[PRCo] Re: Add this to "Swindler's List" of "Engineers - a strange lot...."

[John Swindler]

Number went down because Fred the third retired.

But seriously, wonder if number is derived from formula applied to gas tax 
revenues.  Thus this might be showing the effect of higher gas prices last 
year.  If so, might also be seeing multiple car families not using the SUV 
as much. Will have to ask next door.

Speaking of numbers taken to the 'upteenth' (a lot) decimal place, was 
always amused by passenger statistics reported by a certain local transit 
agency in eastern Pennsylvania.  (Such as claim that City transit division 
carried 159,916,893 fixed route passengers in 1998/99)  Amused?  Well, yes, 
because there is an internal memo from early 1970s that describes how this 
local transit agency's ridership numbers are "heuristically derived."  
(Something to look that up in your Webster's).  Essentially, the purpose of 
the memo was to keep the agency's upper management and board members from 
looking stupid trying to defend any ridership numbers reported to the 
public.

John



>From: <tsquare at toad.net>
>Reply-To: pittsburgh-railways at dementia.org
>To: "Fred W Schneider III" <fschnei at supernet.com>,   "PRCo Group" 
><pittsburgh-railways at dementia.org>,   "Ed Lybarger" <twg at pulsenet.com>, 
>"Jim Holland" <pghpcc at pacbell.net>,   "Robert J. Dietrich" 
><bob.dietrich at unisys.com>,   "Derrick J. Brashear" 
><owner-pittsburgh-railways at dementia.org>,   "Ed Amrhein" 
><MAmrhein at aol.com>,   "Derrick J. Brashear" 
><owner-pittsburgh-railways at dementia.org>
>Subject: [PRCo] Add this to "Swindler's List" of "Engineers - a strange 
>lot...."
>Date: Mon, 2 Apr 2001 18:38:06 -0400
>
>
>On 4/2 at 1021 AM, John Swindler wrote "Engineers - a strange lot...."
>and followed up before the ink was dry at 2:45 PM with the following
>which was excerpted from his very good and on-going "Transit news":
>
>Just what you might expect from a bunch of Gummit Bureaucrats.  Take a
>whole bunch of variables, multiply them together,, average out the
>product by dividing by the number of sources, and round everything off
>to the third decimal place!
>
>There is no way on the face of this earth to make a determination like
>this.  Sometimes the flaw is not with the Engineers but from those who
>would assume to be Engineers!  And for this the taxpayers pay and pay
>and pay...
>
>Tom Phillips
>
>
>
>Vehicle Miles Traveled Drops for the First Time in Two Decades
>
>The Federal Highway Administration recently released statistics showing 
>that
>the number of vehicle miles traveled in the U.S. declined during 2000—the
>first drop in 20 years.
>
>Last year, VMT dropped 0.11 percent below that of 1999.
>
>FHWA noted that the downward trend in driving is unusual. VMT has been
>steadily increasing at an annual rate of about 3 percent between 1980 and
>1999. The last decline, 0.12 percent, occurred between 1979 and 1980.
>
>The FHWA’s Traffic Volume Trends estimate reports 2.688 trillion vehicle
>miles traveled in 2000, compared with 2.691 trillion miles traveled in 
>1999.
>VMT for December 2000 totaled 210.2 billion, a full 5.5 percent below the
>222.5 billion clocked the previous December. This total includes 79.6
>billion vehicle-miles on rural roads and 130.7 billion vehicle-miles on
>urban roads and streets.
>
>

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