Those two counties are Petroleum County, with a population of about 500, and Garfield County with a population of about 1,100. Both counties have a single town with about a quarter of the population.
This means a majority of the population live in the country, and likely work the lands they live on. This means no commute to work, which is what was measured.
This is a flaw in the methodology. Rurual Montana is not a bastion of urban planning. It is a mistake to look at travel to work exclusively. People need to travel to many destinations. And those living in those two counties probably use cars for everything else.
I wouldnt say it is a flaw, really. The data in general is a good approximation of auto dependence. And any researcher who isn’t an idiot will see the same thing you did and simply discard the data in these counties as obvious outliers. Sure, we can imagine a more accurate metric for measuring auto dependency for the purposes of creating a very nice map for public consumption. But it your purpose is simply to conduct some statistical analysis, I don’t think this dataset is bad - or at least not a bad start.
What the hell, Garfield county is about the quarter size of my country (the Netherlands, but only has 0,007% of the population. That’s mind boggling to me
Couple of areas of Nevada like that as well. But it’s not that they work on their own land a lot of the people work at the mines and they only drive maybe a half mile if that to get to their bus stop where the mines run buses for the hour to two hour drive out to the location and back.
So the only town you saw in the United States in a 5-second search with a bus system is some random town named Jordan with 356 people? I am so confused by your comment I think you meant to reply to somebody else but I can guarantee there’s more than that one town in the United States with a much higher population base that have bus trains and even large transit systems. The area that I live in has a massive transit system the spans the size of many states.
And if you think the largest town in Montana is a town called Jordan. You did a really really bad surge and you need a new search engine. Billings, Missoula, Great falls, Bozeman, Helena, etc all have large population bases and all have bus transit systems. There are several others that also have a transit systems and are larger than that.
I think they meant towns within the area highlighted in the initial image. Which would make sense, 'cause Jordan is in that area, is probably the largest incorporated community in that area, and definitely doesn’t have a bus system.
(Also, I know you meant Great Falls and not Great Colt, but it’s a funny typo)
A portio of that area I know is full of retirees who relocated to escape the woke coasts. (Speaking anecdotally of extended family that relocated to that zone for a community of old conservatives.) So I wonder if retirees are counted.
The area in Arizona thats a little lighter may also be a shade of that too. Snowbirds might be skewing it with people who just plain don’t commute.
What’s going on in that one area in Montana?
Those two counties are Petroleum County, with a population of about 500, and Garfield County with a population of about 1,100. Both counties have a single town with about a quarter of the population.
This means a majority of the population live in the country, and likely work the lands they live on. This means no commute to work, which is what was measured.
This is a flaw in the methodology. Rurual Montana is not a bastion of urban planning. It is a mistake to look at travel to work exclusively. People need to travel to many destinations. And those living in those two counties probably use cars for everything else.
I wouldnt say it is a flaw, really. The data in general is a good approximation of auto dependence. And any researcher who isn’t an idiot will see the same thing you did and simply discard the data in these counties as obvious outliers. Sure, we can imagine a more accurate metric for measuring auto dependency for the purposes of creating a very nice map for public consumption. But it your purpose is simply to conduct some statistical analysis, I don’t think this dataset is bad - or at least not a bad start.
It’s only bad if misinterpreted.
What the hell, Garfield county is about the quarter size of my country (the Netherlands, but only has 0,007% of the population. That’s mind boggling to me
Couple of areas of Nevada like that as well. But it’s not that they work on their own land a lot of the people work at the mines and they only drive maybe a half mile if that to get to their bus stop where the mines run buses for the hour to two hour drive out to the location and back.
I’m wondering that too. Just a guess, low population density with lots of farmers ‘working from home’ since they live on their farm.
They don’'t go to work. Farmers don’t travel for work but it’s likely low survey response. Very low population density there(1-10/mi)
You aren’t getting anywhere in Montana without a car
I mean that’s not really true. Most of the larger towns do have a bus system.
The only town I saw in that area in my 5 second search is Jordan, with a population of
357356.Edit: corrected population, my bad
So the only town you saw in the United States in a 5-second search with a bus system is some random town named Jordan with 356 people? I am so confused by your comment I think you meant to reply to somebody else but I can guarantee there’s more than that one town in the United States with a much higher population base that have bus trains and even large transit systems. The area that I live in has a massive transit system the spans the size of many states.
And if you think the largest town in Montana is a town called Jordan. You did a really really bad surge and you need a new search engine. Billings, Missoula, Great falls, Bozeman, Helena, etc all have large population bases and all have bus transit systems. There are several others that also have a transit systems and are larger than that.
I think they meant towns within the area highlighted in the initial image. Which would make sense, 'cause Jordan is in that area, is probably the largest incorporated community in that area, and definitely doesn’t have a bus system.
(Also, I know you meant Great Falls and not Great Colt, but it’s a funny typo)
Yea great falls. He didn’t say that are, he said, you aren’t getting anywhere in Montana without a car, so yea.
Nothing.
I drove though there once. Hours of seeing nothing but road.
low population density means high variance in stats.
always expect the highest and lowest stats to come from those areas.
But it’s probably farmers who live on their farm or something.
So they don’t drive a car, they drive a tractor.
Horses, atvs.
A portio of that area I know is full of retirees who relocated to escape the woke coasts. (Speaking anecdotally of extended family that relocated to that zone for a community of old conservatives.) So I wonder if retirees are counted.
The area in Arizona thats a little lighter may also be a shade of that too. Snowbirds might be skewing it with people who just plain don’t commute.
jfc the whiny shit these assholes come up with to justify their racism
Also, note the scale. It starts at 50% reliance.
I’d expect it’s pretty lightly populated at least, as that generally makes it easier to stand out in statistics.