From: fuzzface@cats.ucsc.edu (Aaron Priven)
Newsgroups: ba.transportation
Subject: Re: "The only sensible way to proceed"
Date: 28 Aug 92 07:57:04 GMT
Distribution: ba
Organization: University of California, Santa Cruz (College Eight)
NNTP-Posting-Host: am.ucsc.edu


In article <p327t50@sgi.sgi.com> jeremy@classic.asd.sgi.com (Jeremy Higdon) writes:
 
>If total annual boardings
>for Muni is 300 million and total annual boardings for Caltrain
>is 20 million, I don't need the MTC to say that total annual
>boardings for Caltrain and Muni combined is 320 million!
 
No, but you shouldn't criticize them for having meaningless 
figures if the figures are yours.  You wrote (in 
<p1ddvfk@sgi.sgi.com>) that 
 
>>>This example shows the problem with these studies and the first
>>>level conclusions that can be drawn from them. 
 
I don't think it says anything about the study if you draw a 
conclusion from it that is unwarranted.  You're the one drawing 
conclusions.
 
>Nor would I say that 320 million was any more meaningless
>than the 300 million or 20 million figures.  In fact, if
>Caltrain and Muni were under the same management, you would
>only see the one figure in these studies.
>
>The point of my article was that total annual
>boardings can be misleading, especially when it is called
>ridership (which it often is).
 
Fine, but you called it ridership, not them.  They weren't 
trying to measure ridership.  They were trying to measure system 
usage, which is why boardings was on the same table as "fleet 
vehicles" and "total vehicle miles".  Perhaps the fault is mine 
for repeating that data.
 
Maybe this is the table I should have quoted:

                            Table 4.6
       Regional Transit Person Trips (Linked Trips) (1,2) 
                 By Alternative and Trip Purpose
                       2010 Daily Volumes
 
                                  SFO Air              Change (4)      
Alter-     Work        Non-Work   Passen-              from TSM 
native     Trips       Trips      gers (3)   Total     (2A/2B)                
 
Base Year
1987       441,300     452,200    11,400    904,900    -378,500
 
1          586,800     662,800    17,900    1,267,500  -15,900 to -20,900
2A         597,000     665,100    21,300    1,283,400  --
2B         601,000     665,600    21,800    1,288,400  --
5A         603,900     665,100    25,200    1,294,200  10,800
5B         606,000     666,300    25,800    1,298,100   9,700
 
(1) The region is defined as the 9-county Bay Area region...
(2) Linked trips may involve use of one or more transit systems, but the 
total trip from origin to destination is counted as one transit trip.
(3) Includes "Well-wishers" (i.e., persons dropping off or picking up air 
travellers).  Includes all transit modes to SFO (i.e., BART, CalTrain, 
SamTrans, and the Airporters).
(4) Change is from Alternative 2A for existing (1987) and Alternatives 
3A, 4A, 5A, and 6A.  Change is from Alternative 2B for Alternatives 3B, 
4B, 5B, and 6B.
 
---
 
 =Aaron=
 
-- 
Aaron Priven, aaronrp@ucscb.ucsc.edu or fuzzface@cats.ucsc.edu
  Bring in the workers, and bring up the rails;
  We're gonna lay down the tracks, and tear up the trails. 
  Open her heart, let the life-blood flow,
  Gotta get on our way 'cause we're movin' too slow.
    -- Gordon Lightfoot, "Canadian Railroad Trilogy"