Most Interesting Drive Between Two Major Cities?

[vdeane]

I think we're unofficially using 100k as the threshold for "major city".

I would say 100k+ within an existing MSA could also qualify. That way we can include artificially small cities that anchor good sized metros like Harrisburg PA, Northwest Arkansas, and technically even Albany NY (as of the 2020 census).

I was using metro areas that were at least approximately Syracuse-sized.

[webny99]

I think we're unofficially using 100k as the threshold for "major city".

I would say 100k+ within an existing MSA could also qualify. That way we can include artificially small cities that anchor good sized metros like Harrisburg PA, Northwest Arkansas, and technically even Albany NY (as of the 2020 census).

I was using metro areas that were at least approximately Syracuse-sized.

I would be fine with 100k city proper or 500k MSA. That would include both Harrisburg and NWA while excluding most obvious fringe candidates.

[vdeane]

I would be fine with 100k city proper or 500k MSA. That would include both Harrisburg and NWA while excluding most obvious fringe candidates.

Do we even need a city proper threshold?  I don't think anyone would have argued that the Capital District (Albany/Schenectady/Troy) isn't major prior to the last census (and even then, the metro area was bigger than Syracuse's), but it would not have met the definition.  Granted, it's a bit of an oddball because instead of a traditional city center surrounded by increasingly less dense areas, it's multiple downtowns with suburbs and strip malls connecting them, with the geographic center being the suburban houses and strip malls of Colonie.

[Flint1979]

Suburbs are not major cities

We have suburbs in Michigan that are bigger than the largest cities in about a half-dozen states. I'm sure other states have suburbs that are even larger.

Detroit's largest suburbs are Warren and Sterling Heights, not really that big compared to some other areas. Those states like Vermont (I'm picking on them because Burlington is their largest city and is the smallest of the 50 states largest cities) I don't even consider to be a major city. I would say any city over 400,000 is a major city.

[Flint1979]

I think where I live in an urban area of about 120,000 people is a pretty decent sized area but I wouldn't consider Saginaw a major city. For the state of Michigan it might be but not on a national level. It is a well known city though. Detroit is the only city in Michigan I'd consider a major city.

[RoadWarrior56]

Boise ID and Portland OR via I-84

[Rothman]

Boise ID and Portland OR via I-84

How others have left off the Columbia River Gorge is more appropriate.

[pderocco]

Boise ID and Portland OR via I-84

I'll be doing that in a couple weeks. I've already driven Portland to Pendleton, and Twin Falls to I-80, so I'm filling in that gap which includes Boise. I also really love US-97 and US-395 in Oregon, but they don't connect any major cities.

[JayhawkCO]

Boise ID and Portland OR via I-84

I'll be doing that in a couple weeks. I've already driven Portland to Pendleton, and Twin Falls to I-80, so I'm filling in that gap which includes Boise. I also really love US-97 and US-395 in Oregon, but they don't connect any major cities.

Unfortunately, I think you've already done the interesting parts.

[7/8]

Suburbs are not major cities

We have suburbs in Michigan that are bigger than the largest cities in about a half-dozen states. I'm sure other states have suburbs that are even larger.

Detroit's largest suburbs are Warren and Sterling Heights, not really that big compared to some other areas. Those states like Vermont (I'm picking on them because Burlington is their largest city and is the smallest of the 50 states largest cities) I don't even consider to be a major city. I would say any city over 400,000 is a major city.

Two suburban cities around Toronto are above 400 000: Mississauga (>700 000) and Brampton (>650 000). But calling them "major cities" feels wrong since they're suburbs of Toronto. I feel like both population and proximity to a larger city need to be factored into the definition of a major city, though of course it'll always be subjective.

[JayhawkCO]

Suburbs are not major cities

We have suburbs in Michigan that are bigger than the largest cities in about a half-dozen states. I'm sure other states have suburbs that are even larger.

Detroit's largest suburbs are Warren and Sterling Heights, not really that big compared to some other areas. Those states like Vermont (I'm picking on them because Burlington is their largest city and is the smallest of the 50 states largest cities) I don't even consider to be a major city. I would say any city over 400,000 is a major city.

Two suburban cities around Toronto are above 400 000: Mississauga (>700 000) and Brampton (>650 000). But calling them "major cities" feels wrong since they're suburbs of Toronto. I feel like both population and proximity to a larger city need to be factored into the definition of a major city, though of course it'll always be subjective.

