According to the interwebs, the 2022 population of the Seattle Metro area is 3,489,000. So on the upper end of that 1-5 million range. Those are interesting breaks - 20k - 1 million is a wide range compared to the others!
Bad bucketing is responsible for many analysis flaws. But it might be a better survey choice than asking for numeric responses. Many people might decide to not answer if they were asked to type a response.
Yes, Mike nailed it. Bad binning on my part. Substack only gives you so many lines so I was flip flopping on which divisor to use and errantly used a mix! 🙄🤣 Always measure twice, and cut once!
Yes, I too thought the 20k-1 million was a wide range. I think design of the city has more impact on happiness than population size. In Southern California I lived in a city of ~125,000. The city was very spread out and built for cars. (Although personally, I think SoCal is an ideal climate for bicycles.) While I was close enough to walk to the grocery store, other venues such as the library, coffee shops, restaurants and parks were a few miles away with poor public transit. Anyway, eventually driving became tedious with so much traffic, poor roads, and flaring tempers.
I then moved to Seattle (Ballard) ~3.5 million. What I appreciated about living in Ballard was how convenient it was to walk to the places I wanted to go: Safeway, Trader Joe's, the (small pseudo) Target, the library, coffee shops, restaurants, the locks and botanical garden. I loved the accessibility, using one tank of gas in six months. If I was going to downtown I was able utilize the public transit system saving myself from the horrors of parking.
I now live in Edinburgh, Scotland ~400,000 and again the accessibility is a major factor in my happiness. I can walk to the grocery store, library, coffee shops and restaurants. There is a strong bus/public transport system that provides accessibility to other areas of the city. Additionally, Edinburgh is a compact city and very walkable.
Perhaps the main link in my experience is the larger cities have better public transit but driving to most of my appointments made the smallest populated city feel larger. The cities with the larger populations have felt easier to navigate on foot and with buses.
Thanks, Brenda! You've managed to live in a wide range of experiences and I'm thrilled Edinburgh is to your liking!
You make a great point there at the end. Density and walkability make big cities feel small and sparsity and auto-mobility make small cities feel big. 🤯
According to the interwebs, the 2022 population of the Seattle Metro area is 3,489,000. So on the upper end of that 1-5 million range. Those are interesting breaks - 20k - 1 million is a wide range compared to the others!
Bad bucketing is responsible for many analysis flaws. But it might be a better survey choice than asking for numeric responses. Many people might decide to not answer if they were asked to type a response.
Yes, Mike nailed it. Bad binning on my part. Substack only gives you so many lines so I was flip flopping on which divisor to use and errantly used a mix! 🙄🤣 Always measure twice, and cut once!
Yes, I too thought the 20k-1 million was a wide range. I think design of the city has more impact on happiness than population size. In Southern California I lived in a city of ~125,000. The city was very spread out and built for cars. (Although personally, I think SoCal is an ideal climate for bicycles.) While I was close enough to walk to the grocery store, other venues such as the library, coffee shops, restaurants and parks were a few miles away with poor public transit. Anyway, eventually driving became tedious with so much traffic, poor roads, and flaring tempers.
I then moved to Seattle (Ballard) ~3.5 million. What I appreciated about living in Ballard was how convenient it was to walk to the places I wanted to go: Safeway, Trader Joe's, the (small pseudo) Target, the library, coffee shops, restaurants, the locks and botanical garden. I loved the accessibility, using one tank of gas in six months. If I was going to downtown I was able utilize the public transit system saving myself from the horrors of parking.
I now live in Edinburgh, Scotland ~400,000 and again the accessibility is a major factor in my happiness. I can walk to the grocery store, library, coffee shops and restaurants. There is a strong bus/public transport system that provides accessibility to other areas of the city. Additionally, Edinburgh is a compact city and very walkable.
Perhaps the main link in my experience is the larger cities have better public transit but driving to most of my appointments made the smallest populated city feel larger. The cities with the larger populations have felt easier to navigate on foot and with buses.
Thanks, Brenda! You've managed to live in a wide range of experiences and I'm thrilled Edinburgh is to your liking!
You make a great point there at the end. Density and walkability make big cities feel small and sparsity and auto-mobility make small cities feel big. 🤯