# Your geographical misconceptions **URL:** \ **Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\ **Created:** [December 30, 2020, 8:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-geographical-misconceptions/929294 "2020-12-30T20:58:33Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 40
**Author:** ![cytop](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/f17d59/32.png) [@cytop](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/cytop)\ **Post date:** [April 25, 2021, 5:44am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-geographical-misconceptions/929294/783 "2021-04-25T05:44:14Z")
> [@Dr\_Paprika](#): > > Some of the stops on the famous London Underground map look incredibly far apart or close together. Not always true! Like all such maps it is stylised for clarity. However, some stations are incredibly close. Charing Cross to Embankment is allegedly just over 100m. Leicester Square to Covent Garden is also another short haul (About 250m). Paying cash for a single journey? That’ll be £5.50 please (~$6.50) 🙀 The longest wholly underground stretch is between Kings Cross and Caledonian Road (Approx 1.4 miles by road - not sure of the track distance). There is an unused station between them at York Road which closed in the 1930s but there’s a proposal to reopen that to relieve congestion at Kings Cross so things might change. [PDF](https://www.whatdotheyknow.com/request/224813/response/560395/attach/3/London%20Connections%20Map.pdf) (Big - it covers the area inside the M25 and shows the position of all stations on all rail lines - underground, overground & DLR) ---
**Author:** ![Spoons](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/spoons/32/3141_2.png) [@Spoons](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Spoons)\ **Post date:** [April 25, 2021, 6:19am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-geographical-misconceptions/929294/784 "2021-04-25T06:19:52Z")
> [@eschereal](#): > > What exactly does “northern Ontario” mean? Because it looks to me like two-thirds of Ontario is “you cannot drive to there”. The northern part of Ontario that you actually can drive to is in the lower third of the province. And that lower third is pretty much the only place it makes sense to put roads. North of there, there are small settlements that are only accessible by air or rail or ice road. So, “northern Ontario” is anyplace north of Parry Sound, really; but tends to mean places like Timmins, Thunder Bay, and Dryden; all of which look pretty far south in comparison to Ontario as a whole. Perhaps @Muffin, who lives there, could offer a better definition. > [@Dr\_Paprika](#): > > I can just say the furthest I have driven was beyond Thunder Bay. If ever invited to Kenora, Imma gonna fly. I’ve done the Manitoba border to Toronto (including Kenora) more than a few times. It’s about 1600 km (1000 miles), and takes about two-plus days to drive. The scenery is spectacular, but the drive, especially between Sault Ste. Marie and Thunder Bay, is challenging. I’d suggest doing it at least once, because I think you’re missing out on a particularly beautiful part of Canada if you don’t; but after that, you can fly. 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![Ludovic](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/7ab992/32.png) [@Ludovic](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ludovic)\ **Post date:** [April 25, 2021, 10:35am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-geographical-misconceptions/929294/785 "2021-04-25T10:35:41Z")
> [@SciFiSam](#): > > Is it like in London, where if West Ham is playing was playing, it wasn’t safe to get on the tube at Upton Park? It wasn’t so much football hooliganism as massive crowds that made leaving the station unsafe. There were lots of police, but it was only a little bit about controlling drunken yobs, and mostly about controlling waaaay more people than the station was designed to get out safely without being crushed to death. At the time I thought she meant that the neighborhood itself was unsafe in general, which she very well could have meant. But in retrospect, seeing how close Shea Stadium was to her apartment, and that Yankee Stadium is also close to a subway stop, making the “neighborhood” theory more moot, I think what she meant was that the _subway journey itself_ would be dangerous at night, since this was 1980s NYC. ---
**Author:** ![Andy\_L](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/c67d28/32.png) [@Andy\_L](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Andy_L)\ **Post date:** [April 25, 2021, 11:19am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-geographical-misconceptions/929294/786 "2021-04-25T11:19:20Z")
> [@Ludovic](#): > > > [@zimaane](#): > > > > I’m surprised how far north Europe is. Madrid, which is clearly in Southern Europe, is the same latitude as Boston, which is not Southern anything. > > I wasn’t _intellectually_ surprised at how north England was, but the actual shock of it being completely bright as day out before 5 am and not getting completely dark until midnight was jarring when I actually experienced it. > > . I had a business trip to north Scotland once - in December. Got dark at about 4, and didn’t get light again until about 9 AM ---
**Author:** ![Qadgop\_the\_Mercotan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/qadgop_the_mercotan/32/83_2.png) [@Qadgop\_the\_Mercotan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Qadgop_the_Mercotan)\ **Post date:** [April 25, 2021, 12:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-geographical-misconceptions/929294/787 "2021-04-25T12:21:25Z")
> [@Spoons](#): > > I’ve done the Manitoba border to Toronto (including Kenora) more than a few times. I still want to know what the deal is with Manitoba and Ontario having a 900 mile long border, but only one through road across it. ---
