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It's a bit more than 3,000 km², inluding places like this or that. Of course a far cry from Houston's 23,000 km², but the context is different: much less dense cities an countryside there.
The French INSEE uses a 40% commuter threshold, but on a very small scale (municipality), whereas the US Census uses a 25% interchange threshold by county. Would be curious to see the results by arrondissement in France or by city in the US.
Last edited by Rozenn; 05-12-2015 at 03:09 PM..
Reason: Metro, not urban
Marseille metropolitan area already includes place like Aix en Provence that are pretty independant of Marseille.
I don't think that even with the more lax figure that you will find more than 2 million inhabitants for Marseille.
It's a bit more than 3,000 km², inluding places like this or that. Of course a far cry from Houston's 23,000 km², but the context is different: much less dense cities an countryside there.
The French INSEE uses a 40% commuter threshold, but on a very small scale (municipality), whereas the US Census uses a 25% interchange threshold by county. Would be curious to see the results by arrondissement in France or by city in the US.
Quote:
Originally Posted by forgotten username
Geez, I had no idea the metros used were that huge. Some of the area covered for Lyon included places that are pretty far away from the actual city.
Yes, while large, these are still significantly smaller than the metro areas used by the US Census by a huge margin.
For example, the Marseille - Aix-en-Provence aire urbaine covers 3,174 km2 while the Houston MSA covers 26,061 km2.
You might say that Houston might actually rightfully cover that much area as it's actually a bigger city than Marseille, but then would anyone argue that Houston's metro is actually rightfully larger than Paris's? For the sake of that comparison, we're talking a Paris aire urbaine of 17,174 km2 to, again, Houston MSA's 26,061 km2.
So yea, while Houston is substantially bigger, it's not actually as much bigger as a quick aire urbaine to MSA comparison would have you believe.
More a city is located in a sparsely populated area, more it's metropolitan area tends to cover a large area. Also the administrative level used to calculate the metropolitan can play a role in its land size.
See the exemple of Lille and Toulouse.
Lille is located in a very dense region, Toulouse is located in a sparsely populated region
Toulouse: 1.2 million 5,400 km²
Lille: 1.1 million 925 km²
Why the metropolitan area of Toulouse is so much bigger in land size than Lille ? (If you take 5000 km² around Lille, you will find more more people than 500km² around Toulouse).
Why ? Because there are no city around Toulouse, so everybody living in a big region around Toulouse must go there to work.
In Lille, because there are many cities close to each other, these cities are big enough to be independent of Lille.
Anyway what matters in metropolitan area is the population, 99% of Houston MSA in a much smaller area than the 26,061 km², so covering a large distance don't change much because there are very few people around.
So the fact that a metropolitan area spreads over 20,000 km² in a low density region has little effect on the total population, unlike in a dense region.
Yes, while large, these are still significantly smaller than the metro areas used by the US Census by a huge margin.
For example, the Marseille - Aix-en-Provence aire urbaine covers 3,174 km2 while the Houston MSA covers 26,061 km2.
You might say that Houston might actually rightfully cover that much area as it's actually a bigger city than Marseille, but then would anyone argue that Houston's metro is actually rightfully larger than Paris's? For the sake of that comparison, we're talking a Paris aire urbaine of 17,174 km2 to, again, Houston MSA's 26,061 km2.
So yea, while Houston is substantially bigger, it's not actually as much bigger as a quick aire urbaine to MSA comparison would have you believe.
Houston sprawls slightly more than Paris, In fact Houston Sprawls more than many cities over 10 million, Manila, Lagos, Karachi (London I am not completely sure) etc. Houston is the king of Sprawl, Driving from the North-side of Houston (Just South of Conroe) it takes you a solid 2 hours of urban grid to get to Galveston to cross the entire city going comfortably 10 m/h above speed limit. My family drove from the east side of Paris into the city and was surprised how little it took to get to the center of Paris with traffic it took less than an hour but more than 30 minutes. and without traffic it would have taken 40 to 45 minutes tops. In terms of sheer size because of the lack of density us cities give the going on forever feeling you just don't get in cities of similar size in other countries. The only 2 countries that can compete in size of city is Japan and China and that is only the mega cities.
