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Boston-Atlanta Metropolitan Axis


AuLukey

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Richmond to DC is pretty well developed. It may not seem it from I-95 but that is by design. Take route 1 next time.

I agree brent, many cities and suburbs are set up like that. Look at Charlotte, driving up 85 towards Greensboro, you don't notice any cities besides Salisbury. Everything else is trees, despite the fact that you are driving past some larger suburbs like Concord, Kannapolis, Lexington, and High Point. They have very decent sizes to them, but are barely noticeable from the interstate. It's just a matter of how the cities are oriented.

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^I think the development in Concord and Kannapolis is pretty evident from I-85. This doesn't really hold for Lexington and High Point, though. Heck, even I-85 through most of Greensboro is a lot of trees. Business 85, however, reveals a LOT of development in the Triad.

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I know this doesn't follow the path, but the most developed lege going out of Atlanta is Atlanta to Chattanooga, not Atlanta to Birmingham. I would say ATL-CHA-Nashville has the most promise for large scale growth

In the '70's it was predicted that a southern megalopolis would stretch from Chattanooga, TN/Atlanta, GA/Greenville, SC/Charlotte, NC/Raleigh, NC. The shape would be similar to Nike's logo.

I agree that Chattanooga-Atlanta corridor is more filled in than the Birmingham-Atlanta Corridor. The fastest growing counties in the Chattanooga MSA are on the southern end, while the fastest growing Atlanta MSA counties tend to be on the northern end, and Dalton MSA is somewhat in the middle.

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^I think the development in Concord and Kannapolis is pretty evident from I-85. This doesn't really hold for Lexington and High Point, though. Heck, even I-85 through most of Greensboro is a lot of trees

You think? The only exits you can see any buildings from the interstate are exits 49 and 58. There is a lot of development all the way up 29 and 49 along that same stretch in Concord that has been there for decades. Most people are only familiar with "New Concord." Exits 52, 54, and 55 are all about five miles Northwest from the more densely developed and prosperous areas of Concord.

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^I think the development in Concord and Kannapolis is pretty evident from I-85. This doesn't really hold for Lexington and High Point, though. Heck, even I-85 through most of Greensboro is a lot of trees. Business 85, however, reveals a LOT of development in the Triad.

That's because the I-85 bypass in Greensboro was only opened a year or so ago, so the sprawl is just making it's way out there. Prior to the opening of the bypass, traveling I-85 South (Exit 132, just before Greensboro) was a log jam on Fridays. I make the trip frequently from Durham (my significant other lives in Greensboro) and would take exit 135 (Hwy 70) to avoid that mess prior to the I-85 bypass. It's a 50 minute drive from my place to hers.

Prior to the interstates, it's obvious theat HWY 70 served as the connector between RDU and GSO as parts of it's heavily developed and takes you through the heart of Burlington. There's a lot of development going on between Burlington & GSO, on I-85 and along Hwy 70. It's rarely talked about but Burlington/Graham/Mebane areas have a lot of history. Burlington Industries was founded there and was once the largest textile maker in the world. Rather pleasant downtown and you can feel the history.

So, the original I-85 or business I-85 reveals more of High Point and Greensboro, as does the original I-40 in Winston-Salem.

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I have never heard that the BosWash area extends to Norfolk. That's a great find. link

16% of the US population reside here with a population of 44 million.

In the geography class I took a few years ago, Boswash in the text was outdated and had been extended from Portland, Maine to Hampton Roads and is better known as Megalopolis. I wouldn't go by Wikipedia on a lot of things, although I surf it a lot.

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In the geography class I took a few years ago, Boswash in the text was outdated and had been extended from Portland, Maine to Hampton Roads and is better known as Megalopolis. I wouldn't go by Wikipedia on a lot of things, although I surf it a lot.

BosWash has been a fairly standard definition for that area for decades. While I can sorta see the Maine thing when pulling up density maps for the state, they aren't spread out enough or dense enough to constitute connectivity. But, that's a fine line and it's all the better really. According to Wiki, Portland, Maine is a part of BosWash.

I hadn't heard of the proper name "Megalopolis" as I thought that was the title given to three or more "metropoli" that had grown together. Sort of like a heirarchy. Micro-Metro-Mega. According to About.com (another semi-reliable source,) Megalopolis was the name given to the region in a book that French author Jean Gottmann wrote back in 1961.

