The problem of evacuation of Los Angeles during wildfires

Los Angeles residents rushing to escape the wildfires this week faced bottlenecks, traffic jams and the difficult decision of whether to leave their cars in the flames.

But ahead of the smoke, flames and smoldering houses in ruins, another story unfolds again and again as the fires spread – a story of evacuation and chaos.

Residents often responded quickly to warnings and evacuation orders issued by Los Angeles authorities, with some even leaving their homes earlier than they were told to. However, when they try to leave, they rarely get very far.

Meriam Zar faced this bottleneck when she evacuated her home in Pacific Palisades when a wildfire swept through her neighborhood. “For a good half hour no one was moving at all, and I was stuck on the road for 45 minutes,” Zar, chair of the Pacific Palisades Community Council, told the BBC. She had to evacuate three times within 24 hours as strong winds fanned the flames the fire engulfed the neighborhood with alarming speed. “It’s a complete devastation. It’s a hellscape.”

The problem is complicated by the scheme of the transport network of the district. “There are only two or three roads: two major arteries and one tiny windy road that takes you out of the Palisades,” Zar says. “Our big worry (always) was that there would be traffic jams on the roads, we would get stuck and the fire would follow us. To some extent, I think people were afraid that this was happening yesterday, but the reality is that everyone is evacuated.”

Similar chaotic scenes unfolded in Hollywood on Thursday as flames from a fire engulfed neighborhoods at sunset. Many nearby roads are rapidly igniting became a blocked transport.

Experts say that it is not easy to escape from Los Angeles in the event of an emergency. Narrow, winding roads are common in Los Angeles’ affluent suburbs and can impede quick exits, said Chris Neville, public information officer for MySafe, a nonprofit organization dedicated to fire prevention and disaster preparedness in Los Angeles.

“There aren’t many roads in and out of the Palisades, and that has caused huge problems. It was a terrible mess,” he says. “Many of the roads (in Los Angeles) date back to the days of SUVs, when families had one smaller vehicle and not necessarily the giants we all rideespecially in these relatively affluent hillside areas.’

Despite the risks, these areas remain very popular. “People want to live in these secluded, quiet places where they are in contact with nature, but that comes with a built-in risk,” he adds.

Natalie Enklade, executive director of Buildstrong America, an organization that works to improve resilience in the US, says the road network has been severely strained by the emergency. “As tens of thousands of residents tried to flee at the same time during the hasty evacuation, major roads were heavily congested. This traffic jam significantly slowed down the evacuation process, putting more lives at risk.”

But problems with urban evacuations in California are nothing new, Enclade notes. When a forest fire is known as “Fire” devastated areas in northern California In 2018, infrastructure destruction “reduced communications capacity, hampering evacuation efforts,” she says. During another forest fire last year, debris blocked the only road that was the only way out for the entire community, she adds.

“The biggest contributing factor to these events is under-resourced,” Enclade says. “Local agencies and resources are quickly overwhelmed by the speed and scale of these megafires.”

Los Angeles County’s fire chief said Wednesday that there are not enough firefighters to fight the fires “with this value”.

On a normal day, the streets of Los Angeles are congested, but “it’s a whole different beast when everyone’s trying to escape after an earthquake or a wildfire,” says Jeff Boeing, associate professor of urban planning at the University of Southern California (USC). .

“Many of the street networks (in Los Angeles) have built-in chokes,” says Boeing. There are various reasons for this. “It can be the topography of the area or the ‘aesthetic of exclusivity’, especially in gated communities where there is one way in and out,” he says.

The Boeing study simulated more than 2.4 billion trips in 8,000 urban areas in 178 countries, and simulated disruptions such as floods, earthquakes and targeted attacks. Boeing concluded that street networks with better connectivity and fewer bottlenecks are less vulnerable to disruptions.

“By better connectivity, we mean how many streets are connected to each intersection. In a late 20th century American suburb, you’ll see a lot of cul-de-sacs, meaning only one street connected to that node, or three “intersections” where you have to choose which way to go, all of which reduce the connectivity of the network and reduce your choices and route,” Boeing says. “Los Angeles can be really bad. It’s even worse in places like the suburbs of Phoenix or Las Vegas, where you have a superblock with only one or two entrances.”

Retrofitting existing infrastructure and roads is difficult to do, says Boeing. “It usually costs a lot of money.” In addition, an entire street network could easily be disconnected by removing a few key nodes that tie neighborhoods together, Boeing concluded in its study. “Even the otherwise densely connected Amsterdam, for example, can be easily disconnected by targeting its nodal points, such as the canal bridges.”

“We have a very large bus network in Los Angeles. It’s just incredibly inconvenient because these buses have to travel in the same traffic as everyone else,” says Boeing. “We don’t have a dedicated bus lane. If we did that, a lot of people would change.”

In a 2024 study, researchers from the University of Alberta recommended that evacuation plans after extreme weather events include special bus routes for disasters and free public transport. “Most North American jurisdictions still lack a fundamental understanding of equity-oriented needs or evacuation plans that include the use of public transportation,” the researchers said, noting that vulnerable communities, including people with disabilities, the elderly, and households with low income, often rely on public transport and lack access to private transport.

But Boeing says that even with the investment, it may be difficult to encourage some Los Angeles residents to rely on public transit. “Driving everywhere in your single-seat vehicle (offers) privacy, safety, convenience and the feeling … it’s part of the Los Angeles lifestyle.”

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