Can the area of Tampa/St Pete-Orlando and Ft Myers be considered a megalopolis now? I was looking at a map of Florida the other day and that area looks nearly connected with development.
Connections with development does not mean the areas are interconnected. It's a 2 hour drive from Tampa to Ft. Myers and the same amount of time to commute from Tampa to Orlando. The areas are very distinct and a"Megalopolis" would have grander ties between them through politics and economics. But that's not the case whatsoever.
You see the inter-connection and that is simply the developers sprawling out development further and further.
A Tampa-St. Pete-Bradenton-Sarasota "magaopolis" would be more likely especially if there becomes a rail link in the future. But we don't even have that now as there is little development other then maybe some residential sprawl along I-75 and U.S. 41 in southern Hillsborough and along I-275 in northern Manatee.
Studies originating at Virginia Tech and Georgia Tech Universities in the United States identify much of the southern two thirds of Florida as an emergent megalopolis, which the Virginia Tech study refers to as Peninsula. This would include the core metropolitan areas of Miami, Fort Lauderdale, West Palm Beach, Melbourne, Orlando, Daytona Beach, Tampa, St. Petersburg, Fort Meyers, along with suburban and rural counties linked through economic and commuting patterns[5][6]. The population of this region is - according to the same study - 13.7 million people, as of 2005.
St.Pete, Tampa, Lakeland, Orlando is getting there. Give it another couple years for the Baseball City area to fully develop and then it'll be pretty solid. Going South though, I wouldn't include anything past Sarasota. Too much open space.
Yep. I still remember posting somewhere an article that I used for one of my Public Speaking reports concerning urban sprawl in Florida. According to that article; if urban sprawl patterns continue, 60% of the state will be nothing but urban area.
I think adjacent cities need to get their act together on coordination and then we will see. i.e. Tampa & St. Pete, Bradenton & Sarasota, Ft. Myers & Naples.
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