Random thoughts that are pointless and too dumb to say anywhere else thread: 2015–2018 (plus one)

[logan82]

Thrawn appeared in Star Wars Rebels? Nice. I really have to watch that now. The Thrawn Trilogy was the best EU I ever read.

[stoutdude04]

They should make a zombie go app, or walking dead go.

 

You walk around and run into zombie hoards...some big, some small. You can either try to fight them or run away, where you actually have to run.

 

You can pick up new weapons at 'stores/hot spots'. Train your 'character' to become stronger.

 

Now, someone smarte than me go make it and give me some of the profits.

[jerichoholicninja]

They should make a zombie go app, or walking dead go.

 

You walk around and run into zombie hoards...some big, some small. You can either try to fight them or run away, where you actually have to run.

 

You can pick up new weapons at 'stores/hot spots'. Train your 'character' to become stronger.

 

Now, someone smarte than me go make it and give me some of the profits.

 

Too late. A friend and I already came up with that idea Friday night.

[stoutdude04]

They should make a zombie go app, or walking dead go.

 

You walk around and run into zombie hoards...some big, some small. You can either try to fight them or run away, where you actually have to run.

 

You can pick up new weapons at 'stores/hot spots'. Train your 'character' to become stronger.

 

Now, someone smarte than me go make it and give me some of the profits.

 

Too late. A friend and I already came up with that idea Friday night.

 

Fine. We can split it.

 

I imagine it's only a matter of time before someone actually does make it, and with the zombie craze in kids I'm sure it'll be a gold mine.

[LouisEly]

Can someone please provide me with data/a link to data that proves the existence of "the summer driving season"? I hear people talk about it all the time on CNBC but I cannot find any data to prove it. I don't buy it. I'm sure it was true as recently as 30 years ago, when very few HS and college students had cars and when there were a lot more middle class families and destinations that were affordable to middle class families, but now you have tens of millions of high school and college students who are driving to school every day from September through May/June. In LA there was far less traffic in June/July/August on the roads, and LA is a travel destination, but there are so many fewer students driving to school during the summer that it dwarfs the additional summer vacation destination travelers.

 

You also can't tell me that there are more families driving during the summer, especially with the admission fees charged by parks and resorts now. I think I heard someone say that they took their kids to Great America and an all-day all-you-can-drink soda bottle was $22 (and she felt that was a good value based on what the individual soda prices are). I can't believe that stimulates more driving during the summer.

[jerichoholicninja]

Can someone please provide me with data/a link to data that proves the existence of "the summer driving season"? I hear people talk about it all the time on CNBC but I cannot find any data to prove it. I don't buy it. I'm sure it was true as recently as 30 years ago, when very few HS and college students had cars and when there were a lot more middle class families and destinations that were affordable to middle class families, but now you have tens of millions of high school and college students who are driving to school every day from September through May/June. In LA there was far less traffic in June/July/August on the roads, and LA is a travel destination, but there are so many fewer students driving to school during the summer that it dwarfs the additional summer vacation destination travelers.

 

You also can't tell me that there are more families driving during the summer, especially with the admission fees charged by parks and resorts now. I think I heard someone say that they took their kids to Great America and an all-day all-you-can-drink soda bottle was $22 (and she felt that was a good value based on what the individual soda prices are). I can't believe that stimulates more driving during the summer.

 

Northbound 43 on Friday and Southbound 43 on Sunday disagree with you.

[logan82]

Yeah we see a lot more traffic this time of year heading to and from the Dells and northern Wisconsin.

[NeedMoreFans]

You also can't tell me that there are more families driving during the summer, especially with the admission fees charged by parks and resorts now.

 

I can either spend $750 for a good weekend at the Dells/Great America, or I can spend $5000 to go to Disney. Plus, keep in mind how big camping/outdoor recreation is in Wisconsin during the summer. Try getting a campsite at a state park on a Friday/Saturday night...good luck.

[LouisEly]

Northbound 43 on Friday and Southbound 43 on Sunday disagree with you.

That's two days a week, and if you are referring to the summer, it's for three months. Kids are driving to/from HS/college twice a day five days a week for nine months a year.

 

I still want to see data on gasoline consumption by month in the U.S.

[BrewersSuperCollector]

When I was in high school and just in college we would cruise every night of the week from Hwy 100 on some nights to Lake Park in Fond du Lac. On a slow night we'd each put on about 100 miles and a busier night up to 200 miles.

[1992casey]

Northbound 43 on Friday and Southbound 43 on Sunday disagree with you.

Not to mention I-39/90 between Wisconsin Dells and the state line and I-94 between Madison and Milwaukee. A week ago Sunday, I-94 was stop and go from eastern Jefferson County to almost the lakefront.

 

If we're talking about gas prices, though, I don't think they correlate to much at all. I stopped believing anything we hear when we were once told that prices were up due to decreased demand.

[NeedMoreFans]

I still want to see data on gasoline consumption by month in the U.S.

 

Here you go. It's not exactly consumption, rather refiner-retailer sales.

 

https://www.eia.gov/dnav/pet/hist/LeafHandler.ashx?n=pet&s=a103600001&f=m

[rwa12]

I think "summer driving season" really refers to "summer travel season". I don't think they are comparing with commuters, just that more people will take summer road trips around weekends and holidays. Highways around major cities/attractions are typically worse in the summer.

[LouisEly]

Thank you NMF. In 2015 peak was July at 26,309 but October was 25,931 and April 25,390 (trying to avoid months with holidays). Lowest month was January, a whopping 8% less than the highest month of July. Considering that for a significant part of the country January is about road avoidance (weather - snow, ice, etc.) and many colleges are on winter break until mid-late January, there really isn't such a thing as the summer driving season.

