In California and other US states, mitigation of the spread of COVID-19 has been implemented by cities, counties, and governors’ offices through “shelter-in-place” and “stay-at-home” orders and related actions (e.g., closure of non-essential businesses). There were several important impacts of government shelter-in-place order on traffic volumes, which in turn had impacts on fuel-use and greenhouse emissions. For all US states, I compared estimated traffic activity (vehicle miles traveled, VMT) before and after stay-at-home guidance.
Roads and traffic are a primary cause for habitat and genetic fragmentation, wildlife mortality, and reduced wildlife population resilience to climate change (Laurance et al. 2014; Brady and Richardson 2017; Seo et al. 2015; Bíl et al. 2017). Wildlife-vehicle collisions (WVC) can result in hazards, injury and death to drivers, injury and death of wildlife, and fragmentation of wildlife populations. State Departments of Transportation, wildlife agencies and others use evidence of WVC and other data to support decisions about WVC mitigation.
Animal observation data on and near roads are critical to understanding wildlife vehicle conflict (WVC). The California Highway Patrol (CHP), which helps to monitor and maintain safety on California roads, also report incidents of “animal hazards”, “live or dead animal” and crashes involving animals, providing a continuous source of WVC records. These incidents often include collisions with mule deer (Odocoileus hemionus), which pose serious risks during collisions due to their large size. CHP report their observations in real-time through their own public-facing web-system.
