Random US City Wheel

This wheel picks a random US city, which is a quick way to shake up a travel shortlist or hand out city projects without everyone taking New York.

Twenty cities on the wheel, weighted towards the large ones but with enough mid-sized entries that the draw is not entirely predictable.

Trip planning is the common use. A shortlist that has been sitting in a group chat for six weeks is not going to resolve itself by being read again, and putting the four surviving candidates on a wheel forces the issue in a way another round of discussion does not.

Relocation shortlists work the same way, with the caveat that a wheel is a tiebreaker rather than a decision-maker. Watching which result makes you flinch is genuinely informative when you have three cities you claim to be equally happy with.

For classrooms, city projects are a smaller and often more interesting version of the state report — a city has a founding story, an industry and a reason it exists where it does. Turn on remove-after-spin so everyone gets a different one.

Random US City Wheel — questions

Can I add my own cities?

Yes. Replace the list with the four or five you are actually choosing between — a wheel of real candidates is far more use than a wheel of famous ones.

Is this sensible for choosing where to move?

As a tiebreaker, yes. If you have three cities you claim to be equally happy with, noticing which result makes you flinch is genuinely useful information. As the actual decision, no.

Can I use it for a class project?

Yes, and city projects often beat state ones — a city has a founding story, an industry and a reason it exists where it does. Turn on remove-after-spin so everyone gets a different city.