Land mass compared to the state of Connecticut

[Uncle Al]

Some people don't understand the concept of 'Driving Across Town".
A picture is worth a thousand words.

DFW Metroplex at night 2015-09-13.jpg

Uncle Al
Currently the resident cyclops

[r.m.anderson]

So is the city of Dallas bigger than Rhode Island ?
Or compared to the Dallas/Fort Worth MetroPlex ?

East West across Texas is around 800 miles.
North South in California is around 800 miles.
East West across Montana is no lark either.

[Uncle Al]

To clarify -

The Dallas/Ft. Worth metroplex is the heavily lit area of the picture.
If you mentally draw a line above & between Lewisville & Plano, you have
the northern boarder of the metro area. From the left side of the
letter 'F' in Ft. Worth over to the east side of Dallas to a vertical line between
the letter 'W' in Rockwall down to the 'U' in Kaufman, are the East-West
boundaries. The southern boundary is a horizontal line just below the
word Mansfield.

To drive from the east side of Dallas to the west side of Ft. Worth,
you'll travel about 100 miles. Dallas is about 33 miles wide, east to west,
34 miles between Dallas & Ft. Worth with another 33 miles, or so, from
the east side to the west side of Ft. Worth. North to South is about the
same distance.

Optically, this is more than 1/2 the size of the state of Connecticut.

Therefore, driving 'across town' is roughly the equivalent of crossing
1/2 the state of Connecticut east to west, and almost the entire state
north to south. (Some people complain of driving 8-10 miles which, to
them, is to far.)

Either the state of Connecticut is very small or the Metroplex is very large
(FYI-The population of the DFW 4 county area is over 6 million people.)

Uncle Al
Currently the resident cyclops

[crfriend]

Either the state of Connecticut is very small or the Metroplex is very large (FYI-The population of the DFW 4 county area is over 6 million people.)

Both.

Connecticut has a population of about 3.6 million, with most of it concentrated along the coast, the rivers, and near New York City. It's the third-smallest state, geographically, after Rhode Island and Delaware. The DFW metroplex would exceed the size of Rhode Island, at least judging by the amount of light-pollution on display.

As near as anybody can tell, Connecticut's only reason for existence is to keep Boston and New York from bumping into each other and swallowing Providence whole in the process. It performs this function by slowing down travel between the cities; it takes longer to drive or take the train though Connecticut than the entire rest of the journey -- including the usual traffic-jams in the customary places. Many folks in New England wish it would disappear.

[Tor]

Well, round about these parts, people are known to go years without travelling more than 30 miles from home by road - unless they fly elsewhere. There is the "city" about in the middle, and past which relatively little travel takes place - the city being the point everyone goes to regularly from both sides, but there are people who go years never crossing to the other side. I have been regarded with mild awe for driving to the opposite side - a distance of not more than 35 miles to my destination. And yes, around here, people do complain of 8-10 mile journeys. 20 miles is enough to make people think twice.

Interesting comparison. Thanks for posting.

[Gordon]

I drove 45 miles to go to a mall last weekend.

[dillon]

It is not unusual for me to drive 100 to 200 miles in a day's work. Fortunately not in DFW traffic.

[crfriend]

It is not unusual for me to drive 100 to 200 miles in a day's work. Fortunately not in DFW traffic.

Back in the 1980s when I was doing computer field service -- a fun and heady time, I'll add -- that was an entirely usual day for me. At one point, I figured that aside from bed, the spot I spent more time in than any place else was the driver's seat in my car. Having all of New England as a territory would do that.