![\"\"](\"https:\/\/dronevideos.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/07\/New-England.jpg\")
\nWhich region of the United States is considered least \u201cfriendly\u201d to drones?\u00a0 It may come as a surprise, but the winner, by far, is New England.\u00a0 Rhode Island, in fact,\u00a0 ranks at the very bottom of the list of states deemed \u201cready\u201d to embrace the drone industry, according to a 2022 scorecard compiled by the Fairfax,VA-based Mercatus Center.\u00a0 Connecticut and New Hampshire come in at #33 and #35, also way down the list.<\/p>\n
One reason, perhaps, is population density.\u00a0 With less geographic space free of inhabitants, drones can\u2019t fly as freely as they do in states like North Dakota, Minnesota or Oklahoma, with their wide open prairies and relatively low population densities.\u00a0 All three of those states are among the most drone friendly in the nation.\u00a0 Their state governments have actively encouraged the growth of the drone industry with subsidies and contracts and regulatory initiatives to remove legal and regulatory barriers to commercial and recreational drone flying.\u00a0 And they are all home to major drone flight test facilities and even business parks that center on drone design and manufacturing.\u00a0 By contrast, no such encouragement is found in New England, except for Massachusetts, which still ranks just\u00a0 #22 on the Mercatus list, far behind the leaders.<\/p>\n
High population density is therefore one important factor.\u00a0 But it\u2019s probably not the only one. New Jersey, after all, is the most densely populated state in the nation \u2013 yet the drone industry is flourishing there.\u00a0 The same is true of Maryland, which has the 5th highest state density but its UAV industry ranks near the top 10 in terms of drone-friendliness.<\/p>\n
Another factor could be New England\u2019s culture, especially its quiet small town ethos and celebration of individual freedom.\u00a0 Drones strike many in this region as noisy and intrusive and as a potential threat to communities where people know their neighbors and residents shop at local stores, often within walking distance of their homes.\u00a0 What possible need would New Englanders have for the newfangled remote aerial package deliveries of food and store items offered by drones from Amazon or Walmart, for example?<\/p>\n
Walmart is everywhere in America, of course, but not everywhere equally.\u00a0 Vermont, in fact, has the least number of Walmart stores of any US state \u2013 just 6.\u00a0 Rhode Island has the second fewest, with just 9.\u00a0 You get the picture.\u00a0 New England \u2013 by geography and temperament \u2013 is not really \u201cdrone country\u201d \u2013 not yet, at least.<\/p>\n
Then there\u2019s politics, too.\u00a0 Liberal mid-Atlantic states \u2013 Deep Blue states like Marylanjd and New Jersey seem to favor drones more consistently than conservative-leaning ones.\u00a0 This might explain why Massachsueets and Vermont, despite their high population densities favor drones more than their New England neighbors like Rhode Island, which is staunchly conservative, or New Hampshire which tends to tilt that way, too.\u00a0 Conservatives are especially concerned about private property rights as well as personal privacy rights.\u00a0 Drones can be perceived \u2013 rightly or wrongly \u2013 as infringing on those rights which can make small town conservatives in any region especially suspicious of them.<\/p>\n
Is there any hope for New England?\u00a0 In fact, there is.\u00a0 Last year, Connecticut State Police and the state Department of transportation began deploying drones to assess traffic patterns and mitigate frequent and costly traffic jams.\u00a0 In New Hampshire,\u00a0 the Agricultural Experiment Station is turning to drones to monitor the state\u2019s moose population which is vital to its tourism but faces decline due to disease and overpopulation.\u00a0 Drones are cheaper and more efficient than traditional aerial survey methods, especially gas turbine helicopters, which also leave a larger carbon footprint than battery-powered vehicles.<\/p>\n
And tiny Rhode Island? Even the nation\u2019s most recalcitrant drone hold-out is beginning to warm to UAVs, local observers say.\u00a0 These trends are likely to continue as more New Englanders come to appreciate the unique contributions drones can make to the health and well-being of their residents \u2014 animals and humans alike.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Which region of the United States is considered least \u201cfriendly\u201d to drones?\u00a0 It may come as a surprise, but the winner, by far, is New England.\u00a0 Rhode Island, in fact,\u00a0 ranks at the very bottom of the list of states deemed \u201cready\u201d to embrace the drone industry, according to a 2022 scorecard compiled by the… Read More<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[20],"tags":[],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dronevideos.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6554"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dronevideos.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dronevideos.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dronevideos.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/5"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dronevideos.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=6554"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/dronevideos.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6554\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dronevideos.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=6554"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dronevideos.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=6554"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dronevideos.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=6554"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}