
New York City's Remotest Spot - joe5150
http://www.newyorker.com/tech/elements/new-york-citys-remotest-spot
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andyv133
Their metric for determining remoteness is really lacking in my opinion, it
doesn't jive at all with what I think many people would consider a remote
location. Something along the lines of population density would tend to give a
more meaningful idea of remoteness than straight line to the nearest road.

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ZitchDog
Distance from a cell tower might be a good metric.

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davidw
This is another fun way of looking at it:

[http://www.datapointed.net/2010/09/distance-to-nearest-
mcdon...](http://www.datapointed.net/2010/09/distance-to-nearest-mcdonalds-
sept-2010/)

With a little bit less serious take on the trek to the spot:

[http://www.datapointed.net/2010/10/the-farthest-place-
from-m...](http://www.datapointed.net/2010/10/the-farthest-place-from-
mcdonalds-lower-48-states/)

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Tepix
In the US, 31 out of 33 visited states had audible human noises in their most
remote spots. I wonder what the result would be for Canada's ten provinces and
three territories...

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maratd
> In the US, 31 out of 33 visited states had audible human noises in their
> most remote spots

I know the article says this, but it could't possibly be true. Most states
have massive forests, including the State of New York. Even the most densely
populated state, New Jersey, has them. Unless they literally sat at that spot
for a day waiting for a plane to fly over them, I can't understand how it
could be true.

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jofer
You'd be amazed how far human sounds travel.

I grew up a 45 minute drive (~20 miles) from the nearest stoplight. The town
that had the stoplight also had a train. I could hear it whenever the wind was
out of the north and wasn't too strong (and almost always hear its whistle).

We were also about 6-7 miles from the interstate "as-the-crow-flies" (about
10mi driving distance). I could hear constant interstate traffic most of the
time.

Note that both of those were faint, but they were definitely there.

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maratd
A train 20 miles away, absolutely. Trains are by far the biggest noise
polluters, mostly due to federal regulation. They have to signal at every
intersection. In my humble opinion, completely unnecessary since we already
have bells there, but whatever ...

As far as how forested New York State is, this gives you a good idea:

[http://www.dec.ny.gov/lands/309.html](http://www.dec.ny.gov/lands/309.html)

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joe5150
Trains don't have to signal at every intersection. There are quiet zones in
hundreds of municipalities.

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AnimalMuppet
True, and the horn is the loudest part of the train. The rest of the train can
still be pretty loud, though, if operating at high power.

~~~
joe5150
The quality of the tracking has a big effect on noise, too.

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Turing_Machine
The most remote spot in Alaska:

[http://www.gi.alaska.edu/alaska-science-forum/most-remote-
sp...](http://www.gi.alaska.edu/alaska-science-forum/most-remote-spot-alaska)

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joe5150
Of some pertinence:
[http://darksitefinder.com/maps/world.html](http://darksitefinder.com/maps/world.html)

Any truly dark place is at least a couple of hours from me, and I already live
in a somewhat rural part of the western US.

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anonu
My NYC remote spot is here: 40.876717, -73.927732 . It probably doesn't
conform to the metrics in the article - but you get a beautiful view of the
Hudson river - the Amtrak train passes by every now and then...

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rayiner
tl'dr: New Yorker sees a deer a quarter-mile off the road and concludes he's
in the wilderness.

~~~
ctdonath
It's an amusing exercise for an area noted for being completely overrun by
humans.

Does make me consider writing a "remoteness index" app.

