Do you live closer to your state capitol or another state's?

[hotdogPi]

Grand Junction, CO:  Pretty much equidistant between Denver and Salt Lake at about 275 miles either way.  Despite the winding, steep sections of I-70, Denver is shorter drive-time wise, "on a good day".

Which capitol is closer? (The capital is a city, but the capitol is a building.)

[national highway 1]

I live in Carlingford, a suburb of the capital of New South Wales, Sydney. The parliament building is 24 km (15 mi) from my house.

[Mr_Northside]

Based on the shortest routes Google has (as opposed to "as the crow flies"), Columbus OH is closer to my place in Pittsburgh than Harrisburg is.
Harrisburg - 207 mi
Columbus - 186 mi
(distance to capitol buildings)

[wolfiefrick]

I'm a bit closer to Springfield, IL than I am to Jefferson City. Jefferson City is exactly 128 miles from my hometown, while Springfield comes in at 111 miles.

[pianocello]

By car, my house in Davenport is closer to Des Moines than Madison by about 3 miles. As the crow flies, though, it's significantly closer to Madison and even Springfield than Des Moines.

Valparaiso is easily closer to Indy than to Springfield or Lansing.

[KEVIN_224]

I live about 10 mi/16 km from downtown Hartford. The CT Fastrak line, which starts in downtown New Britain by Main Street and Columbus Boulevard is a hair over 9 miles long on its dedicated busway.

[CtrlAltDel]

Here is a map that shows the closest capital city, as the crow flies. I haven't been able to find one with driving times.

[roadman65]

I never thought of it until this map, being I live in Orlando, its not near any state border due to the fact my state is a peninsula.  However, the way the map is shaded green, it shows me that for the sake of the OP, that Tallahassee, even though over 200 plus miles away is my nearest state capital.

However I am amazed that Buffalo is closer to Harrisburg than it is its own state's capital.

[cl94]

Here is a map that shows the closest capital city, as the crow flies. I haven't been able to find one with driving times.

Of course, that only assumes US capitals. Much of New York is closer to Toronto. Most of Southern California is closest to Mexicali, while southern Texas is closer to Monterrey (Mexico has states). Northern Washington and Idaho have Vancouver and Calgary closer, as is Winnipeg for parts of North Dakota and Minnesota.

I never thought of it until this map, being I live in Orlando, its not near any state border due to the fact my state is a peninsula.  However, the way the map is shaded green, it shows me that for the sake of the OP, that Tallahassee, even though over 200 plus miles away is my nearest state capital.

However I am amazed that Buffalo is closer to Harrisburg than it is its own state's capital.

Having lived there, Buffalo is more like Cleveland and Columbus than most of New York. The distance has something to do with it.

[empirestate]

Here is a map that shows the closest capital city, as the crow flies. I haven't been able to find one with driving times.

The next game is to identify the tripoints on this map that are equidistant from three state capitals. :-)


iPhone

[Rothman]

Here is a map that shows the closest capital city, as the crow flies. I haven't been able to find one with driving times.

The next game is to identify the tripoints on this map that are equidistant from three state capitals. :-)


iPhone

[jeffandnicole]

Here is a map that shows the closest capital city, as the crow flies. I haven't been able to find one with driving times.

Congrats to Delaware & Rhode Island!

[Pete from Boston]

Here is a map that shows the closest capital city, as the crow flies. I haven't been able to find one with driving times.

The next game is to identify the tripoints on this map that are equidistant from three state capitals. :-)


iPhone

I would be interested in figuring out which states have the greatest portion of their state closer to their capital than to another's, but not enough to run that query.

[jeffandnicole]

Here is a map that shows the closest capital city, as the crow flies. I haven't been able to find one with driving times.

The next game is to identify the tripoints on this map that are equidistant from three state capitals. :-)


iPhone

I would be interested in figuring out which states have the greatest portion of their state closer to their capital than to another's, but not enough to run that query.

If you just mean the state, I hinted that above: Rhode Island & Delaware are entirely within their state's colors, so they would win.

If you're talking about a state's population, then by eyeballing it several states would be very close.

