Go Ahead…, courtesy of maxedaperture
If the never ending-escalator problems, line closings on busy weekends, and service delays weren’t enough for you, here’s another Metro gem for you: if the current trend continues through December, “serious” crime on the metro will be up 15% for 2008 says the DC Examiner.
It’s not as bad as it might seem; once you get past the Examiner’s numbers on robbery (+35%) and larceny (+14%) they reveal that the overall rate is low. They don’t spell it out for the math-impaired, but that means a 15% jump doesn’t translate into a tremendously large number of additional people being victimized. For the 1.2M rider a day – that’s distinct route trips, not individuals – there’s 3 reported crimes. That works out to 1095 in the year, and if we figure that number before a 15% increase (1095 * (100/115)) that means last year’s numbers were about 952. So we’re getting one “extra” crime every 2 and a half days.
I guess saying that your risk had gone from 1 in 460,000 to 1 in 400,000 wasn’t very sexy.
So watch your posessions before the doors close – snatch and grab is what you’re most likely to be victim of – and try not to increase your total amount of worrying more than twice extra a week.
Well I used to say something in my profile about not quite being a “tinker, tailor, soldier, or spy” but Tom stole that for our about us page, so I guess I’ll have to find another way to express that I am a man of many interests.
Hmm, guess I just did.
My tastes run the gamut from sophomoric to Shakespeare and in my “professional” life I’ve sold things, served beer, written software, and carried heavy objects… sometimes at the same place. It’s that range of loves and activities that makes it so easy for me to love DC – we’ve got it all.
Great post. Way to clear that up. 15% always sounds big in the scheme of things, but if you have no real numbers to pull that from statistics just go right out the window and the validity of the 15% is turned to crap.
Thanks again.