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

[tsquare at toad.net]

(Bob, I'm resending this response since the original apparently did not
get transmitted to all of the addressees.)

No, Bob, no -- in no way was I chastizing John Spindler -- I was trying
to point out the absurdity of the manner in which the results of the
article were presented.  How can anyone make such a determination and
then, as I pointed out, round off the result to the third decimal place
(Last year, VMT dropped 0.11 percent below that of 1999)?   To me this
is carrying statistical reporting to the extreme.  It would be accurate
only if the presenter had specific knowledge of miles travelled for each
vehicle on the road.

My apology if there was any misunderstanding -- I am an engineer and, to
me, statistical information is important but only to the degree that its
accuracy is not compromised by overstatement -- would it not have been
better if the author of that report had stated that there was a minor
decrease in VMT?

See you at EPTC BiAnnual Meet May 5th, Bob -- as a native Pittsburgher
I am eagerly awaiting the "unveiling of the new SHJ".



Tom


-----Original Message-----
From: Dietrich, Robert J. [mailto:bob.dietrich at unisys.com]
Sent: Tuesday, April 03, 2001 7:41 AM
To: 'tsquare at toad.net'; Fred W Schneider III; PRCo Group; Ed Lybarger;
Jim Holland; Dietrich, Robert J.; Derrick J. Brashear; Ed Amrhein
Subject: RE: Add this to "Swindler's List" of "Engineers - a strange
lot...."


Folks:

I'm a little miffed by this memo.  Tom, you're not really taking a shot at
John are you???  You have to understand that he really wants to be a good
public servant, they just don't let him :).  Why else would he do all that
research of old newspapers etc. for us?

Then we learn that Vehicle Miles Traveled, mostly by gas guzzling SUVs, is
down in 2000 because people are staying home to watch Survivor and
Millionaire.  What is the point???

Bob Dietrich

 -----Original Message-----
From: 	tsquare at toad.net [mailto:tsquare at toad.net]
Sent:	Monday, April 02, 2001 6:38 PM
To:	Fred W Schneider III; PRCo Group; Ed Lybarger; Jim Holland; Robert
J. Dietrich; Derrick J. Brashear; Ed Amrhein; Derrick J. Brashear
Subject:	Add this to "Swindler's List" of "Engineers - a strange
lot...."

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.