Department of Civil, Architectural and Environmental Engineering, The University of Texas at Austin, Austin, TX 78712-1076, United States.
Dewitt Greer Centennial Professor of Transportation Engineering, Department of Civil, Architectural and Environmental Engineering, The University of Texas at Austin, Austin, TX 78712-1076, United States.
Accid Anal Prev. 2019 Oct;131:157-170. doi: 10.1016/j.aap.2019.05.030. Epub 2019 Jul 2.
Animal-vehicle collisions (AVCs) are a growing problem in the United States, resulting in countless loss of animal life and considerable human injury and death every year, especially to motorcyclists. Due to underreporting, collision data generally provide a very low (highly biased) estimate of actual AVC counts and often lack key details, such as the species of animals involved. However, AVC reports cover entire states and nations, and can illuminate differences in wild versus domestic animal-vehicle collisions through statistical and spatial analysis. 51,522 animal-related crashes were reported to Texas police from 2010 through 2016, at a total cost over $1.3 billion annually to Texas motorists - not including the value of lost animal lives. AVC reports jump twice a day: between 5 and 8 AM and between 5 and 10 PM. Motorists are also significantly more likely to collide with a wild animal during the months of October, November, and December. Wildlife-vehicle collisions (WVC) are 64% of total reports, events involving domestic animals (like dogs and cattle) are 31%, and the remaining 5% of reports are unspecified. Most AVCs in the state occur at night in unlit locations, usually on rural roads with very low traffic volumes. Using ordinary least-squares (OLS) regression analysis across Texas' n = 254 counties, this work finds that less densely populated counties, marked as rural, and those with fewer vehicle-miles traveled (VMT) per capita but more lane-miles per capita, tend to experience the greatest number of AVCs per VMT, after controlling for county average rainfall, share of VMT onsystem roadways, job densities, and vehicle ownership (vehicles per capita). Intervention options for the mitigation of animal-vehicle collisions are numerous and diverse. For wildlife collisions specifically, this work finds that large crossing structures (underpasses and overpasses) at the highway link level return benefit-to-cost ratios near 3.0, while their lower-cost counterparts (wildlife fencing and animal detection systems) deliver ratios up to 30.
动物与车辆碰撞（AVC）在美国是一个日益严重的问题，每年导致无数动物死亡，人类受伤和死亡，尤其是摩托车手。由于报告不足，碰撞数据通常对实际 AVC 数量的估计非常低（高度偏向），并且经常缺乏关键细节，例如涉及的动物种类。但是，AVC 报告涵盖了整个州和国家，可以通过统计和空间分析阐明野生动物与家养动物与车辆碰撞之间的差异。2010 年至 2016 年，德克萨斯州警方共收到 51522 起与动物有关的撞车事故报告，每年给德克萨斯州驾车者造成的总损失超过 13 亿美元——不包括失去的动物生命的价值。AVC 报告每天增加两次：早上 5 点到 8 点和晚上 5 点到 10 点。驾车者在 10 月、11 月和 12 月与野生动物发生碰撞的可能性也大大增加。野生动物与车辆碰撞（WVC）占总报告的 64%，涉及家养动物（如狗和牛）的事件占 31%，其余 5%的报告未指定。该州大多数 AVC 发生在夜间照明不足的地方，通常是在交通量非常低的农村道路上。通过对德克萨斯州 254 个县的普通最小二乘法（OLS）回归分析，本研究发现，人口密度较低的县、被标记为农村的县，以及人均车辆行驶里程（VMT）较少但人均车道里程较多的县，在控制了县平均降雨量、道路系统上的 VMT 份额、工作密度和车辆拥有量（每千人车辆数）后，人均 VMT 每英里的 AVC 数量最大。动物与车辆碰撞的干预选择多种多样。具体来说，对于野生动物碰撞，本研究发现，高速公路连接处的大型交叉结构（地下通道和天桥）的收益成本比接近 3.0，而成本较低的结构（野生动物围栏和动物检测系统）的收益成本比高达 30。
