Samuel Arbesman, writing at the Atlantic Cities:
We know that [administrative] boundaries are on some level unnatural. Driving around Kansas City, where I live, makes this abundantly clear. Gas price differences aside, it can be difficult to tell which state you’re in, Missouri or Kansas, and the small street of State Line Road does nothing to make it clearer.
But are there more organic borders, brought to life by our own actions and activities? I recently set out, along with a team from MIT and AT&T, to see if I could find an answer?
Some of them match up remarkably well with previous efforts. Others not as much. The different sources of data—and the usage patterns behind them—are likely the reason.