A Map Of The World’s Straightest Roads Proves The Midwest Is Really Dull

If data journalism has proved anything , it ’s that you’re able to make an interactive single-valued function of almost anything . Today ’s display : a map that rank the reality ’s roadstead by bendyness , once and for all conclusively proving that the Midwest is really incredibly boring — to push across , of course .

The map was made by Rory McCann , who took OpenStreeMap data point , then applied a rule ( distance of road / straight - line length between termination ) to give a ‘ bendyness proportion ’ . A ratio of 1.0 means a perfectly straight route , with more curvy roadstead acquire a higher number . roadstead that travel through wormhole , presumably , are less than 1 .

You cango rapid growth around the map yourselfto more intimately examine the universe , but some obvious trends are clear from the starting time : the high concentration of straight road lies in the Midwest and Canada ’s prairies , which makes sense : there ’s no reason to put make curve when your road runs across a flat , mostly empty place . There ’s also the long time factor : many route ( and cities ) in North America were built from scratch , whereas older countries plainly enlarged and improved existing rights of way .

Pixwatch2