Contradiction and Complacency Shape Attitudes towards the Toll of Roads on Wildlife

Abstract

Most people in the world now live in cities. Urbanisation simultaneously isolates people from nature and contributes to biodiversity decline. As cities expand, suburban development and the road infrastructure to support them widens their impact on wildlife. Even so, urban communities, especially those on the peri-urban fringe, endeavour to support biodiversity through wildlife friendly gardens, green spaces and corridors, and conservation estates. On one hand, many who live on city fringes do so because they enjoy proximity to nature, however, the ever increasing intrusion of roads leads to conflict with wildlife. Trauma (usually fatal) to wildlife and (usually emotional and financial) to people ensues. Exposure to this trauma, therefore, should inform attitudes towards wildlife vehicle collisions (WVC) and be linked to willingness to reduce risk of further WVC. While there is good anecdotal evidence for this response, competing priorities and better understanding of the likelihood of human injury or fatalities, as opposed to wildlife fatalities, may confound this trend. In this paper we sought to explore this relationship with a quantitative study of driver behaviour and attitudes to WVC from a cohort of residents and visitors who drive through a peri-urban reserve (Royal National Park) on the outskirts of Sydney, Australia. We distributed a self-reporting questionnaire and received responses from 105 local residents and 51 visitors to small townships accessed by roads through the national park. We sought the respondents' exposure to WVC, their evasive actions in an impending WVC, their attitudes to wildlife fatalities, their strategies to reduce the risk of WVC, and their willingness to adopt new ameliorative measures. The results were partitioned by driver demographics and residency. Residents were generally well informed about mitigation strategies but exposure led to a decrease in viewing WVC as very serious. In addition, despite most respondents stating they routinely drive slower when collision risk is high (at dusk and dawn), our assessment of driving trends via traffic speeds suggested this sentiment was not generally adhered to. Thus we unveil some of the complexities in tackling driver's willingness to act on reducing risk of WVC, particularly when risk of human trauma is low.

Keywords: driver attitudes; driver behaviour; road ecology; road-kill; wildlife vehicle collisions.

Figure 1

Vehicle speed technology was deployed on Farnell Avenue (seen below, photo Daniel Ramp) near the entrance to the Royal National Park, Australia, and on Bundeena Drive near the township of Bundeena. Twin tubes on the road surface connected to data loggers were deployed for a period of 143 days and recorded vehicle speeds and type in both directions.

Figure 2

The percentage of resident and visitor respondents (dark grey and grey respectively) to the driver behaviour questionnaire in the Royal National Park, Sydney, Australia for (a) each of six age categories; (b) each of four categories of the number of reported collisions; (c) each of four categories of the most vehicle damage experienced; and (d) each of six categories of the most common actions taken by drivers in response to observed animals on roads.

Figure 2

The percentage of resident and visitor respondents (dark grey and grey respectively) to the driver behaviour questionnaire in the Royal National Park, Sydney, Australia for (a) each of six age categories; (b) each of four categories of the number of reported collisions; (c) each of four categories of the most vehicle damage experienced; and (d) each of six categories of the most common actions taken by drivers in response to observed animals on roads.

Figure 3

Modelled relationships of the predicted probability of questionnaire respondents considering road-kill to be a minor, serious or very serious issue in relation to increasing levels of (a) exposure or (b) driving experience, holding other variables at mean values. Similarly, willingness (5 = willing, 1 = unwilling) to adopt additional collision mitigations strategies of (c) driving slower or (d) reducing the amount of time spent driving at dusk and dawn with improving driver attitude was modelled from predicted relationships, holding other variables at mean values. Residential status (origin) is represented for residents and visitors as either ‘solid’ or ‘dashed’ lines respectively.

Figure 4

Maximum vehicle speed (mean hourly speed km·h⁻¹, black line) and mean vehicle speed (mean hourly speed km·h⁻¹, grey line) along Bundeena Drive near Bundeena Township and along Farnell Avenue near the entry to the Royal National Park between April and August 2003. Hourly boxplots and a smoothed loess conditional trend and standard error (shaded area) are represented for both, while the posted speed limit is depicted with a hashed line (80 km·h⁻¹ except for Farnell Avenue Eastbound which was 60 km·h⁻¹). Most upper and some lower outliers have been excluded to aid clarity.