Rail Could Have Aided Evacuations

Too few buses didn't work for New Orleans, and too many cars didn't work for Houston. Rail is the third way.

1 minute read

September 29, 2005, 8:00 AM PDT

By Abhijeet Chavan @http://twitter.com/legalaidtech


In contrast to knee-jerk calls for expanding highways or filling the roads with free cars in order to evacuate people during extremely rare disasters, Otis White advocates adding the type of transportation that will not pollute cities or congest city streets - passenger rail. The best distances for high speed rail travel, 100 - 500 miles, would have taken Houston and New Orleans' citizens well out of harm's way. "If the failures of New Orleans and the gridlock of Houston show anything, it's that we urgently need a third way out of cities, something other than flying or driving. Fortunately, there is such a way: passenger rail."

Thanks to John Beutler

Wednesday, September 28, 2005 in The New York Times

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