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Title: Relating Vehicle-Wildlife Crash Rates to Roadway Improvements
Principal Investigator's Name(s): Dr. Rhonda Young, P.E.
Project Sponsor: Mountain to Plains Consortium
Project Timeline: July 2005 – December 2006
Background: Improving safety is a major goal for transportation agencies with significant resources being devoted nationwide reducing the number of vehicle crashes that are occurring on roadways. One aspect of roadway safety is vehicle-wildlife crashes that account for approximately 5% of all automobile crashes nationwide. In rural states, such as Wyoming, this issue is often of even greater importance as wildlife can be more prevalent causing more wildlife-roadway interactions. While there is significant research work into the effectiveness of different vehicle-wildlife crash countermeasures, very little information exists on the impacts of roadway improvements to vehicle-wildlife crash rates. This research effort looks at the past roadway improvement projects with respect to the vehicle-wildlife crash rates before and after construction. From the before and after analyses, correlations between specific project aspects and crash rates will be made.
Objective of the Project: The main objective of this research work is to investigate the effects of past roadway improvements on vehicle-wildlife crash rates. To meet this objective the following major research tasks are proposed:
• Analyze vehicle-wildlife crashes in Wyoming with a focus on Park
and Teton Counties in the Northwest portion of the state using GIS to
look at crash frequencies and crash rates.
• Identify major roadway improvements that have occurred in the
last ten-years in area prone to vehicle-wildlife crashes and perform before
and after crash analyses.
• Look for correlation between project characteristics and crash
analysis results.
Project Status: This project is scheduled for completion
in the Fall of 2006. The final report will be made available on the Mountain
to Plains Consortium website at www.mountain-plains.org.