Houston at same scale as several cities OpenStreetMap -Marseille OpenStreetMap Houston OpenStreetMap as you can see Houston is slightly bigger. OpenStreetMap Depending on How you classify urban area Houston might be slightly bigger or smaller. OpenStreetMap Cities in the third world tend to kill all other cities in density- Karachi OpenStreetMap Like I said before, Manila
Another thing I never get although cities claim being urban and dense is the in thing how come no one seems to mention how Third world countries large cities make Paris and London look like the child poster for sprawl and shame U.S cities even more? I mean look at Mumbai OpenStreetMap
Look at Delhi OpenStreetMap
Look at Lagos OpenStreetMap At about the same zoom as Houston you have a ridiculous 25-30 million people living in the almost exact same area.
People : Depends on You. Unless you mean diversity Houston is more diverse look it up, if you don't believe me.
Better life : Houston, way cheaper than European cities in terms of House prices.
Entertainment : Houston, Museums and some of the nicest parks I have seen in the U.S. The Theater district is the second largest in the U.S after NYC, Also many stadiums for an array of sports teams, and concerts.
Architectures : Tie ( I like modern buildings)
Economy : Houston, Houston has one of the best economies in the U.S
Safest : Marseilles, but in terms of Terrorism and Property crimes Houston might be safer although Terrorism rarely happens in either cities (1 Attack a decade) and in Houston's case I am not sure we have ever had a Terrorist attack.
Downtown : Marseilles- More Vibrant/ Houston- Less vibrant, but almost no pickpocket stories (Because if you got pick pocketed in Downtown you could probably find your pickpocket by looking at the 3 people on the same block as you in Downtown) and very few wait lines for some of the best museums the U.S has to offer.
Suburbs : Houston, suburbs in Europe are usually economically challenged towns with lots of poor people.
Future possibilities : Houston, Houston has room to grow and is currently growing at an extremely fast pace, The County of Harris grew from 2.8 million in 1990 to 4.1 million in 2010, and Fort Bend a suburban county grew from 225,000 to 585,000 from 1990 to 2010 that is literally more than doubling in 20 years.
Job : Houston- This ties to the Economy being great. Unemployment: 4.6% and falling. Marseilles- 13% and also falling but slower rate.
Public transportation : Marseilles, Montpellier, France would beat Houston in Public transportation by shear number not even proportionally (exaggeration).
Shopping : Houston, if you like shopping at malls Houston has more than a dozen in the area. I don't know for Marseilles as that city might e better depending on your needs.
Open mindness : Houston, Our mayor is lesbian, and has been in office for 6+ years.
Schools : Houston, Public schools are excellent in the suburbs but the city itself most people don't want to talk about it., and Higher Education a lot more Universities than Marseilles but I didn't check the rankings to see if Marseilles universities were world renown so you can't completely trust my judgement on this one.
Weather : Marseilles, I like Houston weather better but if you want variety....
Marseille is more diverse in regards to religious diversity.
Of the city's 800,000 souls, some 200,000 are Muslim; 80,000 are Armenian Orthodox. There are nearly 80,000 Jews, the third-largest population in Europe, as well as 3,000 Buddhists. Marseille is HOME
to more Comorans (70,000) than any other city but Moroni, the CAPITAL of the East African island nation. Marseille has 68 Muslim prayer rooms, 41 synagogues and 29 Jewish schools, as well as an assortment of Buddhist temples.
That is only 2 religions, also if you go up I posted all the ethnicity/ religious people Houston has compared to Marseilles. Also If you count Apostolic Armenians as it's own religion, you might as well count the dozens of Protestant groups in Houston also as Houston is a majority Protestant city then Catholic. If you want to talk about more people that are not christian then yes the have a higher percent of non-Christians if you want to talk about religious diversity then I am sorry you aren't going to beat what is arguably the most diverse (some say NY or LA) in the U.S, and if you want to talk about Africans in Houston, Nigerians, Ethiopians and many other groups most likely outnumber Marseilles besides Cape Verdean and Comoros.
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