[kkt]

I'm surprised by how closely Washington's capital area fits its state borders.  (Of course, that's if you exclude Victoria BC, but still.)

[thenetwork]

Here is a map that shows the closest capital city, as the crow flies. I haven't been able to find one with driving times.

The next game is to identify the tripoints on this map that are equidistant from three state capitals. :-)


iPhone

I would be interested in figuring out which states have the greatest portion of their state closer to their capital than to another's, but not enough to run that query.

Hawaii says Aloha!

[Brandon]

I would be interested in figuring out which states have the greatest portion of their state closer to their capital than to another's, but not enough to run that query.

If you just mean the state, I hinted that above: Rhode Island & Delaware are entirely within their state's colors, so they would win.

If you're talking about a state's population, then by eyeballing it several states would be very close.

Well, for Illinois, I'd say most of the population is closer to Madison than to Springfield.  Joliet (far SW Chicagoland) is on the dividing line between the two, which means the line divides Will County (677,500) and puts Kane (515,200), DuPage (916,900), Cook (5,194,600), Lake (703,400), and McHenry (308,700) to the north of that line, as well as Winnebago (295,200).  Most of Will's population is also north of that line (Plainfield, Bolingbrook, Romeoville).  Thus, even dividing Will's population in half, 8,272,750 of Illinois's 12,860,000 live north of that line (not including the smaller population counties like Boone, Jo Davies, and Lee).  That's over 64% of the population of the state of Illinois being closer to Madison than Springfield.  As an aside, imagine what might have been if the original boundary between Wisconsin and Illinois had been maintained at the far southern tip of Lake Michigan.  Wisconsin gains 8 million people, becoming a state of almost 13 million, and Illinois becomes a state of less than 5 million.

[hbelkins]

I know I've had this discussion before, but I don't know if it was here or in a Facebook group. I'm obviously closer to Frankfort, but I'm not all that far from the dividing line between Frankfort and Charleston.

[KEVIN_224]

I live 10 miles from downtown Hartford. If using straight line distance, from point A to point B:

Providence, RI - 71 miles
Albany, NY - 86 miles
Boston - 102 miles
Concord, NH - 124 miles
Trenton, NJ - 144 miles
Montpelier, VT - 179 miles
Dover, DE - 226 miles
Harrisburg, PA - 235 miles
Augusta, ME - 240 miles
Annapolis, MD - 271 miles
(Washington, DC - 294 miles)

[JMoses24]

I'm basically 100 miles from the Ohio State Capitol building in Columbus (Google maps says 99.9, round it up), and only slightly closer to the Kentucky Capitol in Frankfort at 98 (97.8 per Google maps) miles.

[dzlsabe]

Chicago (largest "American" city? spawned by NY rail barons basically)) is 148 (could be LESS?) from Madison, Indy 183, Springfield 202. Says a lot. Sometimes I envy Boston (British). Being a capital is a sweet benefit.

@Brandon... "As an aside, imagine what might have been if the original boundary between Wisconsin and Illinois had been maintained at the far southern tip of Lake Michigan.  Wisconsin gains 8 million people, becoming a state of almost 13 million, and Illinois becomes a state of less than 5 million." Great point.

[LM117]

I'm closer to Raleigh (97 miles) than Richmond (150 miles).

[Great Lakes Roads]

I am actually closer to Indianapolis than Lansing by 10 miles...
Indianapolis: 153 miles
Lansing: 163 miles

[wxfree]

Somewhat on topic, Dalhart is about 485 miles from Austin.  It's closer to Santa Fe, Denver, Cheyenne, Lincoln, Topeka, and Oklahoma City.

[paulthemapguy]

Before that map was thrown into the mix, I figured I'm about 2 1/4 hours from Madison and just under 3 hours from Springfield.  I'm a bit south of Chicago, but not far enough south on the map to be in the Springfield zone.  I'm nearly equidistant from 3 state capitals (WI, IL, IN.)

Now I'm just studying the map to see if there are any places that are equidistant from 4 state capitals.  It looks like there's a near-perfect four corners just east of Knoxville, TN!  And the lines meet at nearly right angles, oddly enough.  There's another weirdly skewed 4 corners in eastern WV and another near Sioux Falls, it looks like.