I always thought it was a suburb of Los Angeles. The only reason I have heard of is because of the University of California Riverside. That's also the only reason I have heard of Irvine as well.
It really is a suburb of L.A. The Census Bureau just counts Riverside-San Bernardino as a separate urban area for statistical purposes, which then leads to confusion during geography trivia quizzes.
You have to drive through the entire eastern portion of Los Angeles county and the northern top of Orange county before you even hit San Bernadino county, then drive for 30 minutes east to hit Riverside. I could understand this constituting as a suburb in a less dense region but not in Southern California. It's a very separate area.
Riverside is 60 miles away from L.A. which I think is sufficient to qualify as its own urban center. However, West Palm Beach is 70 miles away from Miami and Palm Beach County has a population of 1.3 million, so I'm not sure why that wouldn't qualify as its own urban center.
If people have the same strategy as me, I knocked out Hawaii and moved to Florida. From there I spread out North and eventually west. Alabama and Georgia are due North of Florida.
Looks like most quiz-takers believe the Southeast+Texas is further south than California. Both San Diego and Los Angeles are relatively low/late guesses.
Honestly I think El Paso should also be in the list, even though its metro population is 830,735. It's unfortunate that most people don't see my hometown as a big city, but I'm just saying...
I tried it, if that makes you feel better. We used to drive through it on our way to visit our daughter in Phoenix. My husband liked to buy his cowboy boots there. :)
No that's also the Hyundai Tucson. He might also be thinking of Tuscany. But more than likely he's simply confused about the spelling and didn't bother looking it up before commenting.
2022 update: Albuquerque's metro population on the 2020 census was 916,528. Apparently the population requirement to make this quiz has gone up from 950,000 to 1,000,000, so Albuquerque is even farther from making the cut :(
I missed two. Glad I got the lowest percentage one. A lot of people don't realize Charlotte and Raleigh North Carolina are actually big cities that are among the fastest growing major cities.
The populations listed here are for the metropolitan areas. Houston may be larger than Dallas in terms of city proper population, but the Dallas-Ft Worth metro area is larger than the Houston metro area
The maps and satellite images seem to indicate that there is a several-mile-wide corridor of regular city blocks extending from L.A. to Riverside.