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Evacuations with cars are a bottleneck
(lemmy.world)
cross-posted from: https://lemmy.world/post/15424245
A highway camera photo shows traffic in FortMcMurray jammed in the southbound lane of Highway 63 on the north side of the Athabasca River. The image was captured at 3:11 p.m. MT, about an hour after an evacuation order was issued for four neighbourhoods. (511 Alberta)
Evacuation order issued as wildfire threatening Fort McMurray draws closer https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/edmonton/alberta-wildfire-grande-prairie-fort-mcmurray-1.7203695
I’m not sure I see this one to be honest. As bad as a car-dense city is for everything else, it’s probably the best option if the whole city had to be evacuated.
A large portion of alternate transport is focused within the city (trams, bikes, subways, etc). I suppose at least busses could be re-purposed for evacuation, but it requires a whole lot more organization.
Also, I sincerely doubt that the city would have enough busses to carry the whole population simultaneously (it would never really make sense to have that many busses), and in this case, the nearest population center is a four hour drive away.
Although, if there were a high speed rail link between Fort McMurray and Edmonton, that would take a lot of pressure off.