Yesterday I was looking at CNN (that's unusual in and of itself as I tend to stick to Canadian media.) and saw one of those oh-so-typical photos: a 10 lane divided highway with one side completely jammed, stop and go, and the other side deserted.
What I want to know, is why are they doing this? More importantly, why are there not people guiding motorists onto the other side of the highway to make use of the extra space? Now admittedly, an operation like this would need co-ordination, people to stay back and direct traffic. This is where the police, reserves and citizen volunteers come in. A couple mailings, and some public service announcements on radio and TV would get the ball rolling, then it's just a bit of practice...
In a city like Toronto, where every highway on-ramp has a gate across it it would be even easier. All you need to do is close the gate at every second on-ramp and put an "Evacuation Route ->" sign on the opposite direction's off-ramp and move on to the next one.
Again, more people will need to be involved to make this work. Perhaps as an extension of the police auxilary... maybe the "Evacuation Corps". Give it a name and a special hat and the volunteers will come. Maybe a tax credit as well....
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