Here's the opening definition for BosWash in Wikipedia:

The BosWash or Bosnywash or Boshington megalopolis is the name for a group of metropolitan areas in the northeastern United States, extending from Boston, MA to Washington, D.C., including Providence, RI, Hartford, CT, New Haven, CT, New York City, NY, Philadelphia, PA, and Baltimore, MD.
It later goes on to say it extends up to Portland, Maine.

And here is Oxford's definition for Megalopolis:

any many-centered, multi-city, urban area of more than 10 million inhabitants, generally dominated by low-density settlement and complex networks of economic specialization.
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  • 2 months later...

I've run into this discussion elsewhere online - it would seem that a multitude of geographers define Atlanta-to-Raleigh as an emergent megalopolis.

Beyond that the forecasts are fuzzier - an actual study of an emergent megalopolis undertaken at Ga Tech defines it (what they refer to as the Piedmont Atlantoc Megalopolis) as Birmingham-Atlanta-Greenville-Charlotte-Greensboro/WS-Raleigh (with Tuscaloosa AL and Greenville NC just beyond each end):

post-10268-1162541616_thumb.jpg

(this map also charts poverty rates in the region, which peak in an arc parallel to and just south of the study area)

Here's a second map; this came about from a discussion I had with a geographer at MIT, who seemed to think Atlanta-Greenville-Charlotte-Raleigh was the more definite possibility; he coined the term "AtlantEigh" or "RalAnta" as what I consider to be two godawful names for the megalopolis. The speculation behind this map was whether or not Richmond/Petersburg or Hampton Roads would form the north end of the Southern megalopolis, or the south end of the Northern one, so the map is Atl to Richmond:

post-10268-1162542260_thumb.jpg

Of course an accelerated proliferation of sprawl would be the worst outcome here. A plus of the studies and discussion however - it would identify and present this corridor as a defined region with specific region-wide demographics and concerns. Transportation planning on this corridor is fragmented, and there's no regional identification between metros that compete or don't see themselves as part of a larger urban agglomeration. Thus planning for things like inter-city high speed rail (much less regionally focused road planning, like the patchwork upgrades to I-85 from Durham to Atlanta) isn't well understood as a regional problem.

post-10268-1162541616_thumb.jpg

post-10268-1162542260_thumb.jpg

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There really isn't anything between Greenville, NC and Norfolk. I think 24-hour high-speed rail service (200-mph stuff) from Miami to Augusta should be built, linking all the major cities in between. We certainly have the technology to do it, and the substantial efficiency it would add to commuting along the East Coast would more than make it worthwhile.

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Go to the NASA site for the latest satellite night views for north america. From Raleigh to Atlanta it is a continuous link of lights. Also look closely from Raleigh to Fayetteville shows up good also. So basically the only spot that is needs to "infill" is from Petersburg VA to Durham NC. So that is the last portion of the east coast mega corridor to fill in. The I-85 corridor in NC is pretty dense according to density maps and that will part will continue to grow with all of the growth going on.

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Go to the NASA site for the latest satellite night views for north america. From Raleigh to Atlanta it is a continuous link of lights. Also look closely from Raleigh to Fayetteville shows up good also. So basically the only spot that is needs to "infill" is from Petersburg VA to Durham NC. So that is the last portion of the east coast mega corridor to fill in. The I-85 corridor in NC is pretty dense according to density maps and that will part will continue to grow with all of the growth going on.
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The biggest difference still - is what dominates this 'megalopolis' in the south, is exurbia. It isn't the continous bands of 500k to 1000k+ per square mile developed area as it is between Washington & Boston, it's the massive band of 250k to 500k per square mile that exists between Atlanta & Raleigh. As much as I cringe at using the term - it is a sprawlopolis, a huge low densely populated developed zone.

When you combine the numerous mill towns that exist along the Piedmont with 1 hour driving distance proximity to larger cities - this massive exurban zone seems destined to develop. Particularly when combining large numbers of northern transplants that want to drive everywhere & a reversal of the out migration that has been a problem in the south in decades past.

