Thread

Largest wildlife overpass in North America reduced wildlife collision by 91%

105 points · 52 comments · consumer451

ChrisArchitect · 1789869909 · focus · HN ↗
As expected from the press release at open about 9 months ago. (they estimated 90% reduction <a href="https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46321557">https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46321557)
The $15M price tag still seems like a lot. Happy for the critters and motorists tho
1. sophacles · 1789871371 · focus · HN ↗
  Instead of doing that boring thing the unthinking do - I challenge you to ask why 15M seems like a lot.
  Is it a lot in comparrison to the costs to the taxpayers for all the emergency crews responding to animal caused accidents over the lifetime of the crossing, not to mention dealing with carcasses of animals, etc?
  How much of any single person's tax money went into it? How long until those few cents get paid off in terms of saved time and gas by not dealing with the traffic backup from those accidents? How much do those few cents amortize to your savings in reduced insurance since thats less potential accident you have to bet against... how much savings does that reduction confer on your expected direct costs in cas you had been in a the accident?
  Does 15M still seem like a lot?
  Maybe you think it could be built cheaper - how? Show your work.
  All these things sure are an interesting conversation to have. Much more interesting than "hur dur, 15M is a big number" anyway.
  1. Terr_ · 1789872605 · focus · HN ↗
    Just trying some napkin math...
    Some very surface-level searching shows someone claiming a total societal cost of ~$7k per deer collision.
    Supposing it's a $15m construction and could last 30 years without major maintenance, then it needs to stop ~71 events per year to "pay for itself".
    To be fair, that is the cost of collisions rather than any near-misses and traffic problems, or the less-quantified ecological cost.
    jdyer9 · 1789883354 · focus · HN ↗
    That seems well within reason, an article said about 1 deer collision prevented per day in the spring and fall high season. Having driven through the area and seen dashcam footage of collisions and near collisions, that $7k makes sense to me. I've known several people that have hit deer on the highways here, and I'm actually surprised if anything that the number is that low.
    So my gut feeling is that it actually has slightly better returns than expected from those numbers.

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