I was watching the news reports about all of the irate people in their SUVs clogging the highways leaving Houston because of hurricane Rita. It occured to me that if everyone drove a MINI, there would have been much fewer traffic problems.

So how do you quantify this? According to CBS news, 2.8 million people evacuated the Southeast Texas area. If you assume 2 people per car (this is Texas after all, and a lot of families took ALL of their cars with them) that equals 1.4 million vehicles on the road. Assuming the MINI is apx. 5 feet shorter than the average vehicle (probably a conservative figure) multiply that by the number of vehicles, and it comes out to be 7 million feet. Divide that by 5280 feet per mile and the total highway mileage that would have been unobstructed is 1325 miles! Add the fuel efficency of MINIs and no one would have been stranded on the side of the road without fuel.

What do you think? Could MINI have saved the day? I say yes.
John

 

SSSSHHHHHHHH!!!!

Don't tell anyone.

 

Yes, keep the secret

 

Not really. You are talking about at least 2 million people trying to evacuate all of them at the same time on the same stretch of interstate. No wonder there were 15-20 hour long traffic jams.

To me the problem is more related to poor planning in emergencies such as this. This is going to keep happening folks. We can expect to see this type of hurricane activity for the next 20 years or so.

 

I followed 3 minis in the corporate park where I work. One of their owners is in my office....None of them existed before I bought....it is becoming a mini pandemic, already, and no one waves (except for the guy who sits in my office)

It could ultimately end up as a plague (like locusts) if we spread the word, and there will be happy and pleasant people everywhere....I don't know if I could live with that!

 

The planning was well done. The infrastructure is just not designed for that amount of traffic. It helped that all of the interstates leaving Houston were designated one-way only, but it would have taken 20 or so lanes to accomodate all of that traffic, and that's not going to happen.

You're correct that unless things change, we can expect to see this type of activity for the foreseeable future if any large city in the US has to evacuate. One person pointed out that if those SUVs had been filled to capacity, that would have also helped tremendously.

John

 

John I see your point and it is indeed well taken. I think the mentallity needs to change around for those of us who live in hurricane prone coastal areas. Most of these problems we have done to ourselves because of the environmental damage humans have perpetrated to barrier islands and natural wetlands that had the potential to buffer out the detrimental effects of these storms. The obessive over development of coastal areas and the unwillingliness of the government to do anything about it have put all us at an incredible risk. All the government can do from this point on, is to tell us all when to run when the next storm approaches.

 

I still think that if all those SUV drivers had been Mini drivers it would have gone much smoother and quicker.

 

If everyone drove MINI's, they would all be happy to have an excuse for a road trip

 

Actually, someone at UT did some research a couple of years ago and found that light trucks take 1.4 times as long to get through an intersection as a car. Instead of 20 hours, 14 hours in the traffic.

A friend evacuated with her zoo - 5 horses, numerous dogs, cats and fishtanks. This required 2 pickups with horse trailers and a car.

 

My answer is YES

 

Since I evacuated in my Mini, i will respond! Trucks and SUVs were abundant on the road (block?) but so were other cars. I realize this is possibly a light hearted post but this touches me deeply since I saw caravans of people trying to save their families and there posessions in the only way they could....


We packed up a week worth of food and water, clothes, dog food, bedding, etc and 2 adults and two dogs. It was a very tight fit but we were very mobile... and fuel efficient. It was not what I would call comfortable but the panic swelling up in the back of your throat pushes and pushes. I felt guilt and frustration as I saw families out of gas, sitting in the shade of their car while it was 103 outside. Then as you drive by gas stations packed with people just hoping and praying that a delivery shows up soon. The look of fear in the faces as they stood on the side of the road with a gas can hoping anyone would give them fuel, or those families asking for a simple bottle of water.... not an experience I soon hope to repeat.

