Texas Triangle - America's next megalopolis? (Los Angeles, cons, downtown, market)

[kidphilly]

Originally Posted by frsno1

Southern California is a megalopolis without question at this point and Northern California is rapidly on its way to one as well.

The distances and area size for those two are alot smaller than the Texas Triangle, but the Southern CA megalopolis has approx the same number of people as the state of Texas. Northern CA megalopolis has approx 12 million people in an area maybe a quarter of the size of the Texas Triangle.

At its current growth rate, the Texas Triangle will conceviably become a megalopolis one day, but it won't be the next one after BosWash.

agree on Cali - the triangle may get there but is decades away

There are as many people in the Bos-Wash corrider as the whole state of California and almost twice the population of the whole state of Texas; And that doesnt even include another area that continues to develop in VA between NOVA to Richmond to Norfolk

add in the states which are much smaller in this region and you are at 70+ million

Plus their geographic seperation is much greater so much more to infill or outfill for that matter

[south-to-west]

I would argue that the DFW-Houston-San Antonio-Austin triangle is already a megalopolis in that their regional economies are all tied together with Houston being the major port and Dallas being the major inland logistical hub - both of which connect the megalopolis to other regions and countries. San Antonio has gained greater prominence in trade due in part to NAFTA and Austin has emerged as a center for technology and culture. Cities don't have to necessarily blend together seamlessly to create a megalopolis - rather they are formed by several cities located within close proximity of each other and form economic ties.

[kidphilly]

A megalopolis (sometimes called a megapolis or megaregion) is typically defined as a chain of roughly adjacent metropolitan areas. The term was used by Lewis Mumford in his 1938 book, The Culture of Cities, which described it as the first stage in urban overdevelopment and social decline. Later, it was used by Jean Gottmann in 1957, to describe the huge metropolitan area along the eastern seaboard of the U.S. extending from Boston, Massachusetts through New York City; Philadelphia, Pennsylvania; Baltimore, Maryland and ending in Washington, D.C.. A megalopolis is also frequently a megacity, megapolitan area, or a metropolitan area with a total population in excess of 10 million people.
Megalopolis is used in urban studies as a term to link the metropolitan Combined Statistical Areas of Boston–Worcester–Manchester, MA–RI–NH; Springfield, MA–Holyoke, MA, Hartford–West Hartford–Willimantic, CT; New York–Newark–Bridgeport, NY–NJ–CT–PA; Philadelphia–Camden–Vineland, PA–NJ–DE–MD; and Washington, D.C.–Baltimore–Northern Virginia, DC–MD–VA–WV.
The Pittsburgh–Chicago Corridor is an urban studies term that describes the area running through the Rust Belt from the Mid-Atlantic States to the Western Great Lakes region, although great spans of agricultural land and woodlots separates the urban areas. Within this megalopolis, the Steel City Corridor describes the area connecting Cleveland to Pittsburgh via Youngstown and Warren, Ohio, and Sharon–Farrell–New Castle, Pennsylvania. Historically, these areas are known as the Steel Valleys (along the Mahoning and Shenango rivers).

• Boston–Manchester-Providence–Hartford–Springfield-New York–Newark–Trenton-Philadelphia–Wilmington–Baltimore–Washington, D.C.-Northern Virginia, known as the Northeast Megalopolis or the Northeast Corridor, the most populous and largely developed area in the Western Hemisphere (55 million)

• Green Bay–Milwaukee–Chicago–Indianapolis–Rockford–Madison–Grand Rapids–Detroit/Windsor–Fort Wayne–Toledo–Cleveland–Columbus–Cincinnati–Pittsburgh–Erie–Buffalo–Toronto–Hamilton, known as ChiPitts and previously known as the Rust Belt (54 million)

• Texas Triangle–San Antonio–Austin–Dallas/Fort Worth–Houston (16.1 million) - Nearly half the size of a combined NYC and Philly which are only 46 miles apart

[kidphilly]

So others worlwide - absolutely huge! Wow

• Pearl River Delta: Guangzhou, Shenzhen, Hong Kong, Dongguan, Foshan, Jiangmen, Zhongshan, Zhuhai, Macau in China (120 million)[2]

• Indo-Gangetic plain: Ahmedabad, Ludhiana, Amritsar, Chandigarh, Delhi, Kanpur, Lucknow, Allahabad, Varanasi, Patna, Kolkata, Dhaka, Lahore, Faisalabad, Rawalpindi, Islamabad, Multan, Hyderabad and Karachi in India, Bangladesh and Pakistan. (90 million)

