Four Million Commutes Reveal New U.S. 'Megaregions'
Coming form the mid-Atlantic region, I'm continuously surprised at what a non-entity Baltimore has turned out to be. It seems to have been entirely subsumed by its more well known neighbors: D.C. and Philly -- yet being so near to those two seems to have almost entirely escaped the economic and social revival that's happened in those two major regions as well.<p>One other thought, the artificial, and somewhat arbitrary drawing of state boundaries has also made urban planning needlessly complex. If the U.S. had a method to redraw state boundaries every 20-30 years, these regions would be <i>just</i> about the right size to be states, and this would greatly simplify the planning and coordination of everything from transit to education delivery.<p>Instead, most of these regions cut across these administrative boundaries and medium sized 5 year projects turn into multi-decade, highly wasteful, high friction programs with an extraordinary high chance of failure.