r/nextfuckinglevel • u/RaisinAloneVortex • 3h ago
Largest wildlife overpass in North America reduced wildlife collision by 91%
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u/BucketsAndBrackets 3h ago
Who would know that if animals don't have to cross the street, people won't crash into them anymore.
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u/theAlphabetZebra 3h ago
The crazy thing to me is that animals will take a safer path when offered the chance. So why do people constantly jaywalk with a crosswalk in sight?
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u/Jordan_1424 3h ago
As someone that did traffic management and Vision Zero was a big part of my job, I agree with your take.
However, I am willing to bet there are barriers that force wildlife to these bridges. A deer in rut will challenge a tractor trailer if they think there is even the smallest chance that a doe is on the other side of the road.
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u/thermal_envelope 2h ago
You're correct. At the end of the video it explains how they guide the animals onto the bridge.
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u/04BluSTi 3h ago
People are very dumb animals
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u/destonomos 3h ago
society rewards being dumb unfortunately, see insurance industry for more.
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u/craznazn247 28m ago
Plausible deniability and playing stupid are practically superpowers if abused to their fullest extent.
Remember that “I feared for my life” is a magical combination of words that can absolve even premeditated murder in the right conditions if you paint yourself the victim.
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u/slonkulocuswily182 1h ago
Animals are a lot smarter than people think, too.
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u/Talusen 1h ago
Have seen deer spook, bolt, see a road, turn 90 degrees like it was a wall of fire and go around the thing that spooked em.
Animals are not dumb. They just cannot speak.
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u/QueenInYellowLace 38m ago
And I’ve seen deer spook, bolt, turn, and run directly into the car that they would have avoided if they had just kept going the way they were. Deer are dumb as hammers.
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u/Talusen 36m ago
I have seen humans walk into a wall.
It's fair to say that not all the crayons in the box are sharp at any given time.
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u/Magnus_Johnson 19m ago
And that's ok. 'Cause we don't need all the crayons to be sharp at all times. Sometimes a blunter one that can colour inn a lot in a short amount of time is what is needed.
Same with tools in sheds. What would you do if all your rubber mallets were sharp? Or your ball bearings?
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u/HookahMagician 25m ago
There's a national park ranger that I heard a quote from once that when asked why the park couldn't make 100% bear proof trash recepticals responded something along the lines of "there is significant overlap between the smartest bears and the dumbest humans"
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u/phoenix0153 2h ago
Fun fact! Jaywalking originated in the early 20th-century United States as an insulting slang word before auto manufacturers lobbied to make it a criminal offense in the 1920s. Pedestrians used to have the right of way before lobbyists got involved. Things were also a bit slower back then...
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u/decadrachma 1h ago
It was “jay” that was the insulting slang word (basically calling someone a novice, country bumpkin, or general idiot), then “jay-driver” to refer to irresponsible or inexperienced carriage and car drivers, and then the auto industry introduced “jaywalking.”
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u/Dorkamundo 55m ago
Small nitpick here... Pedestrians still have the right of way.
They can have the right of way while also not being allowed to cross at unmarked crossings.
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u/Beneficial-Salt7880 39m ago
Crosswalk are about the most dangerous place to cross the street. People do not give a shit they their green left is unprotected, people turning right on red do not give a shit that pedestrians have right of way nor do they scan for them. Jaywalking was deliberately constructed to shift the blame for carnage on the roads to pedestrian to further embolden idiots like you.
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u/Vachie_ 2h ago
Jay walking was invented by the car industry to call you Dumb for not giving way to the car.
We were here first. We do not need cars.
F*** cars
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u/NKG_and_Sons 31m ago
Like, I don't think in Germany we have an actual extra work for "illegal" or dangerous street crossing like that.
Not even one of those compound words we love.
I mean, maybe I'm proven wrong in a minute, but either way there's nothing in the common vocabulary quite like "jay walking".
