Western Transportation Institute

Permanent URI for this communityhttps://scholarworks.montana.edu/handle/1/35

The Western Transportation Institute is the country's largest National University Transportation Center focused on rural transportation issues. Because we live and work in rural communities, we understand the critical roles rural transportation plays in the lives of people, in the environment and in the economy. We draw from our eight integrated research groups to create solutions that work for our clients, sponsors and rural transportation research partners. WTI focuses on rural issues, but some of our program areas also address the concerns of the urban environment. Whatever the objective, we bring innovation and expertise to each WTI transportation research project. WTI's main facility with its state-of-the-art labs is adjacent to the Montana State University campus in Bozeman, Montana. We have additional offices in Alberta, Canada, and central Washington, and a large testing facility in rural Montana near Lewistown. Contact us to find out how to address your rural transportation research needs.

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Author: search.filters.author.Huijser, Marcel P.End date: 2019

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    Short and narrow roads cause substantial impacts on wildlife
    (2019) Magioli, Marcelo; Bovo, Alex A. A.; Huijser, Marcel P.; Abra, Fernanda D.; Miotto, Renata A.; Andrade, Victor H. V. P.; Nascimento, Adriana M.; Martins, Maisa Z. A.; Micchi de Barros Ferraz, Katia M. P.
    Short and narrow roads are generally overlooked when assessing road impacts on biodiversity. However, these roads bisect natural environments and may cause significant impacts on wildlife in local scale. Thus, we monitored roadkills along a short two-lane road (CPM road) in Southeastern Brazil and propose mitigation strategies to reduce wildlife mortality. We monitored roadkilled vertebrates along 5 km of CPM road from 2010 to 2016 and we also compiled data from previous studies along the same road. We conducted a hotspot analysis to identify CPM road areas with significant roadkill aggregation. We recorded 77 roadkilled vertebrates from 14 taxonomic groups along the CPM road. Mammals were the most frequently recorded group (91% of roadkills), which represented 56% of all medium- and large-sized mammal species known to occur in the study area. We identified three roadkill hotspots along the CPM road. Two of them were located at two stream crossings, where the road cut across the associated riparian forests, and the other was at a road section with water drainage from a pond, also connected to a riparian forest. These riparian forests are part of the remaining natural habitat that provides connectivity between the forest remnants in the landscape, and therefore, for wildlife. Our results showed that even short and narrow roads can have considerable roadkill, which may have severe effects for wildlife on a local scale. The results stress the need to carefully look at these types of roads and propose measures to reduce impacts. We propose the creation of safe crossing opportunities in the hotspot zones combined with wildlife fencing to keep the animals off the road and guide them towards the safe crossing opportunities.
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    Performance of Arch-Style Road Crossing Structures from Relative Movement Rates of Large Mammals
    (2017-10) Andis, A. Z.; Huijser, Marcel P.; Broberg, Len
    In recent decades, an increasing number of highway construction and reconstruction projects have included mitigation measures aimed at reducing wildlife-vehicle collisions and maintaining habitat connectivity for wildlife. The most effective and robust measures include wildlife fences combined with wildlife underpasses and overpasses. The 39 wildlife crossing structures included along a 90 km stretch of US Highway 93 on the Flathead Indian Reservation in western Montana represent one of the most extensive of such projects. We measured movements of large mammal species at 15 elliptical arch-style wildlife underpasses and adjacent habitat between April and November 2015. We investigated if the movements of large mammals through the underpasses were similar to large mammal movements in the adjacent habitat. Across all structures, large mammals (all species combined) were more likely to move through the structures than pass at a random location in the surrounding habitat. At the species level, white-tailed deer (Odocoileus virginianus) and mule deer (O. hemionus) used the underpasses significantly more than could be expected based on their movement through the surrounding habitat. However, carnivorous species such as, black bear (Ursus americanus) and coyote (Canis latrans) moved through the underpasses in similar numbers compared to the surrounding habitat.
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    Pay or prevent? Human safety, costs to society and legal perspectives on animal-vehicle collisions in Sao Paulo state, Brazil
    (2019-04) Abra, Fernanda D.; Granziera, Beatriz M.; Huijser, Marcel P.; de Barros Ferraz, Katia Maria Paschoaletto Micchi; Haddad, Camilla M.; Paolino, Roberta M.
    Direct road mortality and the barrier effect of roads are typically identified as one of the greatest threats to wildlife. In addition, collisions with large mammals are also a threat to human safety and represent an economic cost to society. We documented and explored the effects of animal-vehicle crashes on human safety in São Paulo State, Brazil. We estimated the costs of these crashes to society, and we summarized the legal perspectives. On average, the Military Highway Police of São Paulo reported 2,611 animal-vehicle crashes per year (3.3% of total crashes), and 18.5% of these resulted in human injuries or fatalities. The total annual cost to society was estimated at R$ 56,550,642 (US $ 25,144,794). The average cost for an animal-vehicle crash, regardless of whether human injuries and fatalities occurred, was R$ 21,656 (US $ 9,629). The Brazilian legal system overwhelmingly (91.7% of the cases) holds the road administrator liable for animal-vehicle collisions, both with wild and domestic species. On average, road administrators spent R$ 2,463,380 (US $ 1,005,051) per year compensating victims. The logical conclusion is that the Brazilian legal system expects road administrators to keep animals, both wild and domestic species, off the road. We suggest an improved coordination between the laws that relate to animal-vehicle collisions and human safety, and the process for environmental licenses that focuses on reducing collisions with wildlife and providing habitat connectivity. In addition, we suggest better management practices, raising awareness and social change with regard to abandoned domesticated animals including horses, cattle, and dogs. This should ultimately result in a road system with improved human safety, reduced unnatural mortality for both domestic and wild animal species, safe crossing opportunities for wildlife, and reduced monetary costs to society.
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