In London Orbital, writer, walker and Londoner Iain Sinclair approaches his favourite subject – his home town – by circumambulating it. The book details his trek along the M25, London’s ring road.
Sinclair completes the 117 mile (188 km) journey in 592 pages, which works out to 5 pages per mile (or 3 per kilometer). As ring roads go, London’s is one of the longer ones – which can with some difficulty be gleaned from this map.
The map layers the peripheral highways of 27 of the world’s larger cities onto a poster, designed by the Rice School of Architecture in Houston, TX. That location is no coincidence, because the poster highlights a record for Houston: it has the largest ring road in the world (or at least the largest of all the world cities surveyed).
However, it is unclear how long a book Mr Sinclair would have to write, were he to transplant his peripatetic procedure (and the same distance-to-volume ratio) from London to Houston.
The city at the centre of the US’s sixth-largest metropolitan area (with 5.7 million inhabitants) has three ring roads: Interstate 610 [circling downtown in a 38-mile (61-km) loop], Beltway 8 [about 83 miles, or 137 km] and the as yet unfinished Grand Parkway [State Highway 99].
Clearly, for Houston to have the world’s longest loop, the big black blob on this map could only be the latter. But a few problems arise. Four, to be exact.
One: the Grand Parkway is far from finished. Only two of 11 segments are completed. However tempting it may be, it is hardly fair to tout something as “the world’s largest” before it’s been completed. Especially since, as any large-scale project, the Grand Parkway has its share of detractors. So it might never get done.
Two: even if it is to be completed, plans may change and length might vary. The website for the Grand Parkway Association doesn’t specify beyond the “circumferential scenic highway” going to be “180+ miles” (app. 290 km) long.
Three: the Houston orbital outsizes all others on this map to such an extent that it’s difficult to imagine its circumference to be no larger than London’s by a factor of 180 to 117.
And finally, four: now that I’m mentioning London’s orbital road again — the website for the UK’s Highway Agency states that the M25 is… the longest ring road in the world.
While the identity of the actual highway(s) surrounding Houston and depicted here remains elusive, it is beyond doubt that the Texan city has a large surface, a fact attested by a map posted earlier on this blog (#327), the discussion of which also touches upon the phenomenon of sprawl (large conurbations with relatively low population density) as a result of increased mobility.
Many thanks to Owen Evans, Scott Bodenheimer, Iain Kennedy (and anyone I might have overlooked) for alerting me to this map, found here on Thumb.
That’s some really bad design. You can’t tell which city is which shape without really squinting at the little lines. At this resolution it’s impossible. They should have put the city names right on the ring road outlines.
Comment by Joe Jones — May 25, 2009 @ 1:22 am
I think your numbers are off, or you’re comparing different numbers. There’s no way that Houston’s loop 610 is only 10 miles long. It’s more like a 40 mile loop, though it’s approximately 10 miles *in diameter*. Similarly, Beltway 8 is about 25 miles *across*, but the length of the road is closer to 100 miles. That’s closer to London’s M25.
The proposed Grand parkway, yeah, if it were complete all they way around (it isn’t because a segment is in the ocean) would be something like double that.
Comment by secretivek — May 25, 2009 @ 2:44 am
I’m guessing some of the other ringroads are also incomplete; otherwise the Pacman’s-mouth shape of the indentation bespeaks very poor planning.
Comment by mollymooly — May 25, 2009 @ 4:45 am
i used google maps to measure the length of the existing loop around Houston and I came up with only 77 miles, so i don’t know how the completed design will be 180.
Here’s the map: http://tinyurl.com/puqlp5
Comment by david — May 25, 2009 @ 6:47 am
Some of those ring roads would encircle their city entirely (some with more room to spare) and some wouldn’t; looking at the map of Sydney, there’s only one set of highways that look like a ring road, and that leaves large parts on the outside.
Comment by Eric — May 25, 2009 @ 6:54 am
Your math is iffy. 592 pages covering 117 miles gives something on the order of five pages per mile.
- Jake
Comment by JakeS — May 25, 2009 @ 7:10 am
Just to throw this into the mix: London’s M25 isn’t a continuous loop (it cuts out either side of the Thames estuary). Also, isn’t the 10 around Berlin longer anyway?