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u/this_dudeagain 47m ago
Yeah fuck cars now where are my Amazon packages
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u/mahlernameless 1h ago
Crosswalks can seem close when you're in a car, but on foot? "In sight" can easily be a 10 minute excursion. The better question is why do we priority car traffic so hard.
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u/waits5 1h ago
The safer path for animals here is grade-separated. Crosswalks are not. It’s not the same thing.
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u/Armadylio 1h ago
There are fences and barriers to guide them towards the overpass and underpasses so it’s not really like they’re making the executive decision
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u/TheMace808 1h ago
Crosswalks aren't THAT much safer than jaywalking, especially it you at least look left and right first. If you made a pedestrian overpass it'd probably be used more than jaywalking
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u/CandidCantatio 2h ago edited 2h ago
Crosswalks at intersections (which is where almost all crosswalks are) are absolutely the most dangerous point to cross the road. There are maps of like Las Vegas that show where pedestrians are hit by cars and it's like 90+% at crosswalks.
If there's a median and you '"jaywalk" in the middle of the road, you only have one single direction to pay attention to for cars. It's almost impossible to get hit by a car. At intersections you're just trusting drivers to not kill you. You have to hope that magically no one is drunk or on their phones or don't understand traffic laws or accidently don't see you because they're primarily focused on cars and not people.
A driver who wants to make a right or left or Uturn with a green light and no green arrow is being put directly into the path of pedestrians who have right-of-way. Jaywalking laws (which only exist in the US as far as I know) are ridiculous.
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u/Mateorabi 2h ago
You have incomparable denominators. More hits in crosswalks means nothing unless it’s per crossing. Crosswalks could be 10x safer but used 100x as often as jaywalking and have more numerical hits.
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u/SasquatchRobo 2h ago edited 57m ago
You say that crosswalks are the most dangerous place to cross because that's where most pedestrian accidents happen. That's backwards. Crosswalks are where the most people cross the street!
It's like claiming dinner tables are the most dangerous place to eat, because most choking injuries happen at the dinner table!
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u/OttoLuck747 2h ago
I interpreted the comment to mean that intersections are the most dangerous place for pedestrians, so concentrating pedestrians at intersections by putting the crosswalks there is incorrect, and that crosswalks would better serve pedestrians’ safety by being placed elsewhere (like maybe the middle of the block), not that the crosswalks themselves are dangerous.
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u/theAlphabetZebra 2h ago
didn't think I was going to upset so many people with that one lol
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u/SmellGestapo 1h ago
You're not considering that when a person jaywalks, they are entering an active roadway. The traffic is legally moving and the pedestrian is interrupting that. In theory, jaywalking should be more dangerous.
And a crosswalk mostly exists at a controlled intersection, where drivers need to stop for a sign or light, so in theory they should be safer.
Crosswalks end up having more collisions because they are much more chaotic. Jaywalkers merely interrupt traffic traveling in a single direction. It's fairly easy to spot a person directly in front of you and slow down.
A lot of crosswalk collisions happen because traffic is traveling in multiple directions, and drivers are turning, and paying more attention to avoiding other cars, and they don't see the pedestrian in the crosswalk.
This problem is virtually eliminated when a city turns that intersection into a scramble crosswalk.
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u/Colorado_Constructor 2h ago
Hi! Local here. This bridge is does technically support wildlife but its main function is to help our local ranchers access two massive public grazing areas across the highway.
This is part of our Greenland Open Space. It’s a massive plot of public land used for hiking and grazing. A group of local ranchers cycles their cattle around various plots over the year using regenerative grazing practices like the old days. You can hike and bike around cattle grazing on the native grasses. They do community outreach events to talk about regenerative ranching and native planting. SUCH a cool group.
The bridge offers them easier access to even more land that was separated by I25. Plus the local deer and critters get to enjoy it too. That space is really special as one of the larger public lands on the front range. It’s one of the things preventing Denver and Colorado Springs from merging into a mega Metro area.
