Could we get out of town quickly in the case of an emergency?
How does Baltimore compare with other large cities when it comes to evacuation challenges?
The American Highway Users Alliance and the American Bus Association compared the 37 largest urban areas in the country and put them into a report called Emergency Evacuation Report Card 2006.
The report takes a look at several factors that could impact our ability to evacuate quickly. These include the ability of routes leading out of the area to accommodate the evacuating population, the ability of the road system within the city to get people to the major exit routes and the percentage of the population that owns a car. It then combines all of these factors to come up with a final grade. The report states up front that the automobile is the method most people will use to get out of town. The report was written in response to the evacuations of both New York City on Sept. 11 and of New Orleans and Houston after Hurricane Katrina.
Overall, Baltimore gets a grade of D and sits five spots below New Orleans and five spots above Houston on the list. In terms of exit capacity, or the routes out of the area, Baltimore gets a grade of C. The lack of internal capacity, or the in-city road network, gets us a D. The report notes that there are a number of things that need to be done for those who are transit-dependent and suggests putting together a plan to use transit and school buses as well as utilizing the undamaged rail systems, including Amtrak, as part of the plan.
In his response to the specific questions we have raised over the past few weeks about bus shelters, Glenn Litsinger from the MTA notes: “Bus shelters have become a very hot topic thanks to the new illuminated shelters being installed and maintained through a contract with Viacom (CBS Outdoor). These bus shelters are installed through a series of agreements with the local jurisdictions who control zoning requirements, property owners upon whose land the shelter will be installed, and the company who will maintain the shelter. The MTA may eventually get out owning and maintaining shelters, as this contracted program has proved very successful. As we go forward, persons may request a shelter at a specific site, but the process will need to be followed, and this may be one to two years to complete.”
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