Agreed. Hence why I posted above that Aurora is not a "major city" for these purposes despite its 393k people. Denver is the major city.

In reality, we should be looking at metro areas vs. cities anyway.

[pderocco]

Boise ID and Portland OR via I-84

I'll be doing that in a couple weeks. I've already driven Portland to Pendleton, and Twin Falls to I-80, so I'm filling in that gap which includes Boise. I also really love US-97 and US-395 in Oregon, but they don't connect any major cities.

Unfortunately, I think you've already done the interesting parts.

The really interesting parts, yes. But the rest in Oregon still looks pretty in Google Earth. I look forward to the drive.

[webny99]

Do we even need a city proper threshold?  I don't think anyone would have argued that the Capital District (Albany/Schenectady/Troy) isn't major prior to the last census (and even then, the metro area was bigger than Syracuse's), but it would not have met the definition.

It would still fit under the "500k metro" threshold.

If we were to eliminate the city proper threshold, some of the metro areas that would be excluded (>100k city proper, <500k metro) are:

Wilmington, NC
Lansing, MI
Springfield, MA
Fort Wayne, IN
Waterbury, CT
Corpus Christi, TX
Brownsville, TX
Savannah, GA
Mobile, AL
Montgomery, AL
Tallahassee, FL
Fargo, ND
Evansville, IN

I certainly don't have a problem with any of these cities being included, but most of them seem kind of like the lower bound for what we should include, so it just goes to show that a 500k metro threshold is probably about right.

[webny99]

Detroit's largest suburbs are Warren and Sterling Heights, not really that big compared to some other areas. Those states like Vermont (I'm picking on them because Burlington is their largest city and is the smallest of the 50 states largest cities) I don't even consider to be a major city. I would say any city over 400,000 is a major city.

Two suburban cities around Toronto are above 400 000: Mississauga (>700 000) and Brampton (>650 000). But calling them "major cities" feels wrong since they're suburbs of Toronto. I feel like both population and proximity to a larger city need to be factored into the definition of a major city, though of course it'll always be subjective.

Agreed. Hence why I posted above that Aurora is not a "major city" for these purposes despite its 393k people. Denver is the major city.

In reality, we should be looking at metro areas vs. cities anyway.

I don't think anyone is suggesting that we use suburbs in this thread, but even if they were, suburbs only make sense for this exercise to the extent that they serve as a gateway to the larger city anyways.

If someone says KC to Aurora, they might as well have said KC to Denver since you're really only talking about the stretch between the two metros' respective beltways to begin with.

[JayhawkCO]

Detroit's largest suburbs are Warren and Sterling Heights, not really that big compared to some other areas. Those states like Vermont (I'm picking on them because Burlington is their largest city and is the smallest of the 50 states largest cities) I don't even consider to be a major city. I would say any city over 400,000 is a major city.

Two suburban cities around Toronto are above 400 000: Mississauga (>700 000) and Brampton (>650 000). But calling them "major cities" feels wrong since they're suburbs of Toronto. I feel like both population and proximity to a larger city need to be factored into the definition of a major city, though of course it'll always be subjective.

Agreed. Hence why I posted above that Aurora is not a "major city" for these purposes despite its 393k people. Denver is the major city.

In reality, we should be looking at metro areas vs. cities anyway.

I don't think anyone is suggesting that we use suburbs in this thread, but even if they were, suburbs only make sense for this exercise to the extent that they serve as a gateway to the larger city anyways.

If someone says KC to Aurora, they might as well have said KC to Denver since you're really only talking about the stretch between the two metros' respective beltways to begin with.

It has been suggested that two 50k+ exurbs of the Metroplex should count.

[webny99]

It has been suggested that two 50k+ exurbs of the Metroplex should count.

Somehow I missed the OP of the suburbs discussion...

To me anymore, the most interesting drive between two major cities is the 5 miles on Preston Road between Celina and Prosper. So much new stuff popping up every week. Both cities are now 50K+ and qualify as major cities.

That's a fine observation, and I don't dispute that it's a very interesting drive, but conceptually this thread is about the drive between separate major cities, so the drive between any two cities in the same MSA would not count regardless of their size.

[webny99]

Celina having 50k people already is NUTS. It's closer to Oklahoma than it is to downtown Dallas.

To be fair, pretty much any named place could be 50k if they annex enough of the surrounding territory...

[Flint1979]

Since 2000 though both Collin and Denton counties went from about 430,000 to over 1 million in population now.