Farthest suburb of Philly

[soug]

I'd say the Pine Barrens form a pretty definitive edge to the Philly metro. I guess you could consider Hammonton a burb as a stretch. On the other hand, if this were the NYC or DC metro, Hammonton would definitely be a burb, seeing as it's only 45/50 mins from the city, which is on par for the above metros.

[Lucario]

Originally Posted by Angus215

Philly has this ring of exurban towns that i would consider the effective end of the philadelphia metro area. This would include Yardley, New Hope, Doylestown, Collegeville, Phoenixville, Downington, West Chester, Kennet Square . . . maybe Medford, Bordentown, and Princeton on the NJ side. If you're outside of that ring, you're not really in the philadelphia area and even some of those towns are not reasonably commutable to center city. The end of the SEPTA regional rail system would roughly correlate.

I would not include Princeton as part of the Philly metro only because it's considered part of the NYC metro by the Feds. But functionally you could consider it the northeasternmost apex - north and east of Princeton are Somerset and Middlesex Counties, definitely not part of the Phila. metro. area (though Comcast does broadcast Philly channels as far north as South Brunswick).

[gwillyfromphilly]

Originally Posted by soug

I'd say the Pine Barrens form a pretty definitive edge to the Philly metro. I guess you could consider Hammonton a burb as a stretch. On the other hand, if this were the NYC or DC metro, Hammonton would definitely be a burb, seeing as it's only 45/50 mins from the city, which is on par for the above metros.

Depending on the traffic you can get from Philly to Hammonton in about 30 min. This thread is interesting in that it was created just before the OMB released the new designations. Now that the Philly area officially added places like Atlantic County, NJ back to it's metro you can now make a legitimate argument that the furthest suburb of Philly reaches the Jersey Shore.

[chocisful]

I'd say Morgantown to Douglassville in SE Berks Co in Pa and Atlantic City in NJ

[drive carephilly]

Originally Posted by Lucario

I would not include Princeton as part of the Philly metro only because it's considered part of the NYC metro by the Feds.

Not really.

The US OMB considers Mercer County to be part of the NY Metro. This is because commuter patterns in Mercer favor jobs in Middlesex and Monmouth over Bucks and Burlington.

The US DOT considers Mercer to be part of the Philly Metro. This is because of the strong orientation of transportation infrastructure towards Philadelphia - multiple rail lines, interstates, US highways, etc that head towards Philly or South Jersey.