• Yangtze River Delta: Shanghai, Nanjing, Hangzhou, Ningbo, Suzhou, Wuxi, Changzhou, Zhenjiang, Yangzhou, Taizhou, Nantong, Huzhou, Jiaxing, Shaoxing, Zhoushan in China (88 million)[3]

• Taiheiyō Belt – Ibaraki, Saitama, Chiba, Tokyo, Kanagawa, Shizuoka, Aichi, Gifu, Mie, Osaka, Hyogo, Wakayama, Okayama, Hiroshima, Yamaguchi, Kitakyūshū, Fukuoka, and Oita in Japan. (80 million)

[wpmeads]

So I guess South-to-west was right. It's already a megalopolis.

[wpmeads]

Originally Posted by kidphilly

So others worlwide - absolutely huge! Wow

• Pearl River Delta: Guangzhou, Shenzhen, Hong Kong, Dongguan, Foshan, Jiangmen, Zhongshan, Zhuhai, Macau in China (120 million)[2]

• Indo-Gangetic plain: Ahmedabad, Ludhiana, Amritsar, Chandigarh, Delhi, Kanpur, Lucknow, Allahabad, Varanasi, Patna, Kolkata, Dhaka, Lahore, Faisalabad, Rawalpindi, Islamabad, Multan, Hyderabad and Karachi in India, Bangladesh and Pakistan. (90 million)

• Yangtze River Delta: Shanghai, Nanjing, Hangzhou, Ningbo, Suzhou, Wuxi, Changzhou, Zhenjiang, Yangzhou, Taizhou, Nantong, Huzhou, Jiaxing, Shaoxing, Zhoushan in China (88 million)[3]

• Taiheiyō Belt – Ibaraki, Saitama, Chiba, Tokyo, Kanagawa, Shizuoka, Aichi, Gifu, Mie, Osaka, Hyogo, Wakayama, Okayama, Hiroshima, Yamaguchi, Kitakyūshū, Fukuoka, and Oita in Japan. (80 million)

Yeah I'm not sure I would wont to city one over 80 million in the US.

[LeoZ]

I don't think we'd ever become something like the Northeast Megalopolis, simply because the cities are more spread out. But I can definitely see high-speed rail lines connecting Dallas-Ft. Worth, Houston, and San Antonio and Austin. In fact, I'm pretty sure that Austin and San Antonio are already in the process of getting that Lone Star Rail Line up, but I don't know what the word on that is.

[Chicago60614]

Originally Posted by wpmeads

So I guess South-to-west was right. It's already a megalopolis.

Well I think we're talking megalopolis like the Northeast - with a huge area that's basically all urban with a few breaks between.

In that sense Texas Triangle is nowhere near a megalopolis. Those cities are HUNDREDS of miles apart.

If we're just talking about areas that have similar economies and are within regions, I suppose there would be many of examples like Texas. Larger populations as well for some.

Atlanta to Charlotte and cities in between. Milwaukee to Chicago to Detroit. Houston to Dallas to San Antonio. Detroit, Cleveland, Pittsburgh. LA and San Fran, Portland to Seattle to Vancouver. San Fran to Sacramento. etc. etc.

[wpmeads]

Originally Posted by Chicago60614

Well I think we're talking megalopolis like the Northeast - with a huge area that's basically all urban with a few breaks between.

In that sense Texas Triangle is nowhere near a megalopolis. Those cities are HUNDREDS of miles apart.

If we're just talking about areas that have similar economies and are within regions, I suppose there would be many of examples like Texas. Larger populations as well for some.

Atlanta to Charlotte and cities in between. Milwaukee to Chicago to Detroit. Houston to Dallas to San Antonio. Detroit, Cleveland, Pittsburgh. LA and San Fran, Portland to Seattle to Vancouver. San Fran to Sacramento. etc. etc.

Did you read Kidphilly's post? That's what I was referring to.

[Spade]

I think Austin will grow into the Killeen-Temple area. It's pretty much inevitable as Austin grows north and Killeen grows South. There is still about 30 miles of rural area mostly between Temple and Waco and then 100 more miles between Waco and Dallas. But the Austin-San Antonio could add Killeen-Temple if Austin continues to grow North and Northwest and they show no signs of stopping either. They are already widening the highway anticipating this.