The measurement is “counties” away from the coast. Not miles nor km.
I realise now its literally in the title but for some reason the terminology did not compute and i just kept reading it as miles.
I thought there was something seriously off with this map or that it was a good example of the mercator distortion and had started to compare distances between cities.
Interestingly enough it wan ai (claude) that pointed this out from just the raw pic.
“The methodology of measuring by county units rather than strict distance creates an interesting visualization ”
it's not in the title; if it were in the title, title would be Distance from the coast (by counties, in counties)
That’s interesting and random. I think time to coast would be a better measure and look quite a bit different, especially seeing as this map counts the Great Lakes as “coastal”, which I don’t think fits the definition. The lakes are called the “third coast” jokingly, but coastal is seashore, not freshwater.
"A" coast. This also makes a distinction between the Great Lakes and... every other lake in the US. It's not salt water, because, well, the Great Lakes. So what determined whether a lake was big enough to qualify as having "a shore"? The Great Salt Lake in Utah is the 7th largest lake in the US (3 down from Lake Ontario, which is represented) and doesn't appear to be be considered.
Are these "shores as US national borders, except for the shores of rivers?"
The great lakes are large enough to not see the other shore/coast due to the curvature of the Earth and they are on an external border which makes them comparable to inland seas despite being freshwater.
The great lakes are comparabke to the Red Sea or Black Sea.
The great salt lake doesn't connect to the ocean or any other shore and therefore is not a major shipping route. Also it may only be two more down than Ontario but it's an order of magnitude smaller.
So, the definition is "a body of water from which one can navigate - even if by river or canal - to an ocean"? How big does the traversal have to be - if I can get there by canoe without portage, does that count? What about Lake Eirie? AFAIK, you can't navigate without portage from Eirie to the Atlantic, but it connects to Lake Ontario via the Niagara River.
...international coastlines; shores with ports-of-entry...
I wish the state boundaries were a bolder line overlay
17+ amogus
Now I want a breakdown of how people in an area refer to locations near them such as using counties or cities.
Here in western North Carolina we use counties but my friends in eastern NC don’t. I figure it’s because a lot of towns out here are too small to even be towns most of the time.
When I went to school in West Virginia the locals also used counties there when referring to where they’re from.
I know using counties is popular in California and looking at the map I can kinda see why since they’re huge.
Driving time distance from any interstate highway would reveal regions most likely to attempt seceding from the Union.
Can you do Canada? With Lake Winnipeg and Slave lakes big enough to count?
I’ll never understand ’Muricans and their fetish for rulers.
[Edit: To clarify: I’m talking about the crazy straight borders.]
Why are you in the map community if you don't like measuring things
Are you more of a compass man?
Much better!
