3 ms·

Pet peeve: how do you "reduce traffic by 3x"? Shouldn't this be "reduce traffic by 66%"

• ajross 10y ago
  Both of those statements are nonmathematical when parsed strictly, you need a translation mechanic to turn them into a forumula ("per cent", literally, doesn't mean a multiplier either). It happens that the percent framing became common earlier, but when it did it was surely just as ad hoc. Multiplier framing like that is at least as common, and given that "3" is easier to understand than "66" (which one has to recognize as the result of 100*(1-(1/3)) for goodness sake!) I genuinely don't understand your peeve here.
• thinkcontext 10y ago
  Yes, this annoyed me. Additionally, its not "traffic" that was reduced, it was the total size of the taxi fleet. While this would have a positive effect on overall "traffic" we can't tell what that might be from the article.