For good fleet purchasing and operational management you need good data.
But there are strong concerns that government transport decisions are not always based on the best or even good data. This can arise when the accuracy of surveys has not been tested, cost cutting means the comprehensiveness is reduced, or there’s poor analysis of the available information, and/or political considerations
At the recent Australian Institute of Traffic Planning and Management National Conference, Austraffic a transport data collection company, introduced their community project “Heroes of Data”. This is an ongoing series, that highlights people in history who have shown how critical good data is as the basis of moral judgements, community projects and social reform.
Florence Nightingale is popularly known as “The Lady with a Lamp” but this epitaph, was not to her likening and was promoted by politicians and the media to make the Crimean War appear heroic.
Reputable references describe her as a “statistician”, and “social reformer”. Her measurements showed that in the hospital in which she served, ten times more soldiers died from communicable illnesses such as typhoid, cholera, and dysentery than from battle wounds. She is considered the mother of modern nursing.
There are even good examples in literature.
The fictional character of Sherlock Holmes is cantankerous, intolerant, self-opinionated and above all arrogant but he knew that his brilliant explanations had to be based on data. He said
It is a capital mistake to theorise before one has data. Insensibly one begins to twist the facts to suit theories, instead of theories to suit facts
Sherlock Holmes
Another quote is
There is nothing more deceptive than an obvious fact
Sherlock Holmes
Statistics from fleet management can add to the value of our considerations but we have to make sure that the right people are listening.
