Bad connexion

[muckefuck]

I'm sure several of you remember that fascinating map of mobile phone calls between US regions published in the New York Times last year. Well, the BBC have commissioned a similar map for their series "Britain from Above".



Unfortunately, this cartograph is based on landline data rather than mobile, so it's not as au courant as the US map. Still, plenty of interest here. In particular, contrast the homogeneity and relative isolation of Scotland with the triparite division of Wales: the North pairs with the North West region of England (dark green) and Mid Wales with the West Midlands (red) whereas the South (dark blue) is off on its own. This mirrors the state of transportation links, which were constructed to serve the Empire rather than the needs of the Welsh themselves. North-South links are few and poor. (The sole motorway serves only to connect Swansea to Bristol; only a couple of trunk roads run north.) And it underlies some of the challenges in making Welsh devolution viable.

Comments

[oh-meow.livejournal.com]

Also the fact that there's a whole mountain range in the way between N&S Wales, so it;s often easier to just go out to the neighbouring parts of England, which don't have any mountains.

[muckefuck.livejournal.com]

And the Grampians are what?

[oh-meow.livejournal.com]

There's more flat passes and places you can put roads in the Grampians though. I've driven through them, and also from North to South Wales, and the Welsh mountains have more sudden bad weather because they're closer to the sea. Also the Grampians go E-W with sea at the sides so they have to build roads through to get to the NE of Scotland and can't go round them like they can in Wales. They certainly don't have motorways in the Grampians either, it's mostly country roads with 2 lanes, and it's almost impossible to get lost because there's only the one road that goes anywhere.

[niemandsrose.livejournal.com]

Huh-- I looked at this map and thought, "Lookit the homogeneity and relative isolation of people who use landlines."