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Comments
Kudos to those students
Violence on the bus route that they *must* use in order to get to school should be the last thing on the minds of these kids. I hope that something can be done so they can go about their day without worry of getting assaulted on the bus.
Good on 'em
I like the way they were thinking about how crowding on certain runs at certain times fuels the problems. This shows they are looking beyond even their own statistics for causes, effects, and solutions.
The MBTA says this is one of their most high ridership routes. One might think that so many customers would garner more respect.
Go MBTA! Spin those stats!
"Our service does run through many neighborhoods that have been affected by violence," O'Connor said. "When you do look at the number of people who do ride and the number of incidents that occur on the MBTA, your chances of being a victim of crime on that bus are very small."
Wait a minute, that doesn't make sense. If you want to calculate the chance of being a victim of crime (or even just witness to a violent act that makes you uncomfortable or afraid) then you use the number of incidents and their frequency over time. Not incidents over riders.
(Let's say there's 5 violent incidents on the same bus every week. Do you then say "Gee, but 900 people ride the route every week, it's not that bad"? And what do you say to the people who do think it's bad? Oh, you tell em it's not that bad because... god my head hurts.)
And in the same article, there's fear expressed that there's dwindling ridership on the ride, so hey, even this flawed argument is failing to hold water. Way to go.
Five violent incidents a
Five violent incidents a week?!?! Did you not read the story? There were only 3 incidents reported in all of 2007. Three! The stats don't lie.
Reported versus Actual
Did you not read the story? The T only counts incidents reported to the police - not the pushing and fist fights, armed threats, drug pushing, etc. being reported by riders as occuring on a daily or near daily basis but not reported to police.
Spatch was giving an example
Spatch was giving an example of how they were spinning the stats to downplay the violence of the route. Did you not read his post?