At the last meeting Eric suggested that we use the R zipcode package. Turns out I had downloaded the zip list in the past and made a map showing locations by hand, and then by zip codes. Kelly and I compared the locations and found some issues with the file requiring some kind of correction metric. The big problem is that some locations may not have a unique mail center and the spellings might not be consistent (e.g., Mount Airy vs Mt. Airy).
There is a map procedure for obtaining and correcting zip codes at the bottom of this blog post (KDA).
In the following maps, just keep your eyes on the data points in Western MD. Even the corrected zip file isn’t quite the same, but in theory we should be able to work out the right correction metric to get this right. The trick will be do develop a metric that works nationwide.
Here is the map with speakers’ lat-long by hand only.
Here is the map with zips as is.
Here is the map with the speakers’ lat-long by corrected zip file.
