imported post
You're talking about a sudden collapse versus a gradual collapse I'm assuming.
If you're worried about gun confiscation, you may consider joining Alarm and Muster:
http://www.alarmandmuster.com/
It's an organization designed to creating a network of citizens who will come together and oppose any illegal restriction on the constitution. It's an interesting idea, might be worth checking out.
If SHTF in the bay area, I'm grabbing my gear and heading north. I imagine getting out of San Francisco would be extremely difficult in a sudden collapse scenario. The only good thing about SF is that I know I'll be one of the few armed individuals. If I was in Anaheim, I'd be in a lot worse situation; larger population, farther to go before you're out of the sprawl, fewer required suvival resources (water for instance).
If I were you, my plan of action would be to obtain enough gasoline to make it to a place which is lightly populated and has enough naturally occurring water to live on. Really this means you're going to have to get to around Oregon before you can start looking for places to stop. Of course, if you think you can make it to Oregon in a zombie apoloclypse scenario where everybody wants gasoline and lots of people have guns and ammo...then you better hope you're lucky. Everybody else with half a brain is going to be doing the same thing you are. Huge demands on gasoline, huge demands on road infrastructure, huge probability of people breaking down in the middle of California and looking to steal a running automobile to get the heck of out Dodge.
I think the better plan to avoid a collapse scenario would be to get out of populated areas before everything goes to pot. But if you go too soon, then you end up spending the majority of your life not doing what you wanted to do. If you go after it hits, you're not likely to make it. Somewhere along the timeline is the optimal point of departure. Let me know if you figure out when it is.