A good start

While many people have contemplated the implications of urban sprawl, few have done anything about it. Luckily, Steven Von Worley has taken the first steps for us, mapping out the contiguous United States in terms of the distance to the nearest McDonald's. Even if it weren't informative and deeply meaningful, it looks pretty cool. While there is still much to do*, we would like to officially recognize his invaluable contribution to society. Thanks, Steven.

*We didn't want to ruin the body of this post with a list of things yet to be done, so we're including a short list of future work here at the bottom:

1. Map not only the location of each McDonald's, but the perceived quality of each location. As any patron knows there are distinct differences in the dining experience at different restaurants. On a related note, the quality of a McDonald's often depends on the proximity to other options, but that would be difficult to model
2. Create a mapping service that, given any location will provide the quickest route(s) for walkers, hikers, ATVs, bikers, drivers, canoers, and so forth to the nearest McDonald's. This service would need to be available on mobile devices.
3. Correlate this data with the population density.
4. Include the rest of the world.