Evacuation from DC metro would be impossible in an emergency

[Squatch]

my fellow DC/MD/VA denizens...last night after the ice storm trying to get home, I realized that if there is an incident requiring widespread and immediate evacuation of the DC metro area and you're inside the beltway...well, you're fucked.

Yesterday at about 3:30 PM, a light freezing rain storm passed over the DC metro area. Instantly, and predicated upon the fact that drivers in this neck of the woods are unequivocal idiots, all of the major thoroughfares became snarled and came to to a standstill. The Springfield interchange, for example, was SHUT DOWN by VDOT for 5 hours because each and every single flyover or underpass had a multiple car accident. People were calling into the local radio news channel regaling us with stories of how they've been sitting on a freeway ramp for over four hours, and, in one case, how a person had to piss in a flowerpot because there was nowhere else to go. :(

I fell victim to this lunacy as well. Leaving the orifice at 4:30, I instantly became part of the non-moving mass of steel stuck on Rte 1 south through Alexandria. It took me over 2 hours to travel 8 blocks. Bear in mind, that by 4:30, the ice storm had pretty much passed on to the east and north and that the streets in Alexandria were just wet from plain-jane raine. I made it home at 8:30...just in time to catch the latter part of American Idol. :thumbsup:

My family lives in Woodbridge (20 miles south of DC) and I work in Arlington. If there is ever an incident where this city and the outlying suburbs need to evacuate, 5 million people are going to be royally fucked. There is absolutely no way that, in a true emergency, this city could evacuate with any sense of order or expedience.

[MiniMe]

1. It took my 4 hours to get home on 9-11 after they shut down DC

90% of that time was spent getting out of DC. You are absolutely correct.

[InkAddict]

2. I thought the headline referred to the actual "Metro"

I've seen the better part of a half million "revelers" removed from the District (Mall) within a couple hours after a July 4th celebration via your, I thought, wonderful subway system. Still, it's a known fact that winter weather and DC just don't get along.

[Squatch]

3. The Metro will get you to just beyond the beltway...

then you still need to pile into your car and join the rush with 5 million other folks.

Additionally, in an emergency, I don't think you can count on the DC Metro rail (or any other mass transit system) to operate with any certainty.

[LiberalEsto]

5. My husband commutes by Metro

He travels every day from Shady Grove to Alexandria.

Since the day in January that Metro raised its fares and parking fees, he says there has been a breakdown every single day on one of the lines he rides. His commute should take just over an hour, but takes closer to an hour and a half because of these daily breakdowns.

Furthermore, he grew up in Manhattan riding the New York subways, and says he's never seem anything as unreliable and poorly run as the Washington area Metro.

[Squatch]

8. And, moving 500,000 party-goers via Metro is not the same

as evacuating a city in an emergency. For one, the movement of people on the 4th of July is planned for by the city, who adds additional trains, more cops, etc. In an emergency, the city would be hard pressed to get more trains on the lines and by the times cops respond, it will already be too late.

In my OP, I just wanted to relay the epiphany I had last night trying to get home in that morass. In a true emergency, and not some piddly-assed winter weather, people who live and work inside DC are screwed.

[lonestarnot]

4. Same with most major cities.

[dysfunctional press]

6. it would be the same story in any and every major metropolitan area.

so don't feel like it's only yours.

[Squatch]

7. I don't feel that way.

Is there anything in my OP that would indicate that I believed this to be the case only in the DC metropolitan area?