Pineapple Express: Someone Is Wrong on the Internet?

[Umbran]

Barstow is "the big city" people in Trona travel hours to get to, hilariously.

Barstow is only 1.5 hours from Trona. Some days, it takes me longer than that to commute the roughly 7 miles into Boston for work.

 

[Umbran]

The existence of other places that are even more nowhere than Central California, doesn't turn nowhere into somewhere.

That's like saying, "just because there are places that are below 0F, doesn't mean that someplace that is 50F is not cold."

When the example is in the middle of the scale, it should not be claimed as an extreme of that scale.

I will say 155 people per sq mile seems high for an area that isn't a city.

Well, the population density of Atlanta is about 3,700 people per square mile. Los Angeles is around 8,200 people per square mile. Boston is 13,800 or so. New York City is 29,300 per square mile.

Which is to say, it seems high for a place that isn't a city, because we forget how insanely high the density is in cities.

 

[Hussar]

Barstow is only 1.5 hours from Trona. Some days, it takes me longer than that to commute the roughly 7 miles into Boston for work.

Is it bad that I read that as a phonetic spelling of how Canadians say Toronto?

 

[Whizbang Dustyboots]

Barstow is only 1.5 hours from Trona. Some days, it takes me longer than that to commute the roughly 7 miles into Boston for work.

This is the worst bar trivia night I've ever attended.

 

[RealAlHazred]

The population density of New Jersey is between 1,200 and 1,300 people per square mile. Which seems high, but that's an average for the whole state, and he have rural parts that's just farms, and the Pine Barrens which are the largest coastal pine barrens left on the Eastern seaboard. You can absolutely drive to parts of NJ that seem barren. What you don't have, is signs on the highway that say, "Next Rest Stop 90 miles" because that would be absurd in this tiny state.

 

[RealAlHazred]

Did you swat them on the nose with a rolled-up Chessex battlemat?

No. They paid their money, I ran a table for them. But I took absolutely no crap, and was ruthlessly fair and impartial in adhering to the modules. Some of them even had fun in spite of themselves, when their usual BS didn't work. Others never came back to the Con.

 

[Smackpixi]

Los Angeles is around 8,200 people per square mile.

This is crazy, would have thought much lower, there’s a lot of people there, but it’s huge, and no part of it (that I’ve been to) ever felt remotely densely populated.

And for what it’s worth, I think Billings, MT wins for most middle of nowhere place in the continental US. It has a population of 120k so doesn’t seem like the too middle of nowhere, but it’s 500 miles from there to the next city with a population over even 75k…which is Fort Collins, CO…essentially a northern suburb of Denver, which is the next closest city over 75k. Eastern MT or western ND, which definitely feel more remote, are closer to a city over 75k cause, Billings.

 

[Deset Gled]

The population density of New Jersey is between 1,200 and 1,300 people per square mile. Which seems high, but that's an average for the whole state, and he have rural parts that's just farms, and the Pine Barrens which are the largest coastal pine barrens left on the Eastern seaboard. You can absolutely drive to parts of NJ that seem barren. What you don't have, is signs on the highway that say, "Next Rest Stop 90 miles" because that would be absurd in this tiny state.

Sorry, but I have heard a number of people say this, and the thing they all have in common is that they're from New Jersey. It simply isn't true. There is nothing remotely rural or barren about New Jersey. There are places that seem greener than the rest of New Jersey, but that's it.

As proof, consider this: Distance To McDonald’s – A McDistance Map Of The Contiguous U.S.

The area of New Jersey with the lowest McDonald's density is higher that the highest McDonald's density in states like Vermont and South Dakota. At every point in New Jersey, you are within walking distance of a McDonald's. Not a close walk. Certainly not a pleasant walk. But you will get there before you die. And there can be nothing rural about that. When viewed against actually rural parts of the US, there's simply no comparison. I'll give you that there are places where it's rural compared to Long Island, but that's about it.

 

[DrunkonDuty]

Well, the population density of Atlanta is about 3,700 people per square mile. Los Angeles is around 8,200 people per square mile. Boston is 13,800 or so. New York City is 29,300 per square mile.

Which is to say, it seems high for a place that isn't a city, because we forget how insanely high the density is in cities.

True. But another reason it seems high to me is that I'm Australian. And outside of the cities our population is... sparse.

 

[Thomas Shey]

True. But another reason it seems high to me is that I'm Australian. And outside of the cities our population is... sparse.

For all there are some really sparse parts of the U.S. (as I mentioned, once you get away from the big cities parts of Nevada are so like that) I get the impression that on the whole the U.S. is spread out compared to Australia. Its just weird to figure because the east side of the country is, on the whole, radically different from the west side in this regard.