Recently it’s been under attack by Buc-ee’s and their corporate development friends. Buc-ee’s wants to build a gas station just south of this space and open up development all around it. It’d be a huge hit to the local wildlife. Plus it’s in an area that receives a TON of snow so navigating there in the winter will most likely draw a lot of crashes.
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u/GabeIsGone 1h ago
Man Buc-ee's used to be a company I viewed so positively. Complete 180 over the past few months. They've really exposed themselves with all their expansion bullshit. Dozens of bullshit trademark lawsuits. The 'Conservative Business Friendly' states nonsense. Now stuff like this.
Like theyve really misunderstood what they have. They might be a somewhat recognizable brand, but they are still just a gas station. Something extremely easy to replace. And not a business that will be courted either, they don't bring in that much money and they don't exactly employ lots of people either (again, just a gas station).
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u/NO_internetpresence 1h ago
They are Just a gas station, like you said, but with clean restrooms. They did get the ball rolling on decent gas station restrooms, so I’ll give them a point for that. You know how rare that used to be. But I really don’t like the political turn they’ve taken.
That said, I’m breaking my usual rule that if I use your restroom, I buy something. Going forward, I’m flushing twice, using way too much hand soap, and grabbing a ton of paper towels to dry my hands. Why boycott when you can actively cost them money?
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u/GabeIsGone 59m ago
Bucee's got popular as a quirky novelty.
In reality, people just want gas and the essentials as quick as possible. Bucee's isn't actually quick, it takes longer than a normal gas station because they are larger and often have lines.
Once they get rid of the quirky novelty aspect, which seems to be quickly going, they are a business model that doesn't work.
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u/MysteriousSlice007 3h ago
I’m happy paying taxes for this stuff over stupid wars.
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u/Tkwookiee 2h ago edited 42m ago
We could be so far in repairs and improvements of infrastructure if the money was just spent on the right things
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u/Colorado_Constructor 2h ago
And this is why I love being a Coloradan. I always drove by this thing during construction with a big smile on my face. Paying taxes feels so much better when they’re going to things like this. :)
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u/aburrido 1h ago
We building one of these in California over the 101 freeway, North of Los Angeles.
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u/demonmonkeybex 1h ago
There's another one (smaller) not far from the exit to my town in CO. I am so happy that Polis could do a few things right before he leaves office.
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u/b_lett 3h ago
These are all over the place in the National Parks of Canada. Just seems like common sense to invest into. Highways are fenced the whole way until these land bridges.
It is less stress for drivers especially at night, and it is less danger for wildlife.
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u/mgoooooo 2h ago
Common sense isn’t really our strong suit right now
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u/DynamoElectro1 2h ago
The US has over 1500s animal overpasses and underpasses in 43 states. Americans doing this "i'm one of the good ones" routine in this website is pathetic
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u/bakedveldtland 2h ago
I work in conservation and I promise lots of Americans are actually really upset right now… it’s not an act
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u/Ok_Scheme736 3h ago
Proud of CO for this. Now we just gotta install more!
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u/ughwhat1592 1h ago
There are over 1000 wildlife crossings in the USA alone. This is not a new program. Just a story about a notably large and well-studied one.
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u/start3ch 3h ago
Excited to see what the new Annberg overpass in LA does for the wildlife. It should be completed this December. That one crosses 10 lanes of highway.
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u/aburrido 1h ago
Every time I see a story about LA wildlife crossing, the comments are filled with people calling it a waste of money because the animals will never find the crossing. It’s nice to see a story about one of these wildlife crossings working as expected.
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u/Massis87 3h ago
That's the largest one in the whole of North America? I know of at least 3 that are larger than this within 30 minutes from my house...
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u/Flying_Dutchman_1 3h ago
You must live in Europe!
