They don’t understand probability

  • Kazumara@discuss.tchncs.de
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    13 days ago

    What’s with the random comparisons? Sometimes it’s the whole US, sometimes specific parts. What does 500 rides mean? Annual deaths per 100’000 population per 500 rides?

      • Kazumara@discuss.tchncs.de
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        13 days ago

        Yeah but I don’t understand how it would combine with the 500 rides. Were they counting only people who rode 500 times a year? Or is the implication that for this line they didn’t go by 100000 people, but instead by 500 rides? That would make it incomparable. I just don’t get it

        • prole@lemmy.blahaj.zone
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          13 days ago

          Oh I had to go back to see what you were referring to with the 500 rides thing… Maybe that’s the sample size for NYC?

      • finitebanjo@lemmy.world
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        12 days ago

        Although saying per capita here would be misleading, because it’s not like those people ride the subway 500 times AND drives a car everywhere. The ones who take the subway are the only ones at risk of subway homocide, the ones who drive are actually less likely to die in a traffic accident than people outside of their car like pedestrians and bikers, and the two groups probably are much different in size.

    • infinitesunrise@slrpnk.net
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      13 days ago

      Yes 500 is about the average number of rides that an NYC subway commuter takes per year. Since all the other stats are also per year.

      • Kazumara@discuss.tchncs.de
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        13 days ago

        So they only counted those who did 500 rides a year? Or they counted 50’000’000 rides as a proxy for 100’000 subway users?