LTAP/TTAP
Interchange
Angela Kociolek, Western Transportation
Institute: Wildlife Crossing Structures
June 18, 2012
Wildlife Bridges to Cross the Highway
[START AngleaKociolek5-17-12.mp3]
MR. MIKE KOPP: Hi, I'm Mike Kopp, and this is the LTAP-TTAP Interchange, an audio
newsletter of ideas, issues, and interviews for the LTAP-TTAP community.
Today a safety structure beyond signs and fences to reduce vehicle wildlife
crashes. Angela Kociolek introduces us to an internation al competition for
wildlife bridges. Angela is a wildlife ecologist with the Road Ecology Program at
the Western Transportation Institute at Montana State University. She and her
colleagues are sharing ideas and concepts that came from an international
competition to design bridges or wildlife crossings across highways. She says
there were at least two outcomes from the design competition.
MS. ANGELA KOCIOLEK: One is actual design available for use by state DOTs who
are interested in working with, as in contracting with the design teams who
created them; and the second thing is an increased awareness about the need
for reweaving the landscape for wildlife, if you will, so they can access resources
they need for their survival while affording safe roadway s for all of us.
MR. KOPP: I understand. So though the competition is done, now you're in the
distribution and publication and availability phase.
MS. KOCIOLEK: Yes.
MR. KOPP: I understand. What exactly prompted this competition?
MS. KOCIOLEK: Well, price tags for these structures are in the millions limiting the
number that can be built, and that's what inspired my colleague Tony Clevenger
to want to challenge the world's design professionals to create the next
generation of wildlife crossing structure that's both workable and cost -effective.
And just to give you a little bit of background, Tony is a wildlife ecologist who's
been studying the effectiveness of wildlife crossing structures around Trans Canada Highway in Banff, Canada, for about a decade. And transportation
officials there built a series of crossing structures because their rate of wildlife
vehicle collisions was high and not acceptable. And the fact that wildlife adapt to
this infrastructure means that animals have continued access to habitats that
they need for survival and genetic exchange between populations as possible.
And from the human point of view, it largely eliminates the risk of meeting an
animal with your headlights. One man's idea got the ball rolling for this
competition.
MR. KOPP: Okay. Most states see wildlife crossings as merely a yellow diamond sign
that has a deer or an elk or moose or bear or cow on it. Do we find that the
signage is insufficient?
AMERICAN ROAD & TRANSPORTATION BUILDERS ASSOCIATION (ARTBA)
Wildlife Bridges to Cross the Highway
June 18, 2012
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MS. KOCIOLEK: You know, planners looked at --as one of 34 mitigation measures that
were studied as part of a project that we did for Congress actually, and signage
was shown to not be particularly effective in reducing wildlife vehicle collisions
alone.
MR. KOPP: Why are wildlife vehicle collisions a concern?
MS. KOCIOLEK: So wildlife vehicle collisions, or I'll just say WVCs for short, are
concerning for several reasons. The first one, when large-bodied animals are
involved, they're a safety risk. In the U.S. alone per year, 200 people lose their
lives in these types of accidents, 26,000 are injured, and an estimated $8 billion
are lost. Another reason WVCs are concerning, this is my opinion, is because
the other victims, the animals, are part of our heritage as a nation and millions of
animals of many different types meet senseless deaths because they find
themselves in front of a car at the wrong time. In a study that we recently did for
Congress on reducing wildlife vehicle collisions, it identified 21 federally listed
threatened or endangered animal species in the U.S. for which road mortality is
documented as one of the major threats to their survival.
MR. KOPP: How about that? So are these incidents increasing?
MS. KOCIOLEK: Well, when we talk about wildlife vehicle collisions, most of the time
people are referring to large-bodied animals like deer-size and larger, and
sometimes it's hard to separate out the data which may involve wild or domestic
animals. But in the research that we did for that Congress report that I
mentioned earlier, in the 90s and early 2000s, the rate of all car crashes was
relatively steady, but those involving animals were increasing. And so now it's
estimated that one in 20 of all reported motor vehicle collisions involve an
animal, either wild or domestic. And the increas e in, well, wildlife vehicle
collisions specifically appear to be associated with an increase in vehicle miles
traveled and an increase in deer population sizes in most regions in the U.S.
MR. KOPP: The trend you say is increasing; do we know why the tre nd is increasing?
Is it because there are more animals, more roads, more vehicles traveled, less
awareness?
MS. KOCIOLEK: The best that we could figure out, the increase in wildlife vehicle
collisions appears to be associated with an increase in vehicle miles traveled
and an increase in deer population sizes in most regions of the U.S.
