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Population wise Philadelphia is at center of 30 million people if you use a radius of 100 miles around center city . no other city can make that claim . That's about 1.5 hours driving time at 60 mph .
Geographically, the perfect answer for the contiguous lower 48 states of the United States would have been a major city located slightly right of center in the state of Nebraska and aligned with the same latitude as Colorado's northern state line (Omaha is still too far East in Nebraska). Basically the exact spot that North Platte, Nebraska is located would be the ideal exact center of the United States' 48 contiguous states, at least when speaking geographically. However, no major city exists out there. So I'll go with Omaha and Kansas City. Wichita for a smaller city with an area less than 1 million people might also apply well for this topic.
The geographic center of the 48 contiguous states lies on the grounds of Fort Riley in north-central Kansas.
Kansas City, about 100 miles to its east, is the closest large city to it. Wichita may be slightly closer to it as the crow flies, but by road, it takes longer to get there.
The center of the population is heading towards Dallas/Fort Worth. The closest city of any size to it right now is Springfield, Mo.
I came up with the idea for this thread by living in lots of different places and always hearing, no matter where I lived, how ideal the location was from boosters. Sometimes, when a city doesn't have that much to promote, they'll play the location card. I've lived in the complete middle of nowhere, and sure enough, you'll have people saying "this is an ideal location, because it's only two hours from X." Located in the midwest? Well, now you can play the "we're six hours from %60 of the U.S. population" card, even if your city lacks basic infrastructure like Amtrak.
I am a native Pittsburgher. I could have made the case that Pittsburgh came up as THE vital link between the east coast and Great Lakes mega regions. It's not on the poll because times have changed. Finding a direct flight from California to Pittsburgh is a six month in advance research project. I'm guessing people flying around the region aren't stopping in Pittsburgh too much. Speaking of flights, in searching flights from San Diego to Pittsburgh (there is no direct service) the stopover option will almost ALWAYS be ORD or DFW. I've never even seen STL or KC airports offered as stops.
A more abstract way to think about centrally located is to ask "what city am I interacting with the most without even planning to?" Even though I voted Chicago, I would say my answer to that question would be Dallas. Whether it be the airport or dealing with corporate offices there, it just always seems to be in the way.
I went back and re-read your original post and voted Chicago as a result. As I posted above, no other city in your poll is as large a jumping-off point for traffic (passenger and freight) headed from one part of the country to the other - and that was by design: the railroads that served it all ended there rather than ran through it. The only major Northeast railroad that served the Midwest and went somewhere other than Chicago was the mighty Pennsylvania itself; it had a iine that ended in St. Louis.
I wouldn't give Amtrak all that much weight in determining transport centrality, as its passenger traffic outside the Northeast Corridor is just about a rounding error compared to road and air passenger traffic. The "most centrally located" city on the Amtrak system in terms of passenger volume is New York, with Philadelphia running second. Chicago, however, is the only hub city Amtrak has outside the Corridor, so that's another point in its favor. (FWIW, both KC and St. Louis have Amtrak service, but only KC sits on the route of one of the major transcontinental trains.)
I do think, based on what you've said so far, that your assessment gives freight short shrift. Again, that wouldn't dislodge Chicago from its top-of-the-heap position, but it would knock Dallas down a few notches, put Kansas City on the map as a top-five runner-up, and qualify Memphis for consideration.
Another point to consider concerning KC is the one I made about its airport. Southwest had wanted to use it as a secondary hub along the lines of Cincinnati (CVG - Greater Cincinnati's airport in Covington, Ky.), but found KCI's design ill-suited for the purpose and had been begging the city to replace it. Unfortunately, even though airport revenues pay off airport bonds and no city taxes are involved, Missouri law requires any public bond issue to be approved by the voters of the issuing jurisdiction, and for some strange reason, Kansas Citians still loved that drive-to-your-gate stuff. (You did read what I wrote about KCI and DFW being siblings in this regard, right?) It took the p-t-b a while to soften the electorate to the point where it finally agreed to approve the bonds for the new terminal. I think it might be interesting to see what happens to passenger air traffic at KCI about a decade hence.
Southwest, of course, is one of the reasons D-FW is on the list. But it doesn't fly out of DFW.
Another anecdotal data point that probably won't shift the debate but might be somewhat illustrative:
If I fly Southwest PHL<->MCI, I usually have to change planes at MDW.
On my most recent trip back to Kansas City, the change occurred in STL.
STL-MCi is one of the shortest airline flights you can take: you're barely up in the air before the "fasten seat belt" sign comes back on for the descent. It's about 30-35 minutes.
U.S. Distribution Logistics Locations
1.Northern Illinois/Indiana 2. Riverside/San Bernardino, CA 3.North Central Texas 4.Central Georgia 5.Greater Kansas City (KS, MO 6.Memphis, TN 7.Eastern PA (Lehigh Valley, Scranton/Wilkes-Barre 8.North Carolina Piedmont 9.Northwest Virginia 10.New Jersey
If you look at population across the US, the eastern half has much more than the west, and is more densely populated. So, you could focus on the eastern half, then look for the most central large city there.
U.S. Distribution Logistics Locations
1.Northern Illinois/Indiana 2. Riverside/San Bernardino, CA 3.North Central Texas 4.Central Georgia 5.Greater Kansas City (KS, MO 6.Memphis, TN 7.Eastern PA (Lehigh Valley, Scranton/Wilkes-Barre 8.North Carolina Piedmont 9.Northwest Virginia 10.New Jersey
So:
1. Chicago
2. LA (the metro next door)
3. Dallas/Fort Worth
4. Atlanta
5. Kansas City
6. Memphis
The remaining four have either no real ties to any of the cities that have been discussed here or have ties to more than one of them (Eastern Pennsylvania and New Jersey).
DFW no doubt. That is why it is a major distribution hub, has a large international airport, transcontinental highways and railways and has nearly 8 million people in its CSA.
DFW also has numerous sizeable metro areas within a 5 hour drive:
Houston
OKC
Tulsa
Austin
Waco
Killeen-Temple-Belton
San Antonio
Shreveport
Little Rock
Lubbock
Wichita
Midland-Odessa
I think Dallas is #2
Chicago has (within more or less your 5 hours) in no particular order:
Detroit
St Louis
Indianpolis
Milwaukee
Des Moines (5 our 11 min lol)
Cincinnati
Grand Rapids
Madison
Fort Wayne
Toledo
Cleveland (5 hour 11 min)
Lansing (hey I guess if we are counting Waco and Killeen)
Louisville
Davenport ( i mean we are counting Waco after all)
Peoria (again, Waco...)
Rockford, IL (metro 349,431)
Columbus ( about 5 hour 15 min)
I mean yes, some of these are just a little over the 5 hour mark, but so is Dallas to Wichita.
I'd say the Dallas-Fort Worth area. Fort Worth was nicknamed as the city where the West begins and the whole region is culturally Southern with some Midwestern flair due to the proximity to Oklahoma although both North Texas and Oklahoma aren't exactly Midwestern or Southern either. DFW is also well-known for its large international airport and one major interstate (I-35) that runs from the US - Mexico border (Laredo, TX) all the way up to Duluth, MN.
Last edited by michaeltx9412; 07-29-2018 at 08:54 AM..
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