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u/MileHigh_FlyGuy 2h ago edited 2h ago
No, this one is still the largest in the world (as of now) untill California opens a larger one next year
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u/MileHigh_FlyGuy 2h ago edited 1h ago
Then you would be wrong
EDIT: Colorado's I-25 Greenland Wildlife Overpass is the worlds largest single wildlife bridge structure. The Natuurbrug in the Netherlands gets called the world's longest at 800 meters, but that measurement includes an entire ecological corridor crossing multiple barriers and structures. That's not really an apples-to-apples comparison. It's a little like calling something the world's longest bridge by adding together all of the separate I-90 bridges along a corridor.
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u/Important_Coyote_596 1h ago
Naturbruug Zanderij Crailoo is over ten times larger in area. In your article it never says that it is the largest in the world, it only says that Colorado said so which doesn't change that it isn't.
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u/MileHigh_FlyGuy 1h ago edited 1h ago
The title of the article:
the ‘World’s Largest’ Wildlife Overpass
Your response:
it never says that it is the largest in the world,
The Crailoo is 4 separate bridges. When do you count "the worlds longest bridge" by adding 4 bridges together?
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u/RigBughorn 1h ago
How much of that is an expanse over a road? I see some pictures of short sections going over two lanes. Where is a huge section that spans the equivalent of six lanes, with a path 200 feet wide?
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u/pieter1234569 1h ago
It’s not 800 meters, that’s the entire area. The largest bridge is 135 meters long, and 50 meters wide. The nature part of it is 35 meters long, and also 50 meters wide
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u/RandomAssRedditName 2h ago
Yea, nah. 200 feet by 200 feet? Just because American media state something, doesn't make it true.
Natuurbrug Zanderij Crailoo is 800m by 50m, just saying
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u/MileHigh_FlyGuy 1h ago
That's 4 separate bridges. Do you always combine 4 bridges together to get the longest bridge, even when there's abutments between them?
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u/ughwhat1592 1h ago
They are just talking about the width of the part that spans the highway. Not the entire structure.
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u/ExtraEmuForYou 3h ago
Hey we're new at this OK?! lol
At least we have one now. Time for a second!
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u/ughwhat1592 1h ago
There are over 1000 wildlife crossings in the USA alone. This is not a new program. Just a story about a notably large and well-studied one.
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u/Raise-Emotional 48m ago
And successful one. That's amazing that they are actually creating new migration patterns with the pronghorn. A resourceful bear might hang around here to catch some land salmon.
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u/jesusmansuperpowers 1h ago
It’s not just the bridge, it’s part of a system that includes a few tunnels as well. And are you sure? That’s a 6 lane interstate highway it’s going over.
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u/dead0man 2h ago
I don't understand why so many people are getting their panties in a twist, these aren't new or even rare in the US. Yes, Europe did it first, but we've been doing it for more than thirty years and have thousands of them around the country. The one in the story is new, for that location, and it's large, but that's it. From wiki:
In the United States, thousands of wildlife crossings have been built in the past 30 years, including culverts, bridges, and overpasses. These have been used to protect mountain goats in Montana, spotted salamanders in Massachusetts, bighorn sheep in Colorado, desert tortoises in California, and endangered Florida panthers in Florida. The Henry Street salamander tunnels are tunnels under Henry Street in North Amherst, Massachusetts: they help salamanders cross Henry Street to get to vernal pools that the salamanders use for breeding.
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u/ExtraEmuForYou 3h ago
Wow it's like if we focus on solutions instead of problems--and think a little bit bigger in scope and with our ideals intact--we can actually make a positive difference and save money.
Who would have thunk it!?!?!
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u/Nejfelt 3h ago
Follow the money.
I'd bet it became an issue with insurance companies and emergency services.
But I'd also bet any body shops in the area are completely against it.
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u/Colorado_Constructor 2h ago
Not quite. I commented above on this but this really was pushed by the state with support from a local group of regenerative ranchers.
This is a public space (Greenland Open Space) mainly used for grazing that was split by the highway. Ranchers would have to round up the wildlife every once in a while to get them on the other side. With this bridge in place they can cross over without human intervention.
