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

[John Swindler]

Somewhere along the line, probably in some college course,  picked up notion 
not to waste one's time taking figures beyond three significant figures.  
Again, just something I remember from long time ago.

And then there was the comment from a House speaker, possibly from Chicago:  
a billion here, a billion there, and eventually your talking about real 
money.  However, think he eventually did time (not kidding).

At state level, seems like we deal in "million her, million there, and 
eventually your talking about real money."  To again quote Jim, it's that 
relativity thing.

But quoting numbers is one thing.  Just to let you know what happens at 
PennDOT, with real money, such as grants and contracts, we keep track down 
to the dollar. (we don't deal with change).  And there have been times when 
we've had to go through numerous contracts and payments to track down a 
'missing dollar' in a $243 million program.   But we will round off 
statistics because we know, for the most part, they are just estimates.


John



>From: <tsquare at toad.net>
>Reply-To: pittsburgh-railways at dementia.org
>To: "John Swindler" <swindler at hotmail.com>,   "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>
>Subject: [PRCo] Re: Add this to "Swindler's List" of "Engineers - a strange 
>lot...."
>Date: Tue, 3 Apr 2001 17:21:03 -0400
>
>
>(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 Swindler -- 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.
>
>

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