Road Ecology Center

Animal-vehicle crashes are a serious threat to health and human safety in many areas of the United States. Just in Teton County, Wyoming, between 1990 and 2001 there were 1,970 known vehicle crashes with deer, elk, and moose. While various mitigation measures are available to reduce animal-vehicle crashes, there are no definitive criteria that have been utilized to evaluate the many options available to experts of both transportation and wildlife. Some criteria that should be used are obvious, such as if the particular mitigation measure is actually effective at reducing animal-vehicle crashes. However, if effectiveness is an obvious concern, why is the ineffective leaping deer sign the most popular technique still being used in an attempt to reduce animal-vehicle crashes? There are obviously other considerations to be made when agencies are choosing among the many techniques and policies that are available to reduce wildlife-vehicle collisions.