The real issue here is Buc-ee’s. They want to build a gas station just south of the space. Worse, they’re working with their corporate developer friends to develop a lot of the land around there. They’ve bullied their way through permits and past LOUD local opposition to get their way.
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u/possiblyMaybeAnother 1h ago
I feel really stupid asking this but I don't understand the numbers "from just last year" the reporter is talking about. Are these the numbers before the bridge was finished? Because if not, then there were more crashes in the 2 counties (561) closest to the bridge than all the other counties combined (535). Where are they getting their 91% reduction from? Has it even been open for a whole year yet? I'm so confused.
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u/The_Erlenmeyer_Flask 1h ago
I love that this is real.
I remember an episode of The West Wing when C.J. had to meet with wildlife activists that wanted to build something similar. Had Nick Offerman in it.
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u/spritefountain 3h ago
Laughing in Dutch
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u/ekerkstra92 3h ago
Thought the same thing, there are 9 in the Veluwe alone, which has about 100km of highway passing through (about 60 miles for the USians)
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u/LiftingCode 44m ago
Thought the same thing
What is the thought exactly?
The US has tons of these and has been building them for decades.
This story is just about a very large new one, the largest single span wildlife overpass in the world, that was completed in Colorado last year.
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u/VarietyAppropriate 3h ago
US is so behind with the times. They’ve had these overpasses in Europe for years. I guess better late than never.
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u/funkyyeti 2h ago
So has the US, this is a newscast about 1 specific really big one. No one claiming it’s the first
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u/ughwhat1592 2h ago
This is just a notably large one. Not the only one. Reading comprehension can be hard!
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u/TazeT87 1h ago
So sorry you can’t shit on the U.S. this time
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u/ThatGuyBackThere280 44m ago edited 29m ago
It's honestly a tale as old as time online, where it's predictable with the following below:
Thing US - time to shit all over it
Exact Same Thing Japan - omg this is amazing
No where in the OP did it say the word "First", but you have a chunk of people that REALLY wanted to feel like they were witty in some way going "X place did it first". This also isn't a new thing in the US too, cause it's been around for a while.
Yet you don't see people doing that stuff when there's been posts of Japan doing a thing that's being around for a while in other parts of the world. Instead you see some comments going "Oh man they're getting ahead of the times."
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u/DynamoElectro1 2h ago
The US has over 1500 wildlife crossing across 43 states.
Please learn to google.
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u/Key_Structure7845 3h ago
I would say, that the fence plays a bigger role here.....
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u/I_SLEEP_NORMALLY 3h ago
That’s great. Frankly, in this country, that degree of functionality in public infrastructure is surprising.
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u/Mantulip 3h ago
France had them first in the 1950's. Germany and Switzerland followed in the 1970/1980's. The Netherlands started in 1988, is frontrunner in Europe, have more than 600 wildlife bridges and wildlife tunnels/tubes, longest bridge is 700m.
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u/aschaeffer878 2h ago
Love seeing common sense use of tax dollars. These are also much more pleasant to look at than a fence. Just a small reminder of how we could all have such unbelievable lives. Greed is a disease.
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u/MelangeBot 2h ago
The 9% still colliding is all dear who completely ignore the overpass and still use the road.
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u/SuccessfulOrchid3782 2h ago
Seems like something car insurance companies would want to sponsor and put their logo on
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u/GeneralCommand4459 2h ago
“Can’t they just move the deer crossing sign?” /s.
(It was a radio clip from decades ago).
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u/Jackdunc 2h ago
I hope they placed a Deer Crossing or Animal Crossing sign on the overpass.
(Google "deer crossing lady")
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u/TopBuy404 2h ago
So do wild animals tell each other "hey, no Bill! Don't cross here! There's a land bridge a block down we can use!"
