Monday, September 21, 2009

Watch For Animals In The Road

A reminder that it's that time of year again where fall is in the air and the animals are coming out in the early mornings. Take it easy in rural areas as this time of year we start seeing a lot more deer, elk, moose etc. trying to cross the road or just hanging out in the road.

I came around a corner near Newman Lake this morning just before 7 a.m. in time to see an elk herd crossing the road. There were about 30 cows and one bull, but he was a big boy that would total the average car that hit him.

3 comments:

Charles said...

I saw this joke a couple of days ago:

IDIOTS IN THE NEIGHBORHOOD
I live in a semi-rural area. We recently had a new neighbor call the local township administrative office to request the removal of the Deer Crossing sign on our road.

The reason: too many deer were being hit by cars and he didn't want them to cross there anymore.

SRTC Staff said...

Oh jeez... what's next, building corridors for animals to cross busy highways? Oh wait, they're already doing that at Snoqualmie Pass and the Dover Bridge project in Sandpoint.

I'll tell you what's almost worse than deer and moose in the road- turkeys! We have hundreds of turkeys in my neighborhood and the other day I got stuck behind some lady who just sat there while the turkeys crossed and re-crossed the road in front of her. I finally got out and tapped on her window and told her if she would drive, they'll get out of her way.

Charles said...

Maybe they need to teach the deer to read, so they can put the crossing signs in an area that has better visibility for the drivers. :) But I bet sign or no sign the deer will cross the same place they did even before the road was built.
No turkeys around here just squirrels and cats and they usually get out of the way for cars.


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SRTC is the federally designated Metropolitan Planning Organization (MPO) for Spokane County. Urbanized areas with populations exceeding 50,000 people are required to have an MPO. SRTC was formed to address the county's transportation planning needs. It provides coordination in planning between the public, cities, small towns, the county, the state, transit providers, and tribes.

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