Checking the scale on a chart

Dot maps, and by extension, bubble maps are popular options for spatial data; but the scale of these maps can be deceiving. Here is an example of a poorly-scaled dot map:

The U.S. was primarily an agrarian economy in 1997, if you believe your eyes.

Here is a poorly-scaled bubble map:

New Yorkers have all become Citibikers, if you believe what you see.

Last week, I saw a nice dot map embedded inside this New York Times Graphics feature on the destruction of the Syrian city of Raqqa.

Before I conclude that the destruction was broadly felt, I'd like to check the scale on the map to make sure it doesn't have the problem seen above. What is helpful here is the scale provided on the map itself.

That line segment representing a quarter mile fits about 15 dots side by side. Then, I found out that a Manhattan avenue (longer) block is roughly a quarter mile. That means the map places about 15 buildings to an avenue block. In my experience, that sounds about right: I'd imagine 15-20 buildings per block.

So I'm convinced that the designer chose an appropriate scale to display the data. It is actually true that the entire city of Raqqa was pretty much annihilated by U.S. bombs.