OT: Grant Barrett's MTA analysis

[Bapopik at AOL.COM]

Grant Barrett's MTA analysis (www.doubletongued.org) been quoted all over. Congratulations!...I discussed "gurgitator" and "short eats" (two recent Double-Tongued" food entries) here before...Remember why it loses money: MTA is ATM spelled backwards.


http://www.nypress.com/18/10/pagetwo/newshole4.cfm
PULITZER PRIZE FOR MATH

The debate continues—who's stupider, New York Post readers or New York Post reporters? We're getting close to a draw with "Get a Fare Deal," the amazingly sad story published in the paper's March 2 edition. At first, it seemed like we had to be misreading the chart at the top of the article. What are the odds that any subway commuter who takes 12 rides a month would need a newspaper article to grasp that they don't need to buy a $76 monthly MetroCard?

As it turns out, the Post assumes their readers are pretty damn moronic. Transit reporter Clemente Lisi takes the trouble to break things down even further for those who can't quite master simple multiplication. A commuter who takes 24 rides a month is better off buying two $20 MetroCards. A commuter who takes 42 rides a month is better off buying three $20 cards and a $10 card. And if the commuter has three apples and a murderous hoodlum takes two after putting a bullet in the commuter's head…well, we probably won't read about it in the Post unless the commuter was an aspiring white actress.

Let's not give Lisi too much credit for all this deep thinking, though. As it turns out, Lisi is really just reprinting useless info that blogger Grant Barrett had put up on his website. Lisi claims that Barrett "crunched the numbers." If Barrett had posted that you can get four copies of the Post for a dollar in Manhattan, then Lisi would have probably claimed that Barrett "did the research."

Meanwhile, we remain convinced that it's a good investment to spend $3.95 for a copy of SCREW to wrap around that Post you buy at the newsstand. Otherwise, people will think you're a cretin.

—J.R. Taylor


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Grant Barrett has updated his excellent MTA fare analysis document ...
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www.kottke.org/remainder/05/03/7738.html - 12k - Mar 8, 2005 - Cached - Similar pages