personal. With that said, it's a great way to measure it. What do I know though, I only have a Master's in Urban Planning and have worked on many transportation issues. It tells a story of who's going where and it's regional impact.
It shouldn't be a surprise to anyone that MPLS, Denver and Seattle have busy airports. All three are regionally isolated. What that does is prove that people are going there for something, whether that be for fun or for work.
Last edited by atlantagreg30127; 12-30-2011 at 09:28 PM..
Seattle and Minneapolis are pretty much neck and neck with everything. Denver is a little behind. And I still have no clue as to why San Diego is there. Or should I say Man Diego with it's thousands of SeaMen running around.
You're just salty that your city fell behind Denver in something. With that said, it's a great way to measure it. What do I know though, I only have a Master's in Urban Planning and have worked on many transportation issues. It tells a story of who's going where and it's regional impact.
It shouldn't be a surprise to anyone that MPLS, Denver and Seattle have busy airports. All three are regionally isolated. What that does is prove that people are going there for something, whether that be for fun or for work.
Some centrally located airports have high volumes of air traffic simply because of their location as a regional hub for domestic travel... I've had to change planes in Denver, Dallas, or Chicago probably 5-10 more times than I've actually set foot in those cities. Cities on the coast, which are more likely the hub for less frequent international routes--or have multiple major airports near the same city or in nearby metro, might not have the same volume of passenger traffic per airport--however it's not congruent with total number of visitors either business or tourism to a city.
Denver or Minneapolis has much higher air traffic in terms of pasenger volume than San Diego, yet many more tourists travel to San Diego for vacation. Over 50 percent of all travellers to the Denver airport are simply at the airport making a connection--never to leave the airport at any time. There's benefits to having a busy airport, but it's importance to a city or metro as a whole is sometimes overstated on here. In general it's not that hard to fly from most major cities in the US to other major cities.
Some centrally located airports have high volumes of air traffic simply because of their location as a regional hub for domestic travel... I've had to change planes in Denver, Dallas, or Chicago probably 5-10 more times than I've actually set foot in those cities. Cities on the coast, which are more likely the hub for less frequent international routes--or have multiple major airports near the same city or in nearby metro, might not have the same volume of passenger traffic per airport--however it's not congruent with total number of visitors either business or tourism to a city.
Denver or Minneapolis has much higher air traffic in terms of pasenger volume than San Diego, yet many more tourists travel to San Diego for vacation. Over 50 percent of all travellers to the Denver airport are simply at the airport making a connection--never to leave the airport at any time. There's benefits to having a busy airport, but it's importance to a city or metro as a whole is sometimes overstated on here. In general it's not that hard to fly from most major cities in the US to other major cities.
That's why I didn't base my quick, easy little interpretation of where Seattle is on some 'level' that nobody can define on one single metric - I used four.
First of all I would shift Philly and Detroit from the first tier to the second tier as they're both major cities, but at the same time they're not the principal city in their respective regions (with NYC being the principal city in the Mid-Atlantic and Chicago being the pricincipal city in the Midwest). I would also move Denver up to the first tier. Although it isn't as big as its counterparts, Denver is the prinicipal city in the Mountain West and is also a major logistics hub in the nation.
Overall Seattle belongs in the first tier as its the principal city in the Pacific Northwest and is a major industrial hub in technology and aviation.
SD pales incoparison to Philadelphia, which I know you hate but explain which metric SD compare remotely besides weather to Philadelphia
Even for GA =, Atlanta and Miami are by far the laggards economically but explain how SD would trump either a Atlanta ot Miami
BTWI think La Jolla is just about perfect but please explain this
Calm down, I have not targeted or made any ill commentary of Philly in months. I only said if San Diego were in 40/37 other states it would be the most important city in that state minus CA, TX, FL, NY, IL, PA, WA, MN, MI, CO, GA, MA, or AZ. I think you may have misread my post?
Explain why San Diego is one of my least favorite places in the U.S.? Well to boot its a boring city, have you been to LA, OC, and San Diego in the same day? San Diego competes more with the OC than LA on entertainment and IMO the OC even feels more urban. San Diego has good scenery but I like SF, Denver, Phoenix, Salt Lake City, and Seattle more in the west. Diego also feels much to small for me.
Calm down, I have not targeted or made any ill commentary of Philly in months. I only said if San Diego were in 40/37 other states it would be the most important city in that state minus CA, TX, FL, NY, IL, PA, WA, MN, MI, CO, GA, MA, or AZ. I think you may have misread my post?
Explain why San Diego is one of my least favorite places in the U.S.? Well to boot its a boring city, have you been to LA, OC, and San Diego in the same day? San Diego competes more with the OC than LA on entertainment and IMO the OC even feels more urban. San Diego has good scenery but I like SF, Denver, Phoenix, Salt Lake City, and Seattle more in the west. Diego also feels much to small for me.
I've lived in Bay Area, SD, and OC and can tell you these areas are very comparable. Driving the 5 down from LA to SD is not a good guage. Although the 5 in SD does eventually hit downtown, the 5 bypasses many of the more urban areas of SD in favor of staying along the coast. If you don't like SD, that is fine, but it would be remiss to put it down especially compared to some of these other cities.
You're just salty that your city fell behind Denver in something. With that said, it's a great way to measure it. What do I know though, I only have a Master's in Urban Planning and have worked on many transportation issues. It tells a story of who's going where and it's regional impact.
Does it tell an accurate story? I seriously doubt it. Total traffic is totally misleading. Unless Denver is more important than Philly, Boston, DC, and NYC. By your reasoning and standard of measure that is the case. Denver is busier than the respective airports in those cities, so therefore in that category it's more important.
You can't be serious?
Anyone who knows anything about airports knows what hubs are. And Denver is a major hub for Continental, United and Frontier. Why do you suppose that is? Is it because it's such an important city? People all want to go there? Or maybe, just perhaps a huge chunk of that traffic is Hub traffic that lands there because of its central location? Those passengers only involvement in ?Denver is at the concessions or bars, etc between flights.
Quote:
. What that does is prove that people are going there for something, whether that be for fun or for work.
The only accurate measure of airport traffic would be looking at those terminating at a city of leaving it as a point of origin.
Does it tell an accurate story? I seriously doubt it. Total traffic is totally misleading. Unless Denver is more important than Philly, Boston, DC, and NYC. By your reasoning and standard of measure that is the case. Denver is busier than the respective airports in those cities, so therefore in that category it's more important.
You can't be serious?
Anyone who knows anything about airports knows what hubs are. And Denver is a major hub for Continental, United and Frontier. Why do you suppose that is? Is it because it's such an important city? People all want to go there? Or maybe, just perhaps a huge chunk of that traffic is Hub traffic that lands there because of its central location? Those passengers only involvement in ?Denver is at the concessions or bars, etc between flights.
The only accurate measure of airport traffic would be looking at those terminating at a city of leaving it as a point of origin.
Yeah airport traffic statistics are silly, but if you look at another set of airport data Seattle actually looks even more impressive.
Seattle has non-stop flights to Paris, London, Frankfurt, Amsterdam, ReykjavÃk, Tokyo, Seoul, Beijing, Osaka, Taipei, and Dubai. That is extremely impressive list of international destinations given Seattle's relative smallness and considering that A) many of these flights are operated by foreign carriers and B) Seattle is not a major hub of any large domestic carrier (Alaska doesn't count), then the conclusion is that Seattle's business community is active enough to support many of these routes independently. I bet almost no other city in Seattle's tier could support those routes without being a major hub for the rest of the country like, say, Denver.
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