**Author:** ![Acsenray](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/acsenray/32/4519_2.png) [@Acsenray](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Acsenray)\ **Post date:** [April 25, 2021, 2:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-geographical-misconceptions/929294/788 "2021-04-25T14:27:48Z")
“Northern Ontario” is most of Ontario, pretty much the entire province except for the relatively densely populated Quebec City-Windsor corridor— > **[Northern Ontario](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Northern_Ontario)** > > Northern Ontario is a primary geographic and quasi-administrative region of the Canadian province of Ontario, the other primary region being Southern Ontario. Most of the core geographic region is located on part of the Superior Geological Province of the Canadian Shield, a vast rocky plateau located mainly north of Lake Huron (including Georgian Bay), the French River, Lake Nipissing, and the Mattawa River. The statistical region extends south of the Mattawa River to include all of the District ... > [@Ludovic](#): > > I just found one out today! I remember as a child I visited my grandmother in Flushing, Queens, and we went to a baseball game. She said that Yankee Stadium was too dangerous to go to so we went to Shea Stadium instead for a Mets game. Then, after the game, we too a subway back to Flushing. > > Thus, Shea Stadium had to have been somewhere else, entirely separate from Flushing, instead of being easily walkable, although perhaps not at night for someone who is already too afraid to go to Yankee Stadium. Before the game we even went to Flushing Meadows but I didn’t know it was called that, all I remember is that it held some remains of former exhibitions. It was probably not much closer to the former Shea Stadium than my grandmothers house! I’m not sure what you’re trying to say here. Shea Stadium has always been in Flushing, Queens. Maybe you just had to go to a part of Flushing that wasn’t within walking distance. ---
**Author:** ![mtnmatt](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/a3d4f5/32.png) [@mtnmatt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mtnmatt)\ **Post date:** [April 25, 2021, 2:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-geographical-misconceptions/929294/789 "2021-04-25T14:55:10Z")
> [@Ludovic](#): > > > [@SciFiSam](#): > > > > Is it like in London, where if West Ham is playing was playing, it wasn’t safe to get on the tube at Upton Park? It wasn’t so much football hooliganism as massive crowds that made leaving the station unsafe. There were lots of police, but it was only a little bit about controlling drunken yobs, and mostly about controlling waaaay more people than the station was designed to get out safely without being crushed to death. > > At the time I thought she meant that the neighborhood itself was unsafe in general, which she very well could have meant. But in retrospect, seeing how close Shea Stadium was to her apartment, and that Yankee Stadium is also close to a subway stop, making the “neighborhood” theory more moot, I think what she meant was that the _subway journey itself_ would be dangerous at night, since this was 1980s NYC. It is probably a little of both. If you are already on the same subway line (7) that goes past Shea, it is an easy trip, but to get to Yankee Stadium (which is in a relatively worse neighborhood) it is a MUCH longer subway ride - all the way into Manhattan and then changing to the uptown trains to the Bronx. ---
**Author:** ![Mirtha](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/67e7ee/32.png) [@Mirtha](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mirtha)\ **Post date:** [April 25, 2021, 3:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-geographical-misconceptions/929294/790 "2021-04-25T15:36:25Z")
A la “King And I” style, kids are taught and the common vernacular in the States, is America is a country instead of a continent. ---
**Author:** ![abcdefghij](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/43a26b/32.png) [@abcdefghij](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/abcdefghij)\ **Post date:** [April 25, 2021, 4:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-geographical-misconceptions/929294/791 "2021-04-25T16:38:49Z")
As Randy Newman said, “South America stole our name” [![](https://img.youtube.com/vi/Kg_LDeUEiWY/maxresdefault.jpg "Randy Newman - Political Science (Live in London)") ](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Kg_LDeUEiWY) ---
**Author:** ![carrps](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/carrps/32/2957_2.png) [@carrps](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/carrps)\ **Post date:** [April 25, 2021, 9:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-geographical-misconceptions/929294/792 "2021-04-25T21:10:57Z")
> [@Sunspace](#): > > I used to work with a woman from the Isle of Man. She had the most amazing accent. Sadly for us, she moved back to the Isle to get married… And they speak a separate Celtic language – Manx! Or did. I think it’s extinct now? ---
**Author:** ![panache45](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/panache45/32/64_2.png) [@panache45](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/panache45)\ **Post date:** [April 25, 2021, 11:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-geographical-misconceptions/929294/793 "2021-04-25T23:16:32Z")
And they’ve originated some really cool cats. ---
**Author:** ![eschereal](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/eschereal/32/18939_2.png) [@eschereal](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/eschereal)\ **Post date:** [April 26, 2021, 2:22am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-geographical-misconceptions/929294/794 "2021-04-26T02:22:00Z")
I just saw the coördinates for Gilligan’s Island: 10 by 110. Now, obviously it is 110W (which puts it due south from Cooke City Montana or Bisbee Arizona, not too far west of Cabo San Lucas), though it is not clear whether the 10 is N or S, but man, I always pictured it as being much farther west. That is 3000 miles east of Hawai’i. That must have a hell of a fucking storm. ---
