That’s the first I thought of.
“I recall videos of Japan’s tsunami where people were just strolling up the hill, then got washed away.”
And trying to carry a bunch of stuff too. As far as a “study”, I imagine that the study included where people lived, critical roads and bridges that need to be repaired/reinforced, etc. The “walking faster” was one little piece of the puzzle.
The hard part is keeping all of this stuff fresh in people’s minds. After the large EQ near Seattle in 2001 everyone afterwards was getting prepared, etc. If the large quake happened today, I would imagine it would take several moments for people to feel the shaking, recover, then look around at their damaged stuff and lamenting that mom’s antique figurine fell over and broke. “Well, it could have been worse....”
Talk about grabbing stuff, I had a pack near both the front door and the back door with stuff in it to grab and run if need be.
They are both buried in the garage somewhere now. With 15 year-old water bottles and energy bars. The “emergency” supplies in the cars got eaten years ago by the kids.