Decided how I was going to divide up maps for my website

[Daniel Fiddler]

I decided how I was going to divide up maps for my website.

I am going to divide them into 12 maps.

See below:

[hotdogPi]

12-player Risk?

[Daniel Fiddler]

Hadn't thought of it that way, lol.

No, I was dividing maps the way I was going to draw them.  I have one map (South 75) finally complete (I think) already, and it has approximately 1,450 views.  I am working on the Mid-Atlantic, Gateway - North 75 (they are 1 map now, going to divide them), and Mississippi River Delta maps, although only a little done to each map.  Deciding which map to focus most on.  Going to tabulate 2020 census populations for metropolitan areas >500k on Microsoft Excel and then add them to each map, and go from there.  I have the 2019 estimates for metropolitan areas >1 million already on there, but that's not good enough in my eyes.

Check out the website if you haven't already, it's worth checking out!    Links to maps are from there! 

[Bruce]

Idaho is generally included as part of the Pacific Northwest due to their strong association with Washington (and to a lesser extent Oregon).

[Scott5114]

Might make more sense to swap MN and MO; while either place you put MO is going to split an urban area, the Kansas City area feels like it's much more important to KS than the St Louis suburbs are to IL. Meanwhile, I think MN is much more associated with WI than any of the other states it borders (but someone from MN might want to confirm or deny that).

[epzik8]

I-75 corridor???

[Daniel Fiddler]

I may redraw it then.  I will think about it.  Thanks for the suggestions.

And yes, the I-75 corridor.  I had previously thought of a separate grouping for Florida, Georgia, and Tennessee as they are more similar to one another than they are to the Carolinas and Virginia (which actually fit better with Maryland, Delaware, and the District of Columbia as mid-Atlantic) or Alabama, Louisiana, and Mississippi (which are less urbanized and are more similar to Arkansas).  And then I figured, I needed to split the Great Lakes district because it was so large in especially population, the Northeast granted is one 800 pound gorilla and that's unavoidable, but there don't need to be two, and I sought a logical way to split it.  The Tampa - Detroit corridor (using I-75 for the entire route except for where it uses I-475 around Macon) is the busiest truck route and one of the busiest motorist routes in the USA, so it seemed logical.

[TheHighwayMan3561]

Meanwhile, I think MN is much more associated with WI than any of the other states it borders (but someone from MN might want to confirm or deny that).

The short answer: yes.

The long answer: yes, for 70% of the state's population. I'd say west of US 71 though those people associate more with the Dakotas. But that's more internal knowledge.

[Daniel Fiddler]

Reworked the map:

[TheHighwayMan3561]

Putting Wisconsin in the Plains states will probably annoy some people

[triplemultiplex]

Hey man, it's your site; divide it up how ever you like.

[webny99]

Reworked the map:

[img snipped]

What is "gateway" supposed to mean?

Also Kansas is definitely Great Plains, while Wisconsin definitely isn't.

The Great Lakes region is quite broken up here. A Great Lakes, Rust Belt, and/or Upper Midwest region are all potential options.

And I still can't get over Tennessee.


But ultimately, this is true:

Hey man, it's your site; divide it up how ever you like.

[Daniel Fiddler]

Alright, I will rework it again.  Not too much of a concern, some state boundaries I left intact on the main map this time.

[Daniel Fiddler]

[Daniel Fiddler]

Added a poll

[SkyPesos]

And yes, the I-75 corridor.  I had previously thought of a separate grouping for Florida, Georgia, and Tennessee as they are more similar to one another than they are to the Carolinas and Virginia (which actually fit better with Maryland, Delaware, and the District of Columbia as mid-Atlantic) or Alabama, Louisiana, and Mississippi (which are less urbanized and are more similar to Arkansas).  And then I figured, I needed to split the Great Lakes district because it was so large in especially population, the Northeast granted is one 800 pound gorilla and that's unavoidable, but there don't need to be two, and I sought a logical way to split it.  The Tampa - Detroit corridor (using I-75 for the entire route except for where it uses I-475 around Macon) is the busiest truck route and one of the busiest motorist routes in the USA, so it seemed logical.

I have a feeling you grouped FL, GA and TN together because they're your 3 favorite states or something. Look at which three states your article you read considers to have the best roads (which I disagree with somewhat, but that's a different topic)...

I read somewhere a few years ago where one year they ranked the best and worst roads in all 50 states.  In it, Florida had the best, Tennessee had the second best, and Georgia the third best.  And if memory serves me right, I think Pennsylvania had the worst and Ohio the second worst.  I forgot where I read this though.

[Daniel Fiddler]

Well, Florida is my favorite state, I will admit that.  And those three are the states I have lived in and the states I am most familiar with.

Although they do somewhat fit together.

And the Southeast is too big a region to group together, believe it or not, it's at least as large if not larger than the Northeast or Great Lakes region when combined population-wise, and the number of roads demonstrates that!  Google Maps would probably crash trying to fit that many roads on one map!

