A Times article about a fatal Amtrak derailment includes this sentence: "Like the rest of the country's crumbling public infrastructure, its aging rail beds and decades-old trains are sagging under increased use, especially in the Northeast, where nearly three-quarters of all travel takes place on the trains, not on planes."
The Times doesn't give the source of this "nearly three-quarters of all travel" statistic, but it's almost certainly bogus. What about cars? Buses? Feet? Does the statistic refer to the percentage of trips or the percentage of passenger-miles? Does it refer only to inter-city or interstate travel? It offers the illusion of authority and precision without actually providing any useful information to readers.