Can You Believe This?

Somehow this graphic from a Paul Krugman blog on how people commute doesn't ring true to me...
I can't believe that the Netherlands uses less transit for commuting than Canada. I'm suspicious of this data. I can believe the US numbers, I find 2% for Canada by Bicycle dubious. The country is just too inhospitable for a lot of serious "bicycle" traffic. Plus my own eyes tell me that is isn't the case that 1 out of 50 commuters is using a bicycle! Very suspicious.

This just reinforces my belief that you have to filter all information through your own model of the world. Sure, that sets you up for prejudice and stereotype, but it saves you from the idiocy of believing everything you read or are told. The trick is to act like a scientist. Keep your mind open to the need to revise theory when facts are not lining up. But just like a scientist is lost without the aid of a theory to make sense of facts, ordinary humans who don't have a mental model of "how the world works" are babes in the woods waiting to be victimized by some sharpster.