Wildfire Evacuation Response and Plans Among Transit Riders in Los Angeles County

Project Description

Fast-moving wildfires pose significant challenges to evacuation, especially for transportation-insecure households, who are more likely to rely on public transit to meet their daily needs. These households, often low-income and historically under-researched, face compounded risks after evacuation: extended exposure to toxic air while evacuating and limited ability to adapt to bus service disruptions that may jeopardize access to health care and other essential destinations. The 2025 Los Angeles wildfires represent a rare scenario in which large urban areas faced fast-moving wildfire threats. Most existing studies of wildfire evacuations focus on vehicle-owning households and assume that evacuees will use their personal vehicles while evacuating. However, some studies have considered how evacuation outcomes change with reduced vehicle access (Grajdura et al., 2022). Further, while some studies help define transit-dependent evacuees’ needs (Feng et al., 2023; Shahparvari et al., 2019, 2024; Yazdani & Haghani, 2023), no studies have collected near real-time data on transit riders’ evacuation behavior or their adaptation behavior immediately post-evacuation. Despite the critical need to understand the evacuation behaviors of transportation-insecure households, research on this group remains sparse, primarily due to methodological barriers. Recruiting transportation-insecure households and transit riders is challenging in transportation research. Historically, in-person and on-board surveys were the primary methods, but require substantial administrative labor costs (Newmark, 2024). Recently, researchers have used real-time transit apps for recruitment, which appear to be decently aligned with transit rider demographics. This study leverages innovative recruitment through the Transit App to collect near real-time data on these riders’ evacuation experiences and plans, health exposures, and behavioral adaptations. These data have the opportunity to capture the behaviors and experiences of transit riders affected by the 2025 Los Angeles wildfires, which can contribute to a needed body of evidence for creating better models and decision-making approaches in future disasters.