Data Collection and Analysis of Crossing Structures Along West I80 and USA Parkway in Nevada

Download or read book Data Collection and Analysis of Crossing Structures Along West I80 and USA Parkway in Nevada written by Hao Xu and published by . This book was released on 2019 with total page 86 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Wildlife animals crossing road surface often cause wildlife-vehicle collisions (WVCs) and is a major concern of highway safety in rural and suburban areas. WVCs are dangerous for the motorists and the wildlife involved and cause millions of dollars in infrastructure damage. In this report, the Center for Advanced Transportation Education and Research (CATER) at the University of Nevada, Reno (UNR) collected data of wildlife using the six crossing structures along west I80 in the Pequop Mountains and two wild horses crossing underpasses along the USA Parkway in the migratory periods of 2018 fall and 2019 spring. The CATER team also obtained wildlife-crossing pictures at the five crossing structures collected by the Nevada Department of Transportation (NDOT) Environmental service in 2018 spring. A total of 140,009 effective pictures related to 3,686 wildlife and human records were captured in 2018 spring (3/21/2018 – 5/1/2018), 2018 fall (9/14/2018 – 12/31/2018), and 2019 spring (1/01/2019 – 5/13/19). Pictures were processed by renaming and grouping picture files based on event time. Wildlife approaching/crossing records were extracted by reviewing the recorded pictures, and the extracted records were stored into an Excel database. The major conclusions are: 1) Deer were the major wildlife species crossing the structures in the Pequop Mountains. 2) There were many deer using the west wildlife underpass and the west wildlife overpass. 3) Wild horses were the major wildlife species crossing the structures in the USA Parkway area. 4) There were much more wild horses approached the south wildlife underpass than the north wildlife underpass. Generally, the same groups crossed the structures twice every day, and there are more horse captured during 2018 fall period than 2019 spring period.