People who take transit in Los Angeles largely depended on catching rides from friends, family or ride-share companies to evacuate from the January 2025 wildfires, according to a forthcoming study led by researchers at UCLA.<\/p>\n
Some evacuees, left without any other option, escaped danger on foot.<\/p>\n
\u201cI called 911, and the 911 operator said that they were stretched so thin that nobody could help me get out,\u201d one participant said, according to a draft version of the study shared with LAist. \u201cThe paramedics were [nearby], and I asked them, could I just have a ride down the hill? And they said, no, they’re just stretched too thin.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cSo I started walking,\u201d the participant continued.<\/p>\n
Keep up with LAist.<\/p>\n
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Madeline Brozen, a UCLA transportation researcher who led the study, said one of the main takeaways from the research is the importance of advanced planning.<\/p>\n
\u201cI think it just points to the need to really have a plan and try to communicate it before something happens in order for everyone to feel safe,\u201d Brozen said.<\/p>\n
Researchers presented their findings at a workshop over the summer with representatives from regional transit agencies, including L.A. city\u2019s Department of Transportation and L.A. Metro. The study is slated to be published in late January.<\/p>\n
How the study was conducted<\/p>\n
In early February 2025, Brozen and her colleagues sent a survey to people in L.A. County through the Transit app, which helps users plan public transportation travel. Researchers received responses from more than 160 people who evacuated from the fires and interviewed 35 of them.<\/p>\n
A larger group of more than 620 transit riders were asked about how and if their transportation habits changed in response to air quality problems after the fires.<\/p>\n
\u201cDespite the severe risks present and the convergence of wildfire, toxic air pollution, and urban transit disruption, research on how transit-reliant populations perceive, respond to, and adapt in such emergencies remains virtually nonexistent,\u201d the authors wrote in the draft. \u201cThis study addresses this critical gap.\u201d<\/p>\n
What did the evacuees say?<\/p>\n
People who evacuated by car told researchers they had issues with congestion and experienced \u201cgeneral confusion about where to go or what routes to take,\u201d according to the study draft.<\/p>\n
\u201cThere was lots of traffic, there was heavy smoke, so it was kind of difficult to see,\u201d one participant said.<\/p>\n
White and higher-income respondents were most likely to evacuate using a personal vehicle.<\/p>\n
More than half of Black and Asian transit rider evacuees, and nearly half of Latino respondents, needed more than an hour of travel to reach safety. That\u2019s compared to 38% of white respondents who evacuated.<\/p>\n
Just over a fifth of the more than 160 evacuees who responded to the survey used transit, including trains and buses, to escape the fires. Black respondents were the most likely group to use transit.<\/p>\n
\u201cBlack people tend to ride transit at higher rates than their population, so it\u2019s not terribly surprising that that was a group that most heavily relied on transit for their evacuation,\u201d Brozen said.<\/p>\n
While the data hasn\u2019t yet been disaggregated by location or fire, Brozen said she would \u201cconfidently speculate\u201d that people seeking safety from the Sunset Fire in Hollywood used transit at higher rates than those in the Palisades or Altadena.<\/p>\n
How to reach me<\/p>\n
If you have a tip, you can reach me on Signal. My username is kharjai.61.<\/b><\/p>\n
Researchers\u2019 recommendations<\/p>\n
Based on the study\u2019s findings, researchers recommended transit agencies in the state \u201cencourage riders to make emergency evacuation plans \u2026 before emergencies occur.\u201d<\/p>\n
The study will be available at this link<\/a> later in January. In the meantime, you can take a look at a summary of the researchers\u2019 data in this UCLA policy brief.<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"People who take transit in Los Angeles largely depended on catching rides from friends, family or ride-share companies…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":501914,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5123],"tags":[1582,276,3537,4216,2961,224,5337,11900,11003],"class_list":{"0":"post-501913","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-los-angeles","8":"tag-ca","9":"tag-california","10":"tag-evacuation","11":"tag-fires","12":"tag-la","13":"tag-los-angeles","14":"tag-losangeles","15":"tag-transit","16":"tag-wildfire"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/115860902018626583","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/501913","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=501913"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/501913\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/501914"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=501913"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=501913"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=501913"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}