I think it’s a real mistake for folks not to make a conscious decision to take a moment to pause and think through their moves carefully after a quake. And then you need to be thinking defensively against a host of problems.
Some people freak out, and heaven only knows if they’ll go through a red light in a panic or not. Quakes really unhinge some people.
I had a friend in the ‘72 Sylmar quake. He was the opener of a Mobil service station at Foothill and Pennsylvania in La Crescenta. He watched the waves of the quake gown down Foothill and it unnerved him.
He fled the station in his car and drove home leaving it completely open to the public.
He is terrified of quakes to this day.
In a bad quake, you don’t want to be driving. Power lines could come down all over the place and gas and water mains are also a serious threat.
After the Northridge quake, I had to move from one office at Olympic and Sepulveda to North Hollywood just a few hours after the shaker hit. There were tons of aftershocks but I never felt them driving (thank goodness). The office in West LA was trashed - the office in the Valley was perfectly fine. Go figure.
I was in the Sylmar earthquake. I remember seeing waves of earth rolling along down the street in an aftershock. I still get of bit jumpy after quakes. We were in Sylmar when that quake hit, and were without running water for a week. It was very strange to turn on the radio and they didn’t even know what had happened and thought that it was minor.
But I don’t think people feel earthquakes when they are driving. Today hubby took my car to fill it up when it hit. He didn’t feel a thing. With some areas having the power lines buried, it is harder to tell if there is a quake going on. Just like when there are aftershocks, if you are standing up, you may not feel it as much as when your sitting down.