Other concerns regard public safety ; police , fire and ambulances may be slowed and if an evacuation is ordered , the evacuation will be slower . One example of road diets being accused of this effect is during the evacuations of the 2018 Camp Fire which killed at least 88 people and destroyed the town of Paradise , California . Out of four evacuation routes out of Paradise , three of which were narrow , two-lane mountain roads , the fourth , Skyway Boulevard , was the only artery that could effectively handle high amounts of traffic . A grand jury investigation for a similar fire nearby in 2008 had recommended “ immediate modification of Skyway , from Paradise to Chico , as an emergency evacuation route , by removing trees and brush and creating fire barriers on both sides of the road . ” However , in 2012 , the county government decided to narrow the boulevard by replacing traffic lanes with bike lanes , bulb-outs , and other traffic calming measures . Critics of road dieting blamed the narrowing of the boulevard for causing gridlock , thus trapping evacuating drivers in the fire
Camp Fire
Camp Fire (2018)
Road diet