Some of those with bikes could make it out faster than the gridlocked cars.
I have a 4x4 truck with camper and bicycles so I'm prepared.

Rush hour traffic here is such a nightmare on a normal day it probably would be faster to walk or bike (but then you couldn't carry much). Could run out a full tank just trying to get out of the Beltway. So many drivers would run out of gas. Dreary prospect.

Certainly faster to Metro out of the city if the system was still functioning. Just depends on the situation. Natural disaster with warning. Natural or man-made disaster without warning. Can never really know how you'll react until something happens. Probably it will never be a situation that arises.

Interesting how some people -- Phillip -- are so harshly judgmental on me personally for posting a query to generate a discussion.

The topic is a variation on the age-old question around here in a shelter-in situation of prioritizing one's family's needs when neighbors, who you may or may not know, never gave a thought to preparedness may come knocking on the door. But situations are almost never that extreme so it's hypothetical.

Perhaps there will be a compromise and the neighbors can hold the dog food. As for someone to ride shotgun holding a shotgun, I don't actually know anyone in the city who has said they own a gun. Virginians are another story. The laws in DC are still pretty strict.

It's a bleak topic. Think I'll put the roof basket back on. That would open up a couple seats.

I have a couple of bikes, hitch rack and two bike trailers. Would pass out from exhaustion before the Beltway. And my bike probably would be jacked.

The more I think about how awful for so many a mass evacuation would be, I'm inclined to pray more for that need to never arise. In addition to topping off the gas tank just in case it did.

Should cities mandate that in a mass evacuation, each car contain at least three or four people?

Akin to the rush hour High Occupancy Vehicle requirements?

My SUV is a Honda Element. It's actually shorter than an Accord, has little go and is widely regarded as ugly. But it is great in snow, for carrying camping gear, bikes and hairy dogs (no carpet). It certainly could not leap a guardrail.

Isn't a Land Rover an SUV?

Maybe I'll buy a motorcycle. And a sidecar for the dog.

Our potholes aren't that bad. If you detour off the freeway you'll end up in a cul de sac.

My neighbor with the Prius hybrid may have the best car for evacuating.

Wonder if she'd give me a lift....

Was just out for the evening dog walk. I couldn't leave behind neighbor pups.

I'll end up with a car full of dogs, their peops, and bags of kibble and greenies.

Great choice on the Honda Element BTW, I've never really heard a bad thing about it. Anyway, I was thinking about this hypothetical situation. While having a evac plan and proper protection is important, I think in a situation where you would need to possibly use (or brandish) a weapon to get out of town, the risks may be too great to be on the road at all. Lots of things can go wrong and those would be carjackers may have weapons too. I may be wrong, but if things were that bad, you'd need a minimum of a 2-3 vehicle convoy (with armed people) to have a chance of getting where you need to go. And then there's the realistic scenario of law enforcement covering some areas better than others. Not sure how they'd react to open carry, etc. There's so many serious unknowns that make evac unappealing, unless of course conditions at home give you no choice but but to leave. And in that case, leaving in a large group may be a better option. Sometimes there's safety in numbers.

Good God (Sean Connery accent)! LOL

Technically, the good old Land Rover COULD be described as an SUV. But considering what SUV actually refers to these days (basically big fake show-off urban vehicles pretending to have some offroad capability) I wouldn't even use it in the same sentence.

"SUV" does not equal "off-road".

A Land Rover/Range Rover is an SUV, just as the Ford Expedition being driven daily by a typical soccer-mom is an SUV (as she looks down on you while passing). I wouldn't trust either off-road because they're dressed up with tires designed for the highway. By switching tires a Land Rover can very easily be turned to off-road use.

Having a front-row seat for the Great Houston Evacuation of Hurricane Rita, I have to agree with this. Over two million people tried to get out of the city, blocking roads for three days before the hurricane. Some observations:

1. Mayor Bill White did ask people to leave behind their material goods and take those without cars instead. Some people listened, some did not.
2. Most families here own two vehicles and took both, adding to the gridlock.
3. A bicycle would have been traveled faster than the cars, at least until you were run over by a crazy driver. People were racing down shoulders, through ditches, and anywhere else they thought they might possiblely get their vehicle through.
4. Thousands of cars here left in parking lots and along the sides of the freeways after they broke down, overheated, or were otherwise abandonned. These cars were then broken into and stripped.
5. If you have kids and pets there's no room for neighbors anyway.

-Blast

Land Rovers are quite popular in Australia, but not without serious modification. Most of the ones I saw in the hills there had mods equal to about 50% of the sticker price of the vehicle or more. The ones that didn't were broken. I'd say it takes more than a tire switch to make them more than an SUV.

As the saying goes, cash, grass or a$$, no one rides for free. This is especially so in a crisis situation. I have enough room for me and mine, anyone who wants watashi-wa to share better square up and pay the bounty with something I need or they walk.