Re^3: Geographical Map

A word of caution - ZIP codes are not meant for mapping - they are meant for delivering mail. You're better off geocoding with FIPS codes. You can check out Census Bureau mapping resources at http://www.census.gov/geo/www

Comment on Re^3: Geographical Map

Replies are listed 'Best First'.
Re^4: Geographical Map by Anonymous Monk on Nov 11, 2004 at 14:38 UTC
Take a look at geocoder.us for some great geocoding in action.	[reply]
Re^4: Geographical Map by Anonymous Monk on Nov 11, 2004 at 15:22 UTC
For geocoding / user mapping, it's worth looking at: Geo::TigerLine Geo::Coder::US ( and http://geocoder.us ) http://civicspacelabs.org/zipcodedb/ for shape drawing and projection, check out: Geo::GDAL Geo::Shapelib (which has a much nicer API than Geo::Shapefile) UMN MapServer rocks, and talks to free GIS backends like PostGIS. GRASS walks all over ESRI; http://freegis.org/ hopefully suggests that you have no need to buy ESRI products. xoxo	[reply]
Re^4: Geographical Map by belg4mit (Prior) on Nov 25, 2004 at 07:07 UTC
Here here! I've mentioned many a time in the CB that zip codes are (not necessarily contiguous) polylines in 3 space, not polygons. ZCTAs are also usable for this kid of thing -- Zip Code Tabulation Areas are the Census Bureau's solution to the hairy nature of zip codes. Other census ploygons such as block groups are good too. `-- I'm not belgian but I play one on TV.`	[reply]