unforum

[Schmeck]

Long time lurker, first time poster...

I'm in the St. Louis area and, looking at the pay phone numbers on payphone-directory.org for Missouri, the pay phone solution seems to be a lock. My lengthy analysis follows:


Point 1

07:11 PDT - -090.369923,38.561793 (Map)
Phone # 314-961-9749

Points to the road entrance to a small strip mall off of Watson Rd. The payphone dir has this location identified as a Sports Authority (Map)
As a side note, the original coordinate posted before the update to the list pointed to a subdivision ([url=http://www.terraserver-usa.com/image.aspx?s=10&Lon=-090.369923&Lat=38.561793&w=1&ref=G|-090.369923,38.561793]Sat Map[/url]), while the updated point makes more sense as far as trespassing goes...and it conveniently has a pay phone attached to it.


Point 2

11:56 PDT - -090.420820,38.567032 (Map)
Phone # 314-821-9570

This coordinate is located at Meramec Community College. The payphone directory lists 5 numbers for this location, but there is only one entry that seems to be outside. One interesting note here is that the payphone dir states this phone is located by the "north building". As you can see here, there isn't any "north building", the most similar in name being the North Communications Building. You will see that this is located in the center of the campus, and not really near the given coordinate (the closest building to the coord looks like it would be the library -- [url=http://www.terraserver-usa.com/image.aspx?s=10&Lon=-090.420820&Lat=38.567032&w=1&ref=G|-090.420820,38.567032]Sat Image[/url] | Marked). The interesting part here is that if you map the address attached to this phone on the phone directory, you get a point extremely close to the Axon coord (Axon Coord | Phone Address). It may also be worth noting that the pre-update coordinate for this location was just few blocks east on Big Bend. Right at the intersection of Big Bend and Kirkwood.


Point 3
13:05 PDT - -090.220764,38.771199 (Map)
Phone # 314-868-5416

This location looks to be at a Steak 'n Shake. Take a look at the satellite image here, then take a look at the location pic at the top of the page here...see any similarities . This seems like another direct hit. Mapping the address connected to the phone gives you this map. Pretty close, eh? The pre-update coord here looks to be the same (Map)


Point 4
14:53 PDT - -090.377678,38.558276 (Map)
Phone # 314-842-9412

This coordinate points to the road entrance of another strip mall (just down the street from point 1) that holds a grocery store, a Best Buy and, I think, a Home Depot. It also happens to be directly across the street from a good sized shopping mall, Crestwood Plaza. The mall has 19 phone numbers on the payphone dir, but most of them are located inside the mall. Regardless, it is pretty clear that this coordinate is pointing to the strip mall, not the shopping mall. (Sat Map | Marked). And again, if we map the address attributed to this phone, we get a location very close to the given Axon coordinate (Map). The pre-updated coord here is pretty much where it was before (Map)


So, obviously, all 4 of these points are pretty much direct hits in terms of pay phone location. What I am interested in is figuring out how and why these locations were chosen. It almost seems as though they were picked based on the number of payphone entries for a state's page on payphone-directory.org. If you look at the breakdown by area here, you can see it doesn't help us much. Of the St. Louis points, two were in Crestwood, while one was in Kirkwood and one in St. Louis. But, if we look at the area codes, we can see that the the Missouri listing covers area codes 314, 573, 636, 660 and 816.

Looking at the number of pay phone listings, here are the total numbers by area code:
area code - city - #s that accept incoming calls - total # of entries

• 660 -Sedalia - 82 - 91
  
• 314 - St. Louis - 46 - 64
  
• 816 - Kansas City - 18 - 19
  
• 573 - Columbia/Central Missouri - 18 - 20
  

Now, if we look at Wishi-San's Axon Coordinates for Missouri, we get this:

• Sedalia - 4 Coords
  
• St. Louis - 4 Coords
  
• Platte Gardens - 1 Coord
  
• Raytown - 1 Coord
  
• Bowling Green - 1 Coord
  

The Platte Gardens and Raytown Coords are in the 816 (KC) area code and Bowling Green is in the 573 area code. So, that leaves us with this!
area code - # coords - # pay phone listings (that accept incoming calls)

• 660 - 4 - 82
  
• 314 - 4 - 46
  
• 816 - 2 - 18
  
• 573 - 1 - 18
  

The point I'm trying to make is that from the data we have about Missouri, and the way the coordinates closely match addresses listed in payphone-directory.org for the St. Louis area, I'm suggesting that the coordinates were chosen based on the payphone-directory.org site and NOT on the general population of certain areas.

I think this because, the 3 largest cities population-wise in Missouri are St. Louis, Kansas City and Springfield. Springfield's area code is 417. There are no coordinates in Springfield, and there are no pay phone entries for 417 (even though it is noted at the top of the page). Sedalia doesn't even come close in terms of total population, yet they have the most pay phone entries and are tied for having the most coordinates (Link).

One last interesting thing about the St. Louis coordinates on payphone-directory.org...The area code 636 (still part of St. Louis), which has 18 total entries (9 that accept incoming) on the payphone listing page, doesn't have any current coordinates. BUT, it did have at least 2 coordinates in the pre-update list.

I haven't looked at other locations, only St. Louis, so I don't know how other cities will match up with this. All I know is that there are a bit too many matches to write this off to coincidence.

I'd like to know what everyone thinks about this...

[usernameguy]

Thanks for the analysis! Good to hear the correlation is standing up.

The PMs didn't necessarily use just one source. Keep in mind that the payphone directory's distribution is probably similiar to the actual distribution of payphones. Who knows, maybe the PMs had some sort of "pay phonebook" they used.

Also, there's a much, much larger database, here: http://www.payphone-project.com/numbers/search.html

I couldn't find payphone references for a couple of the spots I checked. Another possibility to consider: some of the spots are payphones, but others aren't. Something else will happen there.

[krystyn]

Re: [META]

[usernameguy]

Summary of hits on payphone-directory and payphone-project

[GunsmithCat]

[gheritt]

Re: Summary of hits on payphone-directory and payphone-proje

[nobodyman]

Woah there, nelly!

[usernameguy]

I'm not sure. I've been posting references to the phone numbers because I've seen people post addresses as much as 100ft off from where the GPS point lands. I want to make sure people are at the right spot so they have a chance of hearing phone.

[xilope]

Trout me if needs be.. but has anyone thought to call the VM with the payphone at the listed time? It is our call afterwards...

[rowan]

Re: Summary of hits on payphone-directory and payphone-proje

[Grout]

There is officially no payphone at the borders on clark in chicago, although the list says otherwise. I checked today... they may have been removed recently... and the PMs might not know that.

[GunsmithCat]

[Tien_Le]

Axon locations on Capitol Hill in Seattle

[johnny5]

[usernameguy]