Dan Minette <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:
----- Original Message ----- From: "Robert J. Chassell" To: Sent: Friday, September 23, 2005 9:48 AM Subject: Re: Evacuation > According to the Houston Chronicle > > http://www.chron.com/cs/CDA/ssistory.mpl/front/3366165 > > traffic jams developed on limited access highways going out of > Houston, TX, on Thursday, 22 September 2005, two days before Hurricane > Rita. If true, this is worse than simple negligence. > > Robert Seeberger, what is your experience? Do you know of any traffic > jams or congestion beyond what is normal? > > Traffic jams occur when many cars try to drive on a road at the same > time. This is well known. Traffic engineers, such as those from > state departments of public works, know the numbers. > > A road can carry a maximum number of vehicles. Add more vehicles and > the rate drops. (Substract vehicles below the maximum and the rate > drops, too.) All this is well known -- very well known. > > Hence, if they happened -- and from the number of reports I have seen > from different organizations, I reckon they did -- these traffic jams > should never have occurred. > > It is a matter of good governance. Police or troops can limit access > to `limited access' highways such as US interstate highways. Many are > needed since in any large population some will ignore single cops. > To enable the maximum number of vehicles to travel on a road, the > procedure is to permit a specific number to enter at any one time. > Given the rate, the time needed for an evacuation can be calculated. That was done. I understand where you are coming from, but your idea just wouldn't work. There are a number of reasons. First, while freeways are limited access roads, that doesn't mean there is only a handfull of access points. There are hundreds of miles of freeways in the Houston metro area. Through most of them, there is access every mile or two. With access points on both sides of the freeway, we're probably talking about 500-1000 authorized access points. And, we have what are called Texas exits (and to a lesser extent, Texas entrance ramps). When, for example, the freeway is backed up and the frontage road is flowing, people will just pull off the freeway, drive on grass or dirt for a bit (the well used Texas exits are usually compacted dirt from all the cars that use them), and then go on the feeder road. Even if all the official entrances were blocked, there would be virtually an unlimited supply of Texas entrance ramps. Plus, the same cops who were asked to set up the counterflow would be the ones that would have to regulate the entrance ramps. It just isn't a practical idea. Ditto Dan! Though from what I have seen and heard, the main objection to opening the contra lanes is the law enforcement manpower it would sap from other duties such as stopping looting and preventing entrace to evacuated zones. xponent Still Alive Maru rob --------------------------------- Yahoo! for Good Click here to donate to the Hurricane Katrina relief effort. _______________________________________________ http://www.mccmedia.com/mailman/listinfo/brin-l
