Tawriya and the "Brilliant 22": TOLLROADSNews Article

TOLLROADSNews published a lengthy article yesterday calling for CDMSmith to publish the details of its claim that most of 22 recent traffic and revenue forecasts it prepared were accurate or conservative.  It compares CDMSmith's failure to do so with "tawriya"--an Islamic Sharia doctrine that "various kinds of misrepresentation are ethically acceptable, and even demanded of a good muslim - and therefore are not defined as lies."

TOLLROADSNews reports that it has made a concerted effort to acquire data from CDMSmith to support its claims.

We made a sustained effort last week to get more on the Brilliant 22 forecast set from CDM Smith.

We asked for the list, the names of the projects and the data.

And asked: how did they come up with the 22?

Were they a random sampling of the hundreds? Or what?

If the Brilliant 22 are genuinely representative of the company's performance they should be happy to elaborate and substantiate. It's a great result, far better than their rivals.

But nothing.

Repeated telephone calls and emails produced finally this evasion:

"Our overriding focus is to provide MWWA with a sound traffic and toll revenue analysis required to support the decision-making process by their staff, financial advisors, and investment community. Please note that the MWWA has offered to meet with the Reston Citizens Association, with CDM Smith present, to share information and discuss the Dulles project. We see this as the most responsible forum to clarify any misinformation concerning the project and our T&R analysis of the project.

Regards,

Marlene

Marlene A. Hobel, Vice President, Corporate Communications, CDM Smith"

Click here for the full TOLLROADSNews article.

For the record, RCA responded Friday--apparently concurrently with Ms. Hobel's statement above--to MWAA Chief Financial Officer Andy Rountree's offer of a meeting that it would like to meet with him, CDMSmith, and Renaissance Planning Group (the supporting socioeconomic forecasters) later this coming week to discuss RCA Reston 2020's work and address issues raised by the latest CDMSmith forecast.  Mr. Rountree agreed to try to arrange the meeting.