Disaster Preparedness

With all the terrorism and natural disasters lately, I'm sure that there are more people preparing their disaster supplies, working out a exit strategy, etc. Of course that got me thinking...

One random thing that can be done is to minimize the amount of time cars are on bridges and overpasses. For example, on the Golden Gate Bridge, tolls are only connected going southbound into the city. The toll booth is on the south side of the bridge though. So that means you drive across the bridge, wait at the toll booth (sometimes for a very long time, but at a minimum to slow down to pay) at the end and then go through. Why not have the toll on the north end, so you wait and pay while you're on real land, then zip across the bridge, so that your time on the bridge itself is shorter? That seems like it would be helpful in case of earthquakes or terrorist attacks.

I wonder why they originally decided to put the toll booth on the south side so you have to wait on the bridge and are other bridges like this too? I can't remember for the other bridges I've been on.

Along the same lines, traffic engineers could also retime lights to minimize wait times on overpasses. I see a lot of cars overhead waiting for red lights when I'm driving on the freeway.