"Automobility" key to New Orleans Tragedy

Or so says Randal O'Toole in this provocative article.

What made New Orleans more vulnerable to catastrophe than most U.S. cities is its low rate of auto ownership. According to the 2000 Census, nearly a third of New Orleans households do not own an automobile. This compares to less than 10 percent nationwide...

[T]he number of people killed by hurricanes in the U.S. steadily declined during the twentieth century. Economists commonly attribute such declines to increasing wealth...But what makes wealthier societies less vulnerable to natural disaster? There are several factors, but the most important is mobility.

O'Toole then goes on to explain how money spent on public transport in N.O. might have been better spent on improving "automobility." It is a partial, one-sided analysis (that is, it does not account for many of the benefits of public transport or the costs of "automobility"), but it is nonetheless persuasive (if not obvious). Certainly the auto industry will exploit this new-found fear ("honey, we have no automobility!!") just as our administration exploited fear of terrorism post-9/11 to invade Iraq. Link