[homer]

Thank you NMF. In 2015 peak was July at 26,309 but October was 25,931 and April 25,390 (trying to avoid months with holidays). Lowest month was January, a whopping 8% less than the highest month of July. Considering that for a significant part of the country January is about road avoidance (weather - snow, ice, etc.) and many colleges are on winter break until mid-late January, there really isn't such a thing as the summer driving season.

 

Right but if you look at the chart June, July and August are consistently higher (for the most part) than any other month within that same year. Maybe you don't consider an 8% jump significant but it is.

[NeedMoreFans]

Considering that for a significant part of the country January is about road avoidance (weather - snow, ice, etc.) and many colleges are on winter break until mid-late January, there really isn't such a thing as the summer driving season.

 

I really think you are overestimating college students' impact on fuel consumption. If you think January fuel consumption goes down partly due to colleges being on break, you have to factor that decrease in the summer months as well, making the summer month jumps even higher than they appear.

 

There are other statistics that when considered along with fuel consumption would paint a better picture of the summer driving season. For example, you may have to look at non-weather related accidents, citations, etc... I'm also sure that someone in the DOT does traffic counts on highways that shows that there is an increase in traffic in the summer months. Looking at fuel consumption alone isn't going to tell you the whole story because you have to consider gas prices, fuel efficiency, and such as well.

 

Edit: Here is a link to 2014 traffic counts in Wisconsin Counties A-Kewaunee. For each site, I looked at the MADT (Monthly Average Daily Traffic) column, and at nearly every site where data was collected, traffic in the summer months was higher, in some instances significantly higher, than in the winter months. http://wisconsindot.gov/Documents/projects/data-plan/traf-counts/cont2014-a-k.pdf

 

Here's a link to all of the data the WIDOT collects...http://wisconsindot.gov/Pages/projects/data-plan/traf-counts/default.aspx

[LouisEly]

I really think you are overestimating college students' impact on fuel consumption. If you think January fuel consumption goes down partly due to colleges being on break, you have to factor that decrease in the summer months as well, making the summer month jumps even higher than they appear.

My point was that the increase in families driving during the summer (I never denied the anecdotal claims about traffic on certain roads on certain days) is offset by the decrease in HS/college students driving during the summer. The decrease in families not driving during the school year months is offset by the increase in HS/college students driving.

 

The 8% isn't the jump during the summer - it's the range from the lowest month (January) to the highest month (July). In January you have families not driving on vacation and students not driving to school for 2-3 weeks and weather keeping people off of the roads, thus it is the floor. April was only 3.5% less than July, October was only 1.4% less than July. The real "jump" for the summer is only ~2.5%.

 

I ran an analysis of all of the years creating indexes for each month relative to the average for the year, and then averaged the indexes. The range from the lowest average monthly index (January) to the highest average monthly index was ~7.5%. June had the highest index at 102.9, followed by August (102.7) and July (102.1), so the "jump" during the summer over the average month has been on average ~2.5%.

[logan82]

HS kids usually drive short distances during the school year. If they can drive I would say they probably drive a lot more in the summer with jobs and free time. Same with college kids. You are also assuming most college kids go home often. I am not sure this is the case.

[NeedMoreFans]

I ran an analysis of all of the years creating indexes for each month relative to the average for the year, and then averaged the indexes. The range from the lowest average monthly index (January) to the highest average monthly index was ~7.5%. June had the highest index at 102.9, followed by August (102.7) and July (102.1), so the "jump" during the summer over the average month has been on average ~2.5%.

 

I'll reiterate that if this conclusion is based only on fuel consumption, it's not overly reliable. Other factors must be included to come up with the true summer jump.

 

The USDOT also does estimated counts in mileage, and that data can be found here...https://www.fhwa.dot.gov/policyinformation/travel_monitoring/tvt.cfm Perhaps this is better than just Wisconsin data because this is national data.

[LouisEly]

HS kids usually drive short distances during the school year. If they can drive I would say they probably drive a lot more in the summer with jobs and free time. Same with college kids. You are also assuming most college kids go home often. I am not sure this is the case.

Great. Show me the data.

 

If we're back to anecdotes, 1) short distances usually equal worse mileage (unless they have a hybrid, which very few likely do) thus more gas consumption, B) are their summer jobs full-time five days a week or are they part-time 3-4 days a week (my HS jobs were part-time) where they would be driving less than going to school five days a week, 3) you are assuming everyone lives on-campus and don't live at home to save money. I think a lot more live at home and commute than used to.

[AKCheesehead]

I'm going on a trip to southeast AK tomorrow, and won't have connectivity until the 1st. What a time to be without internet, I am bound to have some Brewers surprises waiting.

[jerichoholicninja]

Let's assume the Brewers win tomorrow. They will then be 44-56. Would you say they are 12 games under .500? I think most people would. Be shouldn't you say they are 6 games under .500 since a .500 record at 100 games would be 50-50 and they are 6 games worse than that?

[young guns]

I think its to be interpreted like they need to win 12 games to get to .500.

[1992casey]

I see jerichoholicninja's point. When we talk about games below .500, we subtract wins from losses. When we talk about games behind the next team in the standings, that number is cut in half. It'd be confusing if we weren't used to it.

[NeedMoreFans]

I drove past a drive-thru coffee shop this morning and there were at least 10 cars waiting in line for the drive-thru. At what point would it be faster just to park your car and go inside? I know on the rare occasion I go to a fast food place, I go inside if there are three cars or more in line to order (not counting those that have already ordered).