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Urbanicity research · vertical theory

Central Business Districts & the Vertical Push

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Transport & Telecom — what the CBD plugs into

Vertical mass is parasitic on the infrastructure that surrounds it.

This view overlays four layers on a chosen city’s central business district: the CBD polygon (sketched or center-plus-radius fallback); transit stations within roughly twelve kilometres of the city centroid; Amtrak stations within twenty-five kilometres; and the telecom POP / IXP / MMR footprint that anchors the metro’s peering and hyperscale traffic.

Pick a city

City
Chicago
Transit score
72.4
Walk score
77.2
Transit stations (~12 km)
189
Amtrak terminals
4
Telecom nodes
1
CBD geometry
Polygon

What’s drawn

CBD boundary

Drawn as an orange polygon if geo.cbd_boundaries contains a sketch for the chosen city; otherwise as an orange circle approximating the center-plus-radius footprint from cities.cbd_boundaries. Polygons are aspirational sketches, not legal CBD designations.

Transit stations (blue)

Heavy-rail, light-rail, BRT, intercity bus terminals within ~12 km of the city centroid, from transport.transit_stations. Popup carries operator, lines served, daily ridership, and whether the station is a transfer or intermodal hub.

Amtrak (purple)

Long-distance intercity passenger rail terminals from transport.amtrak_stations. The 490-station network covers all states with service.

Telecom POP / IXP / MMR (red / gold / green)

Points-of-presence, internet exchange points, and meet-me rooms from infrastructure.telecom_nodes. The peering footprint a CBD’s hyperscale traffic depends on.

Methodology & caveats

Transit-station spatial join uses ST_DWithin on cities.cities.geom at ~0.12° (roughly 12 km) — wider than most legal CBD definitions to capture commuter ingress. Telecom nodes are matched by city name (the table carries no geometry), so multi-city metros may under-count. Transit-score and walk-score are from cities.cities (Walk Score / ACS).