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Location: That star on your map in the middle of the East Coast, DMV
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Mr Ambitious
This is why it will feel weird when the DC CSA passes Chicago. Chicago will still feel much larger and busier than DC.
I don't think you can correlate how busy a downtown street relates to total population of an entire region. For example DC, even at the MSA level, is over 6 million people. That doesn't mean when I'm walking around K street it feels like 6 million people are hovering over me. Nor if I were walking up Michigan Ave in Chicago would I "feel" like 9 million people are hovering over me, the city is less than 3 million people. DC is known for having just as many "urban/suburban" CBD's outside of downtown as any metro in the country. This to me adds to the "size and feel" of DC's metro, and where it makes up a lot of ground. Chicago is not known for this, however Chicago's city and urban area are already larger than anywhere in the US other than NY and LA, I think that is understood. Population count is what it is, more people on here are ready to count a place short than relay the facts.
DC is easily in the top 5 overall busiest US downtowns by the way, and I've traveled a bit.
Last edited by the resident09; 03-26-2016 at 10:05 AM..
This is why it will feel weird when the DC CSA passes Chicago. Chicago will still feel much larger and busier than DC.
It will only feel weird if you define the DC CSA the same way you define Chicago's and most other CSAs (a central city surrounded by suburbs surrounded by exurbs). The DC CSA is actually the DC - Baltimore CSA. Think of the entirety of the region and the possibility of it being bigger than Chicago one day makes more sense. Its not just DC alone. Plus, as already stated, DC has bigger suburban business districts in comparison to Chicago so that too adds to different makeup of the area.
DC
more traffic
higher percentage of transit users
downtown population swells by 78% during the day
east coast pace versus midwest pace
The percentage stuff doesn't really shed too much light on things--absolute numbers over the same given areas would actually be a better indicator. Like, if DC somehow annexed some of its suburbs, then the percentage would go down. If Chicago somehow excised some parts of the South Side, the percentage for Chicago would go up. Downtown population swelling doesn't by itself say anything--it might just be that downtown DC simply has a relatively small number of people living there so it's much easier to get higher percentages. However, what's the total daytime population for both over comparable areas?
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