Our American state borders are rather arbitrary, and in many cases redrawing the United States of America would make sense:
The New York metropolitan area has grown to encompass counties in four states. Kansas City is really two different municipalities divided by the Missouri-Kansas border. Chicago’s Metra commuter rail stretches into neighboring Wisconsin, just as Washington, D.C.’s Metro trains and busses collect riders from Maryland and Virginia.
Using bill tracking data from Where’s George, a web site where users enter tracking data for physical one-dollar bills, researchers found that the US breaks into 12 distinct regions:
The Midwest remained largely in tact, as does New England. But Pennsylvania was split in two by the Appalachian Mountains, while the southern half of Georgia was given over to Florida (which in turn lost part of its panhandle to a new Gulf shores region). And as far as Where’s George data is concerned, most of the western United States is indistinguishable.
Or “How to split up the US” based on Facebook interaction.
There are also the 10 FEMA/Operational units.
From the link:
“President Nixon, via Executive Order, quietly reorganized the United States’ 50 individual states with a 10-Region Plan.”
“These 10 Regions are Administrative Units of the United Nations. All the people of the United States, including Hawaii and Alaska, were placed under the control of the above 10 Regions.”