Re: Comet impact in the Eastern United States - Feasibility of Evacuation

"David DeLaney" <dbd@[EMAIL PROTECTED]
> wrote in message 
news:slrnft92fm.fv2.dbd@[EMAIL PROTECTED]
> David V. Loewe, Jr <daveloewe@[EMAIL PROTECTED]
> wrote:
>>>AFAIK, the best-organised motorway traffic will never reach the
>>>capacities of rail trans****t; it's unlikely that the 13-second headway
>>>that was achieved on the Voie sacrée can be much improved on. Probably,
>>>even on very large motorways, only the two outermost lanes can be used,
>>>because the inner lanes will quickly be blocked by broken-down vehicles
>>>that cannot be pushed off the road.
>>
>>?
>>
>>Huh?  Why?
>
> The traffic _cannot stop_. Not at all. Anyone who breaks down in an
inner
> lane and can't manage to get to an outer lane will have their car stay
in
> the inner lane, causing flow congestion. There won't be enough emergency
> repair vehicles and tow trucks around to repair or move the wrecks -
this 
> is
> larger-than-traffic-jam volume, over an extended period, and most places

> don't
> really have enough to cover their inner city area, let alone all the 
> suburbs
> AND the interstates between cities. People won't have had time to tune
up 
> the
> family car for a long journey. Thus there'll be a small but steady
dropout
> rate, which will pile up along the outskirts of the road _and_ the 
> innermost
> lanes, because people won't have time to take care of them in the normal
> manner.
>
> Dave
> -- 

The rate will accelerate as cars start running out of gas.