Even worse than having to read weird abbreviated variable names is having to write them. You know the variable you want to write is something to the effect of

Even worse than having to read weird abbreviated variable names is having to write them. You know the variable you want to write is something to the effect of "the number of buses", but then you can't remember if it's numBuses, nBus, nBuses, num_buses, or God knows what. It gets even worse when the original author starts dropping random vowels, so you have to guess nmBuses or nmBs or something horrible like that. Who knows what letters they decided to omit? Much easier to just write out a clear, concise variable name with no abbreviations (other than those that are extremely obvious and common). Even if the variable names are a little longer, your text editor will autocomplete them (right?).