"gds" <[email hidden]> wrote in
news:[email hidden]:
Quoted message said:
andy gee said:Can NO ONE in the mainsteam media or political or corporate arena
suggest that we might try looking at bicycles?
No, anyone who has eer watched the "Wizard of Oz" clearly understands
the risks of riding a bike during high winds.
Seriously, What % of the population do you think is capable or riding
a bike out of a potential large scale disaster?
Please consider in the estimate: 1) the number of elderly, 2) the
number of small children, 3) the number of infirm, 4) the number of
totally unfit folks, 5)the number of pets, 6) the number of folks who
want/need to carry some possesions. 7)the number of folks who have
working bicycles for every family member, 8) etc.
Also, since the recent Rita situation called for evacuation distances
to be travelled at 100+ miles please consider how many folks can cycle
that distance in a reasonable amount of time.
point by point:
1. 20% elderly beyond the point of being able to do any significant
riding, but many of them would be in some sort of elser care with their
own evacuation plans. There are quite a few septegenarians I know who
are better riders than myself.
2. In my neighborhood, many parents take their small kids to school or
daycare in child seats or little buddies or trailers. If you are not in
my neighborhood, and you had your family bikes outfitted with that
stuff, small children would be accounted for.
3. Many of them would be in hospitals, with their own evacuation plans.
Keep in mind that I frequently see guys with no legs going faster in
arm-powered recumbent trikes than the prevailing bike traffic. The most
famous bicycle messenger in NY has one leg.
4. That would be about 30% of the adult, non-elderly population. But
if they want to get out of somewhere in a hurry, they may wish to invest
in getting in shape.
5. If you think dogs love trucks, you should see them in a handlebar
basket! And, in the neighborhood just west of mine (Chelsea) there's a
regular practice of guys exercising their dogs by getting pulled by them
on scooters (in fact, "dog scooter" used to be in common parlance) or
roller blades or, less frequently, bikes. I paced one such team from
the Battery over the George Washington Bridge to New Jersey.
7. Having a working, fuel-free transportation system would probably be
a very good investment.
8. So let's suppose that President Bush said last night, hey, and by
the way, look at me, a ride a bike, why don't you try going to the store
by bike sometime? Let's suppose that after the Leno and Letterman
jokes, a reasonable number of people took him up on it, dusted off and
pumped up the bikes, and took them out for a spin and liked it and kept
doing it. That could be a big piece of energy conservation right there.
Finally, let's suppose that those folks included "bicycles" as part of
their evacuation plan in the event cars were somehow no good. So
whatever percent 1 - 8 was, these people would be accounted for and out
of harm's way.
Quoted message said:
My own non scientific estimate is that (way) less than 10% of the
population could evacuate by bicycle.
So, there is clearly a serius problem with disaster planning. Let's
solve the problem. That is important. Let's not try to pretend to
solve it by suggesting that something we like to do is the solution.
I agree. I wish my city had any evacuation plan at all. But I'm not
pretending anything. If 25% or 30% of households in cities with
bottleneck problems invested in and drilled for a plan to be able to get
out by bike, that would be 25% or 30% accounted for, leaving more room
for folks that have to go by car. Depending on your town's situation,
there would probably be other, better, solutions. But biking is good
for a large number of people, and it pays off now in energy
conservation. In Manhattan, "evacuation" is traditionally by foot,
except for those, like me, who are prepared to bike away.
Quoted message said:I can see the debate betwen the hikers and bikers now. Biking is
faster say the cyclists. Hikers can carry more possesions say the
hikers. And for the flooding we just saw perhaps the kayakers will
"wade" in and tout the superiority of their preferred activity.
Like it or not we live in a modern, industrial society and need to
come up with plans that utilize technolgy effectively. The problems
that were so obvious are not with technology but with very poor
application of technology.
Remember, when Pompei was buried by volcanic activity the problem was
not massive traffic jams.
