Evaluation of Wildlife Reflectors for Reducing Vehicle-Deer Collisions on Indiana Interstates I-80 and I-90

Indiana Department of Transportation is increasingly committed to reduce vehicle-deer collision incidents on the Indiana Interstate I-80/90 as well as on the other roads. Very few of the studies to reduce vehicle-deer collisions incorporated any sound and complete statistical design. Some states (California, Colorado, Maine, Ontario-Canada, Washington State and Wyoming) have found that the use of wildlife reflectors was not effective to reduce the number of vehicle-deer collisions. However, some other states (British Columbia-Canada, Iowa, Minnesota, Oregon, Washington State and Wisconsin) found that the use of wildlife reflectors were effective to reduce the number of vehicle-deer collisions. The main objective of this experimental study is to evaluate the effectiveness of the Reflectors in reducing vehicle-deer collisions. In order to address the major variables (factors), the design of this experiment was prepared to have a minimum of one road section, one-mile long, for each combination of reflector colors (red and blue/green), reflector spacing ( 30 m and 45 m), reflector design (single and dual reflectors), and median (one with and one without reflectors). The above design yields sixteen treatment combinations, which is called a replicate. This replicate was repeated two times and four miles long control sections were maintained in between and two miles at both ends of the replicates. The data for the peak months of April, May, October and November from 1999 to 2005 were used in the data analyses. Poisson Regression Analyses indicated that the reflectors have not significantly reduced vehicle-deer collisions.

• Corporate Authors:

  Transportation Research Board

  500 Fifth Street, NW
  Washington, DC  United States  20001
• Authors:
  • Gulen, Sedat
  • McCabe, George
  • Anderson, Virgil L
  • Rosenthal, Ira
  • Wolfe, Sam
• Conference:
  • Transportation Research Board 86th Annual Meeting
  • Location: Washington DC, United States
  • Date: 2007-1-21 to 2007-1-25
• Date: 2007

Language

• English

Media Info

• Media Type: CD-ROM
• Features: Figures; References; Tables;
• Pagination: 38p
• Monograph Title: TRB 86th Annual Meeting Compendium of Papers CD-ROM

Subject/Index Terms

• TRT Terms: Crash rates; Crashes; Deer; Mathematical models; Poisson distributions; Reflectorized materials; Regression analysis; Statistical analysis; Traffic crashes; Wildlife
• Subject Areas: Data and Information Technology; Highways; Safety and Human Factors; I85: Safety Devices used in Transport Infrastructure;

Filing Info

• Accession Number: 01044845
• Record Type: Publication
• Report/Paper Numbers: 07-0073
• Files: BTRIS, TRIS, TRB
• Created Date: Feb 8 2007 4:38PM