MR. KOPP: Okay. Now, this competition that you're talking about focused primarily on,
as you said, connectivity, wildlife bridges. Are there other remedies?
MS. KOCIOLEK: Well, there's no simple solution to reducing wildlife vehicle collisions.
And in our study for Congress, we reviewed 34 mitigation techniques. And in
addition to wildlife crossing structures in combination with wildlife fencing,
integrated planning efforts and public information and education are key.
AMERICAN ROAD & TRANSPORTATION BUILDERS ASSOCIATION (ARTBA)
Wildlife Bridges to Cross the Highway
June 18, 2012
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Another promising technology is an animal detection system which would be able
to give driver's real-time information about animals that are at least the size of,
say, a deer or larger. It will give information to drivers that's real-time that's
saying that this animal is on or near the road. But, of course, that relies on the
assumption that drivers will become more alert and slow down.
MR. KOPP: Uh-huh, I understand. The money question. You've wri tten that these
structures can be very expensive. How can a transportation agency justify
spending money on connectivity wildlife bridges when bear -bones traffic bridges
are in such great need of financial attention?
MS. KOCIOLEK: Well, first it's a safe ty issue. People can get hurt or killed in these
accidents. But it's also expensive. The best estimate of the total annual cost
associated with wildlife vehicle collisions in the U.S., based on available data, is
calculated to be $8,388,000,000, and that includes vehicle repair costs, medical
costs, towing and law enforcement services, monetary values of the animal had it
been able to be hunted instead, carcass removal and disposal. So if the rate of
collisions in a particular area or road section is high enough, building a structure
might pay for itself or even have a economic benefit. And some of my
colleagues, Howser (phonetic), et al., did a cost -benefit analysis of mitigation
measures aimed at reducing collisions with large (inaudible) in the U.S., and
their results suggest that there may be many road sections in the U.S. and
Canada where the benefits of mitigation measures exceed the costs and where
mitigation measures would help society save money and improve road safety for
humans and wildlife.
MR. KOPP: Well, in this consideration of wildlife crossings, anything else that you'd
like to add?
MS. KOCIOLEK: I would just like to clarify that wildlife crossing structures don't just
benefit wildlife, although for many people that would be enough. Th ese
structures are installed in conjunction with eight -foot high wildlife fencing to keep
animals from entering the roadway. And numerous studies in the last 20 years
have demonstrated that wildlife fencing alone can reduce collisions with deer and
other large animals by 87% on average. So that makes a roadway safer for
people. But fencing alone would create a barrier to animals that need to access
habitat on the other side of the road. So that's the other big part of the story.
We're not only talking about the dangerous and expensive safety issues of
collisions; we're also talking about habitat connectivity for wildlife.
MR. KOPP: Well, how can someone learn more about the competition, wildlife
crossings, and wildlife vehicle collision data?
MS. KOCIOLEK: If somebody is interested in our competition or, you know, the future
of ARC, the ARC Partnership, they can go to www.arc -competition.com. And if
somebody's interested in any of the articles that I referenced to today or any of
our other work at the Western Transportation Institute having to do with road
AMERICAN ROAD & TRANSPORTATION BUILDERS ASSOCIATION (ARTBA)
Wildlife Bridges to Cross the Highway
June 18, 2012
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ecology, you can go to www.westerntransportationinstitute.org/publications/peer reviewed, and then click on "road ecology."
MR. KOPP: Very good. Again, anything further you'd like to add?
MS. KOCIOLEK: Well, that's it. Thanks for having me.
MR. KOPP: Very good, thanks Angela.
MS. KOCIOLEK: Thanks, it was a pleasure. Okay, take care.
MR. KOPP: Mm-mm, bye now.
MS. KOCIOLEK: Bye-bye.
MR. KOPP: You can find results for the ARC competition at this web address, it is arcsolutions.org. And while you're on-line, you might want to check out the latest
news from the LTAP website. It is www.LTAP.org. That's this episode of LTAP TTAP Interchange, a product of the Federal Highway Administration LT AP-TTAP
Clearinghouse. Some of the music provided for Interchange is from the Pod Show, Pod-Safe Music Network. You can check it out at music.podshow.com.
I'm the producer of Interchange, Mike Kopp.
[END AngleaKociolek5-17-12.mp3]
AMERICAN ROAD & TRANSPORTATION BUILDERS ASSOCIATION (ARTBA)
Wildlife Bridges to Cross the Highway
June 18, 2012
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