The car is irrelevant; hardware comes and goes. The big deal is that you are willingly granting/lending this person your insurance. Regardless of the situation, you (and your insurer) are fully liable for whatever happens with your vehicle. That's the part that should utterly freak you out.

In the worst case scenario, you are obviously not able to travel, despite what you would like to do or think you are obligated to do. So many situations are worsened when people just blindly push ahead because of some "schedule" (plane flights or the like) when they really need to adjust their objectives and their plans.

If I am stuck in an earthquake zone in freeing rain, low on gas, with inadequate shoes and a skanky companion, my SO is just going to recover from surgery on her own until things improve on my end. Actually is she is home from surgery, that is pretty good. It would be worse case if she were just undergoing surgery. BTDT.

I think I end up on foot in this scenario. Carrying my GHB and as much other gear from my car as I could. Sounds like there would be many others in the same situation and what working roads there were would be congested anyway. (Now I'm looking at Chisel's "Possible Scenario".)

My $500 car isn't going to be attractive to very many people anyway, and my insurance company would probably be happier paying damages sustained while it was parked than being driven after I loaned it to someone else. If they want it, go ahead and steal it and good luck!

Okay, so if you cannot even barely walk through the downed debris, how would you think attempting to drive a vehicle would fare any better then being on foot? Given your above description, walking would be a much better option.

Here in the U.S., I understand that even if your car is stolen, the insurance company assumes you 'lent' it to the thieves, and once they pay for the damage they caused, they cancel your policy.

So if you lend it to someone, or someone steals it, it sounds like the outcome would be the same.

My point was that the freeway is more likely to be clear of the amount of debris (excepting collapsed overpasses) that the city streets would be filled with.

Sue

It's been three months since the biggie hit northern Japan. How's the travel situation there? Have they got it all tidied up and back to business as usual?

I wonder just how long your wait would be?

Sue

Who knows? A lot of variables involved. When the situations comes, I will deal with it.

Interesting question about the situation in Japan. Since we are not hearing about it, I guess (and that is the right word) that it is something like semi normal, such that urgent travel is possible. Does anyone know for sure?