Driving behaviour during flood and bushfire emergency evacuations: Insights from observational and self-reported data

Climate-related emergencies such as floods and bushfires are among the most prevalent natural hazards globally. During these events, individuals often drive to self-evacuate; however, doing so through floodwaters or bushfire-affected areas poses significant risks to both evacuees and emergency responders. Understanding the factors that influence driver decision-making in these situations is crucial, as it relates directly to pre-evacuation delays, compliance with evacuation orders, and the safety of volunteer rescue personnel. It also informs more effective risk communication and policy design. This study adopted a mixed-methods approach by integrating content analysis of self-recorded real-life driving videos with surveys and discrete choice experiments. It examined both strategic and operational dimensions of driver behaviour during flood and bushfire conditions. The video analysis captures driver actions, environmental cues, and emotional or verbal responses, while the choice experiment investigates how risk perception, environmental severity, social cues, and contextual factors shape the decision to proceed through hazardous routes. Findings suggest most participants prefer to avoid driving through flood or bushfire scenarios in hypothetical contexts. Environmental severity – such as floodwater depth or fire intensity – was the strongest deterrent. However, the perceived presence of other drivers emerged as a strong motivating factor. Observational data also show that driving mostly occurred when other vehicles were present. Younger and male participants reported greater willingness to drive in both hazards – a pattern also mirrored in the video observations. This dual-method approach offers new insights into emergency driving behaviour and holds practical value for shaping public messaging, emergency planning, and policy interventions during natural hazards.