I will say, I am very happy I have a Mini with GPS. I took surface streets until I reached 10 miles west of Houston, where I had to turn north. As I crossed under I-10 I was stopped to wait for the national guard caravan heading inot harms way. Then we continued N at a good pace until we got to I-290... i would have avoided 290 but the radio announced that both sides of the hwy were flowing N, not true. We were able to follow the feeder road for a while until I had to enter I290 where we came to a screeching halt. It took an hour to travel one mile when I got off the hwy and took more side streets. We were able to travel at 65 within view of 290.... we got to our destination in 3.5 hours (a normal 1 hour trip) where we got lucky enough to find a gas station with a supply and waited 2.5 hours in line... during that time we watched people fight over positions in line, somebody pumping too much gas (there was no limit), or just being stupid.

So, I am glad I had GPS to find a Non-hwy route and made it on 1/4 tank of gas... only had to put in a few gallons VS the huge amount the SUVs were pumping..... I was lucky, a friend let us use a vacant house for shelter not everyone was so lucky. A lot of people slept in their cars, some under the overpasses, some in church parking lots....

I love my Mini, but when i was running to the store last Monday night and was stocking up on water (My Hurricane kit has 10 days but I wanted more since it was so hot) and food... My Mini was in the shop and the loaner was an SUV which fit EVERYTHING I could throw in it...If I had to evacuate more then just My wife and the dogs, I woudl lean towards a bigger vehicle

All in all it was a horrible situation and I saw things I will not type here, but will not soon forget... so please consider this is a national board, a lot of people just went thru a very scary situation and time.

Sorry for my rant.

 

How many Mini's get into the USA in a year?
How many years to get that many Mini's here?

 

And therein lies the problem. officials to stupid to make ALL roads outbound only.

And no need to say your sorry for the "rant".

Earl

 

I think our emergency infrastructure needs to meet with their counterparts in Japan. They do emergency drills all the time and know how to deal with the evacuation of large numbers of people. Since our population is so concentrated into urban areas now, we need to plan better. :smile:


Clover

 

We have plans, New Orleans plan was to use the busses,Houston's plan was to open all freeways to outbound only, we just don't follow them.

Earl

 

My mom left Friday, and it only took her 5 hours to go to San Antonio. Thats 13 hours faster than if she had left Weds... It all goes to show you that procrastination is key!

 

People shouldn't be packing up their lives possessions - that's what insurance is for. You pack up those few things that cannot be replaced - photos, heirlooms, etc. and essentials - water, food, fuel. That's it. All the rest of that stuff slows you down from beginning to end. In the big scheme of things, if your house is totalled, those few items you crammed in your SUV will pale in comparison to the rest of the house. I lived through Andrew and the 4 hurricanes that hit Florida last year, so this is not idle chatter.

 

Not to rant again, but if you live paycheck to paycheck in a low wage job with no benefits... can you afford insurance? Houston is very diverse with a large "workforce." I can afford insurance, some of my employees cannot.

 

yes, roads would be less backed up if all drove mini's or motorcycles for that matter!!!!!!!

During my daily commute to boston, I've often thought of having a riteous bumper sticker that reads

"imagine how much quicker & safer your commute would be if we all drove MINIs?"

 

Sorry, but I really think that should be changed to

"imagine how much quicker & safer your commute would be if everyone got off the phone?"

As far as evacuation goes for Hampton Roads... the roadways here are almost gridlocked as an everyday norm... an evacuation would be a total nightmare. I'd look for a backroad route if possible, leave early or ???? I dunno... but I don't want to be in a 12 hour traffic jam I'd be loopy :impatient

 

we left friday too...for austin..it took us 2.5 hrs which is actually faster than usual 610 was almost completely clear! ... but contraflow(opening up the inbound for outbound traffic) worked for all but I45 the major problem was lack of gas...if only minis were to take I45 or I10 there would still be the congestion due to accidents( because some people arent very good drivers...sad but true...and believe it or not my friends mini actually did break down in college station thursday luckily the got gas there after pushing it...most the people i saw on friday stuck without gas or overheating were cars( mostly american) but still mini or no mini, traffic was and will be a ***** during that kind of evacuation.

I just feel bad for my friends in Beaumont, my hometown, they got hit the hardest.

 

true but the backroads in most cases were just as bad if not worse than the major highways...if you left on friday like we did it was quick, but it was a major risk, because you dont want to be stuck on the road during a hurricane.. we got a call from a friend saying how clear the roads were so we decided to take a quick trip to austin