RAPID: Data Collection on Roadway Vehicle Abandonment in the Fast-Moving Los Angeles Wildfire Evacuations

The objective of this Grants for Rapid Response Research (RAPID) project is to gather perishable data that will inform research and practice on vehicle abandonment during fast-moving wildfire evacuations. Evacuation by vehicle is common, however evacuees sometimes abandon their vehicles if traffic congestion makes safely escaping difficult. And potential obstruction to firefighting efforts could be significant. The absence of high resolution, granular data on this topic prevents emergency managers from predicting and planning for when and where evacuees are most likely to abandon vehicles. This research aims to improve evacuation safety and elevate awareness for vehicle abandonment risk. This project collects ephemeral data from the 2025 Palisades and Eaton Fires on evacuee vehicle abandonment, creating a strong basis for incorporating this phenomenon into evacuation behavior modeling and risk management strategies. It investigates (1) why and where evacuees abandon their vehicles, (2) the obstacles these abandoned vehicles pose to emergency responders, and (3) how agencies coordinate to move these vehicles during fast-moving wildfire evacuations. Data is collected through semi-structured interviews with evacuees and agency personnel, including firefighters, law enforcement, and emergency management, and analyzed through qualitative analysis to distill key findings. Combined with agency dispatch records and routes, emergency notification and agency call logs, and traffic congestion data, this project gains valuable insights on evacuee behavior and mitigation of fast-moving wildfires and other disasters. This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.