Comment by Ned — May 25, 2009 @ 9:12 am
Ned, technically, you’re right, but the ‘London Orbital’ is a complete circuit around the capital. The section crossing the Thames at Dartford (tunnel counterclockwise direction, bridge clockwise) has a different road number, but the ‘Ring Road’ itself is a continuous loop.
Comment by johnrimmer — May 25, 2009 @ 9:41 am
That’s Texas for y’all. ;)
So, when is Houston’s Grand Parkway supposed to be completed?
Comment by Lucario — May 25, 2009 @ 11:14 am
@ secretivek (#2):
yep, numbers were quite off. I inadvertently might have used data for the length across instead of around, as you suggest.
@ JakeS (#6):
iffy math corrected, thanks.
Comment by strangemaps — May 25, 2009 @ 11:51 am
I don’t believe the black area is meant to represent the Grand Parkway, but rather to represent the already existing State Highway 6/FM 1960.
It is correct however to question their actual status as a ring road–not because they are two separate highways (ring roads are often built up from several different roads, which is one thing that distinguishes them from beltways), but because SH 6/FM1960 don’t form a ring. SH 6 terminates at the Gulf of Mexico, and FM 1960 ends northeast of town. It is, therefore, a half-ring…
Still, cool map, hey?
Comment by RWB — May 25, 2009 @ 1:36 pm
I would like to point out that Boston, MA already has a complete ring road 135 miles long and a mostly complete ring road of 180 miles in length. That is assuming we aren’t disbarring coastal cities from this competition simply because the rings cannot be completed due to the influence of the ocean?
I-495 is Boston’s second loop road at 135 miles reaching from the Cape Cod Canal to the Merrimack River.
Meanwhile I-195, 146, I-190, 13, and 101 form an emerging third ring road of 180 miles in length encompassing parts of Rhode Island and New Hampshire. With the exception of a few stretches around Worcester and between Leominster and Manchester, this loop is already complete, and the secondary highways in the incomplete sections are mostly high speed roads anyway.
Comment by paul — May 25, 2009 @ 1:37 pm
A delightfully strange map. Should anyone like to know more about the strange history of London’s M25 ring, see http://www.cbrd.co.uk/histories/ringways/
Or, for the potted version, http://pathetic.org.uk/features/ringways/ringway_3/
I should think, however, that the strangest ring-road in the world (at least from a mapping point of view) must be the Torbay ring-road in England. This weirdly-named road follows, to a pretty good approximation, a straight line!
Comment by Stephen P — May 25, 2009 @ 5:38 pm
[...] Does My Metro Area Look Big in this Ring Road? — Strange Maps with some comparative cartography. [...]
Pingback by [links] Link salad mellows out in the city by the bay | jlake.com — May 25, 2009 @ 6:08 pm
I visited Chengdu, Sichuan, for a few weeks a couple of years ago, and that city has three or four ring roads, with more in the works as the city grows. The outermost is large enough to warrant mention.
Comment by dre — May 25, 2009 @ 8:42 pm
[...] ring of flowers 25 05 2009 Here is a really cool representation of the sprawl of ring roads globally. I hope someone makes this into a poster–I’d love to have [...]
Pingback by A ring of flowers « Never Too Late — May 26, 2009 @ 1:10 am
What I’d like to see is a web page which allows people to view each ring road separately, or in comparison with another ring road. That would definitely help with the scale issue, IMHO.
Comment by Don H. — May 26, 2009 @ 2:49 am
I agree with RWB, post #11. The Grand Parkway in the picture is actually FM 1960 and SH 6, which are in no way loops, but Grand Parkway is actually farther away from the downtown, so if it weren’t for Galveston Bay, it would engulf all the other ring roads.
Comment by Clorox — May 26, 2009 @ 4:05 am
[...] (via StrangeMaps) [...]
Pingback by Yr Doing a Great Job » Blog Archive — May 26, 2009 @ 9:22 am
@Ned (#2):
Yes. From the German Wikipedia:
A 10 is 196km long > 188km (117 miles).
Comment by ospalh — May 26, 2009 @ 9:48 am
This is a REALLY bad map. The only two ring roads I can pick out are Houston (because it’s the largest) and Vienna (because it’s on top). However, in Vienna, the maps on Google Earth bear absolutely no relation to the outline shown. The closest I could come up with is the Ringstraße,a series of roads following the ancient city walls. However, these only enclose the very cantre of the city, with even the Parliment building lying on their outside edge.