**Author:** ![Muffin](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/muffin/32/4341_2.png) [@Muffin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Muffin)\ **Post date:** [April 29, 2021, 11:36am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-geographical-misconceptions/929294/795 "2021-04-29T11:36:17Z")
[+quote=“Qadgop\_the\_Mercotan, post:787, topic:929294”] I still want to know what the deal is with Manitoba and Ontario having a 900 mile long border, but only one through road across it. [/quote] Sometimes we have a second through road, and sometimes we don’t: the 752 km Wapusk Trail. ---
**Author:** ![Qadgop\_the\_Mercotan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/qadgop_the_mercotan/32/83_2.png) [@Qadgop\_the\_Mercotan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Qadgop_the_Mercotan)\ **Post date:** [April 29, 2021, 3:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-geographical-misconceptions/929294/796 "2021-04-29T15:05:49Z")
> [@Muffin](#): > > Sometimes we have a second through road, and sometimes we don’t: the 752 km Wapusk Trail. Good to know there’s another road connecting the two provinces sometimes. Now how do I drive to Fort Severn? Dang, Canada’s big. ---
**Author:** ![Muffin](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/muffin/32/4341_2.png) [@Muffin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Muffin)\ **Post date:** [April 29, 2021, 7:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-geographical-misconceptions/929294/797 "2021-04-29T19:03:40Z")
> [@Muffin](#): > > Wapusk Trail > [@Qadgop\_the\_Mercotan](#): > > Good to know there’s another road connecting the two provinces sometimes. Now how do I drive to Fort Severn? > > Dang, Canada’s big. From da UP: Windy, Minnie, Winni, Thom and Gilla. Then Feb snow and ice to Shamattawa and Fort Severn on the Wapusk (White Bear) winter (ice) road. If you decide to go for a jaunt in your jalopy next January, check for covid-19 travel restrictions. Figure on 150 hours round trip behind the wheel plus food, fuel, sleep, breakdowns, stucks and rests. Here’s the ride and the attitude for driving in the back end of nowhere: [https://youtu.be/vtjnoLgeSEM](https://youtu.be/vtjnoLgeSEM) ---
**Author:** ![TokyoBayer](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tokyobayer/32/13989_2.png) [@TokyoBayer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TokyoBayer)\ **Post date:** [April 30, 2021, 7:25am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-geographical-misconceptions/929294/798 "2021-04-30T07:25:48Z")
This will be meaningful to almost no one here, but in the days before Google maps on cell phones, you would find places in Tokyo by navigating from the closest train or subway station. Most streets in Japan don’t have names and the addresses are set for neighborhoods so it can be difficult to get a sense of how neighborhoods connect. Once I was with a friend in Tokyo and we went to a particular shop which was a 15-minute walk from one station. He wanted to go to a Mexican restaurant he liked which was a 10-minute walk from the next station. So we walk back to the first station, waited for the train, then ten more minutes. Finally 35 to 40 minutes later we arrived at the restaurant only to discover it was across the intersection from where we started off. ---
**Author:** ![zimaane](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/z/a3d4f5/32.png) [@zimaane](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/zimaane)\ **Post date:** [May 26, 2021, 8:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-geographical-misconceptions/929294/799 "2021-05-26T20:22:15Z")
I’ve always that North and South America were lined up, one directly north of the other. But I checked, and the western most point of mainland South America (in Peru) is at the same longitude as Cleveland OH. ---
**Author:** ![jtur88](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/e9c0ed/32.png) [@jtur88](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jtur88)\ **Post date:** [May 27, 2021, 5:06am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-geographical-misconceptions/929294/800 "2021-05-27T05:06:17Z")
Yes, you can stand on the Pacific coast of Chile, and be farther east tnan Portland, Maine. ---
**Author:** ![AppallingGael](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/b9bd4f/32.png) [@AppallingGael](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AppallingGael)\ **Post date:** [May 29, 2021, 6:23am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-geographical-misconceptions/929294/801 "2021-05-29T06:23:42Z")
Back on February 27, I gave up too easily on San Marino. The CITY of San Marino IS, in fact, west of Vatican City (12.4473° vs. 12.4534°), though basically it is north of it. I had lazily stopped at checking the coordinates for the two countries, which I understand are based on their geographic centers, forgetting that the Most Serene Republic of San Marino is more than its capital city, while Vatican City State is not than its. ---
**Author:** ![carrps](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/carrps/32/2957_2.png) [@carrps](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/carrps)\ **Post date:** [May 29, 2021, 9:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-geographical-misconceptions/929294/802 "2021-05-29T21:08:54Z")
> [@TokyoBayer](#): > > This will be meaningful to almost no one here, but in the days before Google maps on cell phones, you would find places in Tokyo by navigating from the closest train or subway station. Most streets in Japan don’t have names and the addresses are set for neighborhoods so it can be difficult to get a sense of how neighborhoods connect. My sister loved the Bingoya store, but it was really hard to find back when she was there (like the early 70s). When I had a cow-orker who was going to be there for a few years (her husband worked for Disney, and he would be working on Japanese Disneyland), I told her about Bingoya. When she got back, she told me there was now a subway stop right outside the store, so easy-peasy. My sister was a little po’d. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-geographical-misconceptions/929294.md?page=39) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-geographical-misconceptions/929294.md?page=41)