In the recent reports, CEO John Hanke of Niantic was discussing about different topics related to Pokemon Go. In this discussion with Recode, he addressed the problems regarding the complaints about the lack of PokeStops for rural areas. In some towns or regions that are situated in the rural areas, there are only around 4-5 PokeStops located in a wide distance.
According to Otakukart, in one part of the interview, Hanke answered this issue as the question was raised. He presented Pokemon Go's origin, since it was built from Ingress. PokeStops were from crowdsourced requests that can be traced from the time of Ingress. The requests for PokeStops were disabled, since the company already received 15 million requests. This request option will be however opened once again since they need to recognize the lack of PokeStops in numerous towns. Here is a portion of the interview: "And what about in rural areas? The game is really popular, I play it in San Francisco, where I live, but I was also just in Miami, there are great locations. But when I go to visit my parents, who live an hour and a half north of here, it's a kind of a wasteland. And I wonder, should there be a way for people to add PokeStops or do something other than buys a million incense or lures?"
One of the design goals for Ingress and for Pokemon Go is for it to be fun and playable within concentrated urban areas, such as San Francisco. But it was also intended to be available in small towns, thus libraries, museums, churches, and murals are all recognized locations.