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I used to drive the Raleigh to Washington route pretty frequently until recently. I have a hard time imagining that the area between Oxford and Petersburg, VA (the edges of the Triangle and Richmond, VA metros) will fill-in any time soon. I wouldn't say "never" but if anything, economic gravity is pulling these places further apart. At one time, the places between Raleigh and Durham and Petersburg and Richmond were largely economically autonomous but more similiar to one another than they were different in terms of economics and demographics. I would argue that in the past few decades, these small towns and unincorporated rural areas are more and more dependent on the larger, adjacent, metros. To this end, I would argue that Richmond is becoming more "northern" while the region from Raleigh southward is retaining its "southernness". This doesn't preclude them merging, but the point is that Richmond is being pulled northward and Raleigh is being pulled southward. A true believer in retaining "uniqueness", I'm not sure I would welcome a filling-in of that gap.

More significant, I think, is the "parellel" (to the I-85 corridor) complex of development that runs from Raleigh south through Fayetteville to Columbia and Augusta, GA to Atlanta. Does this corridor merge with the 85 corridor?

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Wow, this is an amazing topic, awesome reading and speculation as to the future, I'll be following this one.

Look at Charlotte, driving up 85 towards Greensboro, you don't notice any cities besides Salisbury. Everything else is trees, despite the fact that you are driving past some larger suburbs like Concord, Kannapolis, Lexington, and High Point. They have very decent sizes to them, but are barely noticeable from the interstate. It's just a matter of how the cities are oriented.
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  • 4 weeks later...
I used to drive the Raleigh to Washington route pretty frequently until recently. I have a hard time imagining that the area between Oxford and Petersburg, VA (the edges of the Triangle and Richmond, VA metros) will fill-in any time soon. I wouldn't say "never" but if anything, economic gravity is pulling these places further apart. At one time, the places between Raleigh and Durham and Petersburg and Richmond were largely economically autonomous but more similiar to one another than they were different in terms of economics and demographics. I would argue that in the past few decades, these small towns and unincorporated rural areas are more and more dependent on the larger, adjacent, metros. To this end, I would argue that Richmond is becoming more "northern" while the region from Raleigh southward is retaining its "southernness". This doesn't preclude them merging, but the point is that Richmond is being pulled northward and Raleigh is being pulled southward. A true believer in retaining "uniqueness", I'm not sure I would welcome a filling-in of that gap.

More significant, I think, is the "parellel" (to the I-85 corridor) complex of development that runs from Raleigh south through Fayetteville to Columbia and Augusta, GA to Atlanta. Does this corridor merge with the 85 corridor?

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Having made the trek from Durham to Boston (and back) over a dozen times, I'd say most definitely the two hours between Richmond and Durham are not at all an extension of the megalopolis. I'd go so far as to say that once you're south of Alexandria, the metro axis is over, certainly by the time you reach Fredericksburg anyway.

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  • 1 month later...

Nathan. There is nothing between Charlotte (Rock Hill, SC) & Columbia. And additionally, there is nothing between Columbia (Lexington) & Augusta (Aiken). And there is going to be a whole lot of nothing for several decades in the future, except for some exurban sprawl south of Rock Hill & north of Columbia / Camden.

There are a lot of Augusta forumers who appear delighted at the prospect of massive sprawl occurring in an unrealistic time line, but it just won't happen any time soon. Unfortunately Georgia towns like Commerce & Toccoa will grow significantly due to their logistical location & the I-85 corridor will develop further as it has in the past 20 years (considering Commerce was absolutely in the middle of nowhere just 15 years ago). Now - will this constitute a megalopolis, not anytime soon due to the low density & irregular development. But it will develop far more than the I-77 & I-20 corridors which have largely been dormant.

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There are a lot of Augusta forumers who appear delighted at the prospect of massive sprawl occurring in an unrealistic time line, but it just won't happen any time soon. Unfortunately Georgia towns like Commerce & Toccoa will grow significantly due to their logistical location & the I-85 corridor will develop further as it has in the past 20 years (considering Commerce was absolutely in the middle of nowhere just 15 years ago). Now - will this constitute a megalopolis, not anytime soon due to the low density & irregular development. But it will develop far more than the I-77 & I-20 corridors which have largely been dormant.
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