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Originally Posted by New Brisavoine
Santos and São Paulo are also historically and economically distinct, and as geographically distant as DC and Baltimore. And with less car commuters between them than Baltimore and DC.
Baltimore has 621,000 inh. and Santos has 433,000 inh. So not very different.
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Again: to me, Washington and Baltimore form A SINGLE METRO AREA. I just left them separated as some people (including myself) might want to see figures for both areas.
São Paulo area is 20 million people against 1.5 million in Santos. Washington vs Baltimore is 5 million vs 2.5 million. Clearly, there's no equivalence. The fact of they're being historically separated don't prevent them to merge into a single metro area (Rhein-Ruhr, for example).
São Paulo official metro area was established in 1970, when it was almost 3 times less populated than today. Metro areas definition must be updated. That's self-evident.
Quote:
Originally Posted by New Brisavoine
Latin American metro areas are less extended geographically than North American metro areas because there is less car ownership in Latin America, so less sprawl. There is nothing surprising in having a 20 million inh metro area in Latin America with less footprint than a 9 million inh metro area in the US.
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That's why my definition of São Paulo metro area is three times smaller than Washington-Baltimore CSA.
Quote:
Originally Posted by New Brisavoine
In the US it's nearly 1,000/1,000 inh. So still a long way to go! And the gas spent on a daily 70 miles commute costs the average Brazilian household's budget much more than the average US household's. You're not gonna find hundreds of thousands of people in and around Santos commuting 70 miles daily to and from São Paulo, unlike in Washington DC-Baltimore, or San Francisco-San Jose.
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Almost
1 million cars leaves São Paulo to the coast on an average weekend. That shows how those areas are intrinsecally connected. On daily basis, there are a very decent commute flow between the two areas. My brother, for instance, drives 200 miles everyday between work and university.
Said that, I don't think many people commute from Dortmund to Bonn.
Quote:
Originally Posted by New Brisavoine
Again, comparing first world with developing world is flawed (rate of car ownership in the UK, density of the British railway network which is non-existent in Brazil, monthly budget of the average British household compared to the average Brazilian household, etc.).
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Wrong. In the UK, there are 520 cars/1,000 people. In São Paulo area, around 470. The borders between first world and developing countries are no longer that rigid, Brisavoine.