[US 89]

I have a feeling you grouped FL, GA and TN together because they're your 3 favorite states or something. Look at which three states your article you read considers to have the best roads (which I disagree with somewhat, but that's a different topic)...

I read somewhere a few years ago where one year they ranked the best and worst roads in all 50 states.  In it, Florida had the best, Tennessee had the second best, and Georgia the third best.  And if memory serves me right, I think Pennsylvania had the worst and Ohio the second worst.  I forgot where I read this though.

Yeah, I disagree with that in a big way. Florida is pretty good, sure, but Tennessee roads suck - there are very few states where you can drive over a bunch of potholes on an Interstate like you can in TN. I-65 south of Nashville in particular is awful. And Georgia's aren't all that great either, though they are in general better than what you get in neighboring TN or SC.

Alabama, on the other hand? Their roads are very good quality. And speaking of Alabama, as someone who has lived in Georgia for a few years now, I have a very hard time wrapping my head around any sort of region system that puts Georgia with Tennessee and also separates it from Alabama.

[webny99]

And speaking of Alabama, as someone who has lived in Georgia for a few years now, I have a very hard time wrapping my head around any sort of region system that puts Georgia with Tennessee and also separates it from Alabama.

Agreed - that's evident even without having spent much time in the region. Tennessee looks really odd sitting on top of Georgia all by itself, almost like it's about to fall off.

[hotdogPi]

Move Tennessee to medium green. The largest and second largest states are by themselves; the third largest state is fine in just a group of two, especially when the other state in the pair is also fairly large.

[Scott5114]

I still don't get splitting Kansas City up. Even the Kansas and Missouri DOT official maps extend their insets to show the other half of the city.

I'd fix it by getting rid of the I-75 based regions–nobody but roadgeeks is going to find them useful–and then put IL-IN-OH-MI in Upper Midwest and IA and MO in Great Plains. Joggle the South around so that KY is with TN, maybe move AL to be with GA, and call the MS-LA-AR group, I dunno, Mid-South or something...hey, wait, haven't I done this before?

[Daniel Fiddler]

I don't think I'll move Tennessee.  I've already completed the South 75 map, as you can see here:

https://www.google.com/maps/d/u/0/viewer?hl=en&mid=1C6kksS3I2uQOPl8SkdHKsZ4K5D41H6qD&ll=30.795012967360808%2C-85.071755&z=6

There are some other states I'd be willing to move, but not anything in South 75.  I'd be more willing to ADD to the South 75 map than take away from it.  Simply removing from South 75 would take several hours' of tedious work the way I have it.   Not worth it.

Although I've already started a few other maps as well, although little enough has been done with them I am willing to amend them to add or subtract states.  Just a few main interstates.  And I still have the originals from what I split up into smaller maps.

As for Missouri, it was splitting St. Louis or Kansas City.  St. Louis is the larger metropolitan area.  Unless it was splitting Missouri by counties.  Or create a mega-region.

Here are the regions as are by statistics:



We can combine smaller regions in population, or juggle around states (other than Florida, Georgia, and Tennessee).

[hotdogPi]

I still think most games are quickly going to come down to a two-way battle between California and Northeast. Southwest in particular will probably be eliminated first turn, even if it gets the advantage of going first.

I still don't get splitting Kansas City up. Even the Kansas and Missouri DOT official maps extend their insets to show the other half of the city.

I'd fix it by getting rid of the I-75 based regions–nobody but roadgeeks is going to find them useful–and then put IL-IN-OH-MI in Upper Midwest and IA and MO in Great Plains. Joggle the South around so that KY is with TN, maybe move AL to be with GA, and call the MS-LA-AR group, I dunno, Mid-South or something...hey, wait, haven't I done this before?

If the goal is equal population, Alabama should stay where it is.

[Scott5114]

As for Missouri, it was splitting St. Louis or Kansas City.  St. Louis is the larger metropolitan area.  Unless it was splitting Missouri by counties.  Or create a mega-region.

Except way more of the Kansas City metro's population is in Kansas than the St. Louis metro's population is in Illinois! Using 2020 Census data, inside the KC MSA, you have 1,287,264 residents in Missouri and 904,771 (41%) in Kansas. Meanwhile, in St. Louis (using 2018 estimates because that's the newest Wikipedia has for STL, you can go look up the 2020 data if you like and tell me if it's different), there's 2,119,379 in MO and 686,086 (24%) in IL.

Also, the Kansas City metro area is the largest metro area in Kansas, despite being anchored in MO. The same is not true for St. Louis and IL.

[Daniel Fiddler]

Very true, by far the largest metropolitan area in Illinois is indubitably Chicago.

Alright, so a sensible change is to take Missouri out of Gateway, and put it into Great Plains.  At the same time, I may take Iowa out of Upper Midwest, and combine Gateway and Upper Midwest and call said new district simply "Midwest".

And I may go ahead and combine the new Great Plains and Rocky Mountains and call said new district "Central" since both districts are so small in population.