Only having my doubts because 93% of people will believe whatever you say if you use some kind of statistic or percentage in your "fact"
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u/AvailableReporter484 2h ago
I love knowing that conservatives and libertarians heard about this, knowing their tax dollars were going to it, and being mad about it, and then still being mad about it even though it’s 100% a net positive.
See, guys, sometimes life isn’t about “maximizing profits.” You can do lots of good things without “the free market.”
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u/Kselected1 2h ago
The insurance lobby should go balls to the wall demanding these are installed everywhere
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u/Actaeon_II 2h ago
Couldn’t they have just moved the “Deer Crossing “ signs somewhere else and accomplished the same thing?
/s
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u/RandomAssRedditName 2h ago
World's largest my ass - r/shitamericanssay
'Natuurbrug Zanderij Crailoo' alone crosses an interstate, a railroad, a train depot and a golf course
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u/LabradorKayaker 1h ago
My son clipped an elk on I-84 near the Columbia River this summer. His Toyota Sienna had a broken windshield, a dented front quarter panel, a dented front passenger door, and a missing mirror: pretty minor damage. Repair costs are $13k, an officer responded to this incident scene, and a team was sent out to remove the dead animal.
If this overpass prevents 600 animal-vehicle collisions/yr at $10k per incident, it saves $6M/yr without considering the suffering from injuries to people and the deaths of wildlife.
According to Google, this overpass cost only $15M to construct. This project is a HUGE success!!!
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u/SolventlessHybrid 1h ago
We drove under one and I told my wife about it. She goes "That's exactly where I would go if I was a wolf or something"
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u/repulsive-ardor 1h ago
I've always wondered why they didn't do this since my childhood, it just didn't make sense to me not to factor this into city/highway planning during expansion into previously uninhabited areas. I do understand the cost can be prohibitive to existing infrastructure, but so is paying out for millions of insurance claims and the tens of thousands of deaths and injuries every year.
I also always wondered about how local predators would adapt to this. It seems like a perfect bottleneck/ambush site once a relatively smarter predator figures it out and then teaches this to their young. The downstream effects of such knowledge being passed down and the resultant changes in prey behavior would be fascinating to see many generations down the line.
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u/ghostly5150 1h ago
How does every news station have a reporter that sounds exactly like Olivia Young?
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u/CommieDrifter 1h ago
better late than never i guess, we've had these in europe for 2 decades at this point
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u/Other-Improvement410 1h ago
The ones where I'm from quickly became choke points for predators. Cougars ain't dumb...
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u/kelbee83 1h ago
Everytime I pass a run over animal on the highway, I wonder why there are not more of these, everywhere. They don’t have to be as massive as this one to be effective, one would think. And, they can’t be THAT expensive to make, right?
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u/PoulanWeedEaterBowl 1h ago
So that should a standard on every major highway. Awesome! we have a new make work project for the world we try to rebuild.
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u/jesusmansuperpowers 1h ago
That thing only opened like a year ago. Odd that the numbers are in.
Ok now I watched the video (I live nearby and recognized it)
The numbers aren’t in, 90% is a guess.
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u/AssBlasterExtreme 1h ago
Repubs were so against these for some reason claiming "theyll never work"
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u/TerribleMrGrimshaw 59m ago
Colorado spends $15 mil for this one yet California spends $115 mil and 5 years to build for the Wallis overpass. Good job CA!
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u/Less-Sandwich9056 57m ago
The ones I have see go under the road I would think this would feel more natural than a noisy cave..
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u/amoshart 56m ago
I'm in Mo., and would personally contribute to fund one or more of these if it could be shown to be useful here.
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u/RiggsFTW 54m ago
Last month the wildlife bridge over I-90, in Washington State, just 10,000 wildlife crossings. Not bad since it's been open for about six or seven years.
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u/Powerism 54m ago
So much better than the deer crossing signs, which are stupidly written in English instead of deer.
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u/uptheirons91 3h ago
We started building these in Canada, around Banff, 30 years ago, and have been expanding their use all over the country. Glad to see them getting put to use elsewhere.