Comment by Alex — May 26, 2009 @ 10:29 am
Well, I’m just proud that my alma mater made Strange Maps!!!
And, as far as the viability of the map goes, recall that this is our School of Architecture who designed it. I’m sure that aesthetics, and not usefulness, was the driving factor in designing that cover.
Comment by Gimpy! — May 26, 2009 @ 7:23 pm
[...] 384 – Does My Metro Area Look Big in this Ring Road? « Strange Maps [...]
Pingback by igorbrejc.net » Fresh Catch For May 27th — May 27, 2009 @ 6:11 am
Tufte where are you?
Let’s see:
accurate data? no fudge
complete and reliable data? more fudge
data organized by size? no, in an alpha list
tab A = slot A? nope
scale visible? no
Houston, we have a problem? yes
—
Uh-oh “chart junk”ding-ding-ding
Get a fact checker
Get a geographer
Get a math specialist
Teach them art it is easier
Comment by steve har — May 27, 2009 @ 8:31 pm
[...] tip jason kottke / strange maps. Subscribe to comments Comment | Trackback | Post Tags: cairo, cairo ring road, design, kottke, [...]
Pingback by » ring roads mapped. cairo’s on the small side. — May 28, 2009 @ 1:19 am
Steve Har hit the nail on the head.
CHART JUNK
Interesting Story muddled.
As useful as a fart in a hot elevator.
Comment by Joe — May 29, 2009 @ 6:19 pm
Interesting, but somewhat erroneous. In fact, the Beijing 6th Ring, at least 3/4 complete (balance under construction) is about 140 miles… longer than the London Orbital, Washington’s 495 or Houston’s Beltway 8. The chart is impossible to decipher, but it appears that the 5th, not the 6th Ring Road is used for Beijing.
If we want to include “planned” ring roads in the discussion, then the title would probably go to Beijing’s 7th Ring, planned but not yet under construction. There is also talk in Beijing of an 8th or even a 9th ring road.
Comment by Demographia — May 30, 2009 @ 2:17 pm
This reminds me of my cousin and her wedding. It turned out to be quite an amazing setting and situation after they got everything together. Honestly, it surprised us all, but we were very happy for the both of them.
Comment by randy gurtzman — May 31, 2009 @ 11:14 am
Nearly as strange as Torbay’s straight-line ring road, in Nuneaton (also UK) the “ring” road, though circular, goes right through the centre of town. I dunno. Planners!!
Comment by Pat — June 1, 2009 @ 11:16 pm
Great content as usual. Keep it up! Thanks again.
Comment by website design — June 3, 2009 @ 5:52 am
[...] been following the Strange Maps blog for a while, but my favourite is the overlapping shapes of ring roads around the world. It’s hard to work out which is which, but London’s M25 is second only to the [...]
Pingback by Living with Dragons » Around the OSM Blogsphere — June 6, 2009 @ 2:24 pm
The map is cmparing apples with pears – different types of roads. As others have commented many cities have several ring roads. The map on the top, which is the “Ring”-boulvard in Vienna, is only the inner most circle (around the medieval) town. The 2nd circle is the “Gürtel”, which is the ring road around the town of the 18th/19th century (roads B227 and B221).
Finally, under construction, there is the “Region-Ring” around Vienna would be the only motorway ring around the larger town – it will be completed in 2014 with a length of 200 km (124 mil).
Comment by Andreas — June 10, 2009 @ 7:57 pm
I understand that they couldn’t include every single ring road in the world, but some of the selections seem odd. For example, why Kansas City but not Indianapolis, which has a larger city population and a larger metro populaton? And is there not a single ring road in all of South America?
Comment by rhodent — June 23, 2009 @ 4:36 am
As this graphic was posted here on Strange Maps, it makes sense that everyone wants to evaluate this piece as just that, a map.
However, it was not produced for this purpose. So, yes, as many of you point out, this IS a bad MAP.
However, as a piece of propaganda, it’s pretty successful.
Comment by LB — July 14, 2009 @ 11:10 pm
I-280/I-680 isn’t a complete ring around San Francisco; in fact, 280 ends in The City, but combined, they’re 128 miles long.
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