Population Rays - Visualize distance to 100k people on an interactive map
Show HN: How far do I have to go to run into 100k people?
Population Rays is an interactive web tool that visualizes the distance required to encounter 100,000 people from any specific location in the US. By generating a 5-degree slice in every direction, the tool creates a unique 'petal' map where the length of each petal represents the travel distance to reach that population threshold. Powered by Meta/CIESIN HRSL data and built with Leaflet, it allows users to search for cities or use their current location to instantly see population density patterns. This innovative visualization helps users understand urban sprawl, rural isolation, and demographic distribution in a visually intuitive way.
From the pin, a filled 5° slice in every direction. Petal length = distance to 100k people.
- addaon
That seems like the distance to go from having 100k people in front of you to having 100k people behind you. The distance you'd have to go to run into them properly would depend critically on the width of the vehicle you're in. With about 30k people running the Boston marathon and 60k people running the NY marathon, if you can source a vehicle wide enough to cover the course, it seems like you could pull it off in just a bit over 52.4 miles... assuming that the bodies didn't produce enough drag to slow you down so much that runners were managing to stay ahead of you on the course. (And assuming that marathon runners prioritize completion of the course over running sideways away from obvious danger, but they're marathon runners, that seems like a safe assumption.)
- cozzyd
heh, from my address in downtown Chicago, I get 2.34 miles in the shortest direction and > 3000 miles (aka don't reach 100k within the US) in the longest direction (slices of lake michigan passing through unpopulated stretches of the UP. Canada is not included, but not sure it would help much...
- tshaddox
I must be slightly confused about what claims this visualization is making. Are these 5 degree rays supposed to be indicating non-overlapping triangles where each triangle contains 100k population? If so, a full circle (with no triangles missing) would be a population of 7.2 million. And yet, clicking around Los Angeles County you can easily find multiple completely non-overlapping full circles, despite the county population being under 10 million.
- minimaltom
Even if you are colliding with 20 people a minute thats still 3.5 straight days of running into people. Even if gentle thats probably heavy bruising, and any conflict or discourse is gonna slow down that 20-people rate.
I imagine theres probably only a few cities where you could pull this off.
Anyways I know the article isnt this literal, this was just my first thought from the title and I had a chuckle lol.
- qrush
It's rough not having Canada's population in here. There's way more than 100k people in all directions north from Buffalo and it doesn't feel accurate.