Research Idea Details

Research Idea Scope

Problem Statement:

Large animal-vehicle collisions are a growing problem nationwide and results in fatalities, personal injuries, and property damage.  While “road-kill” data is collected, the nation needs to quantify the extent of this safety issue and explore the mitigation measures that are both appropriate and cost effective in a systematic basis.

Research Proposed:

This research is the first step in developing a statewide animal avoidance mitigation plan.

Task 1: Perform Crash Data Analysis

Task 2: Literature review to learn of successful solutions

Task 3: Develop a prioritized list of potential solutions with costs to form a cost/benefit analysis

Task 4: Define the Problem Corridors within a State in collaboration with Idaho Fish and Game and other agencies.

Task 5: As a research pilot audit the top 10 Corridors to test the process and to identify proposed mitigation measures

Task 5 Final Report to document the research and proposes a process to determine mitigation steps for establishment of Animal-Vehicle safety corridors on a selected statewide highway system.

Anticipated Benefits and Outcomes:

The proposed project would provide the rationale and development process that will establish problem corridors and locations on a state highway system and a list of prioritized mitigation measures.  This process will include the rationale of adding projects into the Statewide Transportation Improvement Program for addressing large animal-vehicle collisions that would ultimately reduce these incidents statewide, resulting in reduced fatalities, injuries and property damage and societal cost savings.  In addition to contributing to the economic vitality (reduced crashes), there would also be cost savings for maintenance budgets in reduced incident response for this type of incident.  This project would establish economic ties to having a systematic highway network approach for the construction of countermeasures to reduce the economic impacts of animal-vehicle collisions.

Urgency and Payoff

The urgency of this research is high in order to establish a systematic approach for economic evaluation of a data-driven approach to reducing animal-vehicle collisions on a highway network.

This project will establish a methodology for the economic return on investment that can be compared to other investments made on a highway system network.