November 23, 2008: Roads

[xoxoxoBruce]

Roads, streets, highways, thoroughfares, lanes, etc, of the USA.
Well 48 states of it, anyway.

All of the streets in the lower 48 United States: an image of 26 million individual road segments. No other features (such as outlines or geographic features) have been added to this image, however they emerge as roads avoid mountains, and sparse areas convey low population. This began as an example I created for a student in the fall of 2006, and I just recently got a chance to document it properly.

That's it, just roads.
I wonder how much heat is retained by all that pavement?
I wonder how many reptiles get squashed basking in that warmth?

I now know why the chicken crossed the road, however, it had no choice.

LINK

[amykins]

Neato... Mmm...squashed reptiles, my fave. So should we be renaming this to something like the "Highest Likelihood of Finding Yummy Roadkill Map"?

[ZenGum]

I'd like to see the same done with railroads, and regular airline routes. I fear it would be very depressing in terms of inefficient transport.

[xoxoxoBruce]

I think you're missing the point. The same thing done with railroads and/or air routes wouldn't show anything but patterns without reference. They could be in Africa or Asia or on the Moon.

[ZenGum]

That was exactly the (well, my) point. Lots and lots of roads, very few railways.

[xoxoxoBruce]

You do realize this image shows nothing but roads, right? Other than I told you, how do you know this is the USA? Because the pattern of roads show the outline, the boundaries and physical features like large lakes and mountainous regions. Rail and air routes would not show you that. There would be no reference.

[mrputter]

Originally Posted by xoxoxoBruce

Rail and air routes would not show you that.

I'm actually not so sure about that. You'd have a case for air routes, but only because of international routes, and the transcontinental routes (think: Boston ⇔ Seattle) that arc up over Canada; if you filter out the former, I think you'd be able to see something.

Now of course it wouldn't precisely match the US' political outline in the same striking manner as the road map above does. But I'd be rather surprised if some distorted phantom of the familiar american outline didn't appear, if for no other reason than because of all the large cities that dot the eastern and western coastlines.

I, too, would be interested in seeing such maps. If only to see how great the distortion was.

[Gravdigr]

Originally Posted by xoxoxoBruce

Other than I told you, how do you know this is the USA?

Because, I can see my house.

[BrianR]

Looks like a track of my movements over the last few years...

[xoxoxoBruce]

Originally Posted by Gravdigr

Because, I can see my house.

Go back to Alaska, Sarah. :p

[TheMercenary]

Very cool.

[newtimer]

Originally Posted by xoxoxoBruce

... this image shows nothing but roads...

What's causing those equal-sized white squares especially around Kansas/southern Nebraska? Are they square plots of land that have roads around their perimeters but no roads inside?

[sweetwater]

Originally Posted by newtimer

What's causing those equal-sized white squares especially around Kansas/southern Nebraska? Are they square plots of land that have roads around their perimeters but no roads inside?

Kansas City

The white blocks seem to be rural routes and unnamed roads, their alignment to lat/lon boundaries suggests differences in how adjacent counties identify streets.

(above is from the link) Interesting map, but quite depressing. I mean, all that asphalt and cement must weigh a lot and smoosh the ground down, right?

[classicman]

Originally Posted by xoxoxoBruce

I wonder how much heat is retained by all that pavement?

You starting that global warming discussion again?

[andy_t_roo]

for airlines http://au.youtube.com/watch?v=ewrOyeTjoiI is probably what you are looking for, and you can see the outline of the US there. I havn't seen anything like that for railroads though.