After DCCommuters post I remembered I have been on the road twice during evacuationlike conditions. Once was during a fire and misleading news reports made it seem like Calabasas was in danger. (They said the Motion Picture Hospital and Calabasas Highlands were both being evacuated. Both true, but the hopspital was ding it because they had many senile patients and felt they needed 24 hours to evacuate and if the wind shifted that was all they would have. The Highlands is a gated community and the only road out was on the side towards the fire.) Traffic was crazy. Card were going 60 on streets with 35 mph limits and speed bumps. Luckily we only had a couple of miles to deal with as this was near the end of our ride. But when we made it to the first persons house we decided to sit things out for an hour or so until it got calm. Even being on the fringes of the madness was a good way to get killed on a bike. The other time was when there was a fatality accident on the 134 freeway during or a bit before rush hour. After 7 I went out for a bike ride. It was insane and I turned back but still had some unsettling experiences.
Thinking of this and just how far it is to anywhere one would evacuate to I don't see any way that using a bike to evacuate makes any sense here.
Other side of this is that after the Northridge Quake we had no contact with my Grandmother in Hollywood for a couple of days. Phones out. But so were bridges and roads. It was just about to the point where it was going to be my job to start in my car with my bike inside and check up when phone service was restored. For that a bike is very useful, you can be sure of getting through. (and previous social rides provide the knowledge to use alternate routes).