Re:Four Million Commutes Reveal New U.S. 'Megaregions'
by mabbo on Sunday December 04, 2016 @01:47PM
(#13101154)
It's not that everyone from one region commutes to the center every day, or that everyone inside this region shares a culture.
Use the number of commuters as a metric for 'closeness' of two areas. Then take it further by asking "how 'close' is Portland and Ashland?" by using the sum of the 'closeness' of each little hop from area to area.
This map is showing clustering, finding groups that are nearest to each other, using that metric as a distance function. Find me 50 areas where '# of commutes' are the distance function, and you get this map.
Ashland and Portland aren't very close geographically, but in terms of economics, they're in the same neighborhood of the country.
Use the number of commuters as a metric for 'closeness' of two areas. Then take it further by asking "how 'close' is Portland and Ashland?" by using the sum of the 'closeness' of each little hop from area to area.
This map is showing clustering, finding groups that are nearest to each other, using that metric as a distance function. Find me 50 areas where '# of commutes' are the distance function, and you get this map.
Ashland and Portland aren't very close geographically, but in terms of economics, they're in the same neighborhood of the country.