CityCyclingEdinburgh Forum » Infrastructure

Mass evacuation by car

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  1. Rosie
    Member

    The sheer inefficiency of basing mass urban transport by car is being demonstrated by Hurricane Matthew.

    Some American Facebook friends are outraged that the evacuation plans are based on the car and there's no provision for non car owners. Of course individual cars are the worst method for evacuation. It's a parody of the usual clogging that cars do to cities. One breaks down, and the whole system grinds down. And each car would be carrying about 4 people at most.

    The FB friends now say that the authorities are organising buses - which of course is what they should do during such a time, countermanding all public transport and telling people to leave with one suitcase. Leave the car behind. You're taking up far more space than you reasonably should.

    Posted 8 years ago #
  2. kaputnik
    Moderator

    Way back in the annals there was a CCE thread about your "zombie apocalypse escape route", or how you would rapidly and safely exit the city in an emergency by bike.

    Back on topic.
    there's no provision for non car owners
    Forgive me if I'm mixing my stories, but I seem to recall in Hurricane Katrina that the bungled emergency response disproportionately affected poorer people without cars (i.e. African Americans), who found themselves having to take their chances on the roofs of their low-rise housing or inside the ill-prepared "Superdome".

    Posted 8 years ago #
  3. Rosie
    Member

    @ kaputnik

    Not so good for escaping a hurricane though - which is a little more likely than a zombie apocalypse.

    Posted 8 years ago #
  4. Rosie
    Member

    Though I don't rule it out entirely...

    Posted 8 years ago #
  5. kaputnik
    Moderator

    @Rosie, depends if it's a headwind or tailwind!

    Posted 8 years ago #
  6. Rosie
    Member

    @ kaputnik - re Katrina - the American FB friends were remembering those particular horrors.

    Posted 8 years ago #
  7. Roibeard
    Member

    Not so good for escaping a hurricane though

    Depends on the latitude (10-35 mph) in Scotland you couldn't outrun one, but you could clear the high wind portion with just a day's warning...

    Robert

    Posted 8 years ago #

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