Report: Widening roads is linchpin to safe evacuations

After watching mass evacuations while five of the six largest wildfires in California’s history burned across more than a million acres last year, Marin officials are turning their attention to planning for blazes in their own backyards. In the recent Marin civil grand jury report “Roadblocks to Safer Evacuation in Marin,” officials found there’s pervasive uncertainty about who has the responsibility for planning and building transportation infrastructure that’s capable of evacuating Marin residents quickly and safely in an emergency. The report argues it’s up to local governments to consider evacuation needs when planning and building improvements to roads and traffic infrastructure. It also found that local governments are not always prioritizing evacuation needs when approving and funding public-works projects in their communities.

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