Public transportation saves lives in other ways:
Auto emissions account for over half of the air pollution in our cities
(http://www.epa.state.oh.us/opp/consumer/carp2.html)

Air pollution claims at least 50,000 U.S. lives per year.
(http://www.cancer.ordg/docroot/nws/content/nws_1_1x_air_pollution_linked_to_deaths_from_lung_cancer.asp Journal of the American Medical Association, 03/06/2002)

A person commuting by rail causes only one-fourth the smog-causing nitrous oxide of a solo car commuter. A bus commuter cause sonly two-thirds of this type of air pollution. (American Public Transit Association, 1999 Transit Fact Book, p. 111)

During the Atlanta Summer Olympics in 1996, the city closed its downtown area to car traffic, added buses and trains, and promoted carpooling and telecommuting. Altlanta’s iner-city children on Medicaid showe a 42% decrease in asthma-related emergency room visits. (http://www.cdc.gov/od/oc/media/pressrel/r010221.htm, Michael Friedman, MD, Journal of he American Medical Assoication, 02/21/2001)

In 2000, over 41,000 Americans dies in motor vehicle fatalities.
(http://www.fhwa.dot.gov/ohim/onh00/chart2.htm)

Motor-vehicle-related injuries lead all causes for deaths among persons aged 1-24 years.
(http://www.cdc.gov/mmwr/preview/mmwrhtml/mm4818a1.htm)

There are about as many deaths resulting from car accidents as from breast cancer in the United Stats each year. Fewer die from suicide, fire arms, leukemia, AIDS, poisoning or drugs.
(http://www.census.gov/prod/2001/statab/sec02.pdf)

Per passenger mile, riding a bus is 17 times safer than riding in a car.
(http://www.apta.com/research/stats/safety/natsafe.cfm, citing the National Safety Council’s Injury Facts)

Anti car a moral failing? No, simply a personal view with its own set of consequences.

I absolutely agree, the people without cars in this instance were most likely poor, never in doubt. It’s why previous studies said huge numbers would need to be rescued in the event of a disaster of this sort. It’s why the local gov’t stumbling all over itself and not sure what to do was so incredible. I think many incompetent people in many positions are one crisis away from being found out.

We have a public mass transit system in this country, it’s called the car. That’s what the masses actually use. When I think mass transit (in the usually accepted sense) in an emergency, think airport on Thanksgiving holiday, times 10,000. Public mass transit doesn’t avoid jams and in crisis it becomes worse. Individuals taking things into their own hands and leaving can work wonders. A great example is the huge exodus from New York on 9/11 when people simply walked out by the tens of thousands.

Private vehicles work well but even in this instance, people have to have the presence of mind to actually leave and the sooner the better. And waiting around to be taken out can be the most dangerous decision of all.

We’ve seen natural disasters where people try to drive away in private vehicles, and get jammed up for hours or more because everyone else is trying to do the same thing. An efficient public-transit system would avoid that kind of problem.