Here's a tidbit. Most modern wester cities the average speed is between 10-20 mph. With traffic, stoplights etc. The more conjested cities are slower.
Any situation where the whole city tries to evacuate is going to be under the speeds at which alt trans operates. Not that everyone can even ride a bike 40 miles or would try, but it addresses something about the single family car ideal of evacutaion.
And in some places we could build more roads, Houston probably could. But many cities are too dense and more roads are physically impossable.
I work with Red Cross in California and our 'main road' in case of earthquake out of San Francisco is chosen to be the largest with the least bridges or overpasses. It stretches south through a very populated area to or through San Jose. THEN San Jose evacuates south...
If you've been in the area imagine the 7.5 million people of the SF metro area evacuating on El Camino Real??? The evacutaion plan calls for the National Guard to bulldoze the street clean, block all non- emergency vehicles and allow a steady flow of peds bikes etc. Basically you'd walk the 35 miles to San Jose. 7.5 million cars take up more square footage than there is roadway for almost 100 miles. Subtract roads damaged... you get the picture. If there was ever a tsunami warning in the bay area... ANY attempt at evacutaion would be a ******** idea. Heck during a normal rush hour it can take an hour to get 30 miles, best to tell people to get to high ground and brace themselves...
Lots of people (not specifically here) critisizing the Loisiana disater's management and not the nightmarish evac in Texas.
My spin... the people in charge just deal with the realities places in front of them and try to make the best of a bad situation. WE make the world the way it is... by voting for money for schools instead of levies, by moving to a city instead of living in the country... The only way to plan perfectly for all these things is to give up our democracy and have the government TELL us where to live, how to get to work, what to build. That they are ineffective stewards should be no suprise. They by nature are only responding to the messes we make. Half the relief effort out there is volunteer workers, the other half are people like the rest of us, trying to figure these things out as they go.
There will always be disasters bigger than a local governments ability to plan for them or cope with them. That's why we call them disasters.
Luckily there will always be other people willing to help.
Oh, by the way... i hear Red Cross is looking for volunteers...