Transportation

Transportation

Apparently , the tragedy of New Orleans is caused neither by governmental incompetence not by racial profiling . Actually , it is caused by transportation problem meaning that the many families lack autos to drive out . Therefore , the city appears to be vulnerable to the catastrophe , because the rate of auto ownership is lower than in other US cities . According to statistics , in 2000 about third of city ‘s population don ‘t possess an automobile . It is known that evacuation planning was based exactly on people driving out and thus many people remained [banner_entry_middle]

helpless

Both Littman and O ‘Toole agree that the evacuation plan have failed because of poor decision-making : ineffective planning for non-drivers no priority to evacuate the most vulnerable , failure to understand the reasons why people object to evacuating , no free and subsidized evacuation plans , failure to implement transit buses for evacuation etc . O ‘Toole assumes that the best solution to evacuation is to subsidize the car ownership for families and citizens who lacks vehicles . He says that it would have been cheaper , if non-drivers have been provided with cars . He believes that auto ownership provides huge benefits for owners . Therefore , he suggests providing poor people with cars

Nevertheless , Litman asserts that O ‘Toole ignores many points such as operating expenses , road capacity and crash damages . Furthermore , if to provide non-drivers with cars , the transit budget would be exceeded three times . He adds that government should have implemented mass-transit evacuation system . He states that not all people can drive and older cars are unreliable . Furthermore , he says that it is better not to use cars in disaster situation , because the rate of accidents would significantly increase . He means that decreased hurricane death would be increased due to auto fatalities . Litman argues that people may not be able to drive because of medical and economic conditions as well His idea is to implement effective transit and public transportation rather than private autos

References

Litman , Todd (2006 , Janury . Lessons from Katrina and Rita : What Major Disasters Can Teach Transportation Planners . Journal of Transportation Engineering , 132 , 11-18

O ‘Toole , Randal (2005 , September . Lack of Automobility Key to New Orleans Tragedy . Retrieved November 30 , 2006 , from HYPERLINK “http /www .seattletimes .nwsource ,com http /www .seattletimes .nwsource .com

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