Idaho developing wildlife-detection system to improve driver safety

Idaho Transportation Department’s (ITD) research program has initiated a project to evaluate an innovative new wildlife-detection system that may bring improved safety to area highways and reduce personal injury and property damage. The project is the result of a request from ITD’s northern Idaho office, and is a partnership between ITD and the Western Transportation Institute (WTI) of Montana State University. Collisions between wildlife and vehicles can be a big problem, and common in rural states such
February 15, 2016 Read time: 2 mins
7477 Idaho Transportation Department’s (ITD) research program has initiated a project to evaluate an innovative new wildlife-detection system that may bring improved safety to area highways and reduce personal injury and property damage. The project is the result of a request from ITD’s northern Idaho office, and is a partnership between ITD and the Western Transportation Institute (WTI) of Montana State University.

Collisions between wildlife and vehicles can be a big problem, and common in rural states such as Idaho, accounting for more than US$8.4 billion nationwide each year, and costing Idaho a total of nearly US$20 million last year.

Preliminary studies indicate that vehicle-animal collisions could be reduced by at least one-third by using the system. “Wildlife-vehicle collisions are a costly safety issue for Idaho travellers,” said ITD research program manager Ned Parrish. “Injuries and the loss of life, human or wild animal, are broad social and environmental concerns.”  

The system, which was developed by Boise’s Sloan Security Group, uses a Doppler radar sensor mounted on a pole 20-25 feet above the ground, allowing the sensor to ‘look over’ semi-trucks to detect large animals on both sides of the road and on the road itself for several hundred metres. The system is connected to flashing warning beacons that are activated to alert drivers of animals on or near the roadway.
Air Quality & Weather Systems Detection, Monitoring & Machine Vision Classification & Data Collection Urban Traffic Control

For more information on companies in this article

Related Content

  • Adaptive cruise control would suppress traffic instability
    March 20, 2014
    Professor Berthold Horn of Massachusetts Institute of Technology believes a modified adaptive cruise control could mitigate phantom traffic jamsthat occur for no apparent reason. The phenomenon of the phantom traffic jam is all too common: they appear for no apparent reason and, having caused frustrating delays for all travelers, evaporate for an equally mystical reason. Phantom traffic jams usually occur on busy highways and often take the form of repeatedly stopping and then accelerating up to near the
    Read More
  • Euro NCAP puts autonomous pedestrian detection to the test
    November 11, 2015
    European safety organisation Euro NCAP is introducing a new test that will check how well vehicles autonomously detect and prevent collisions with pedestrians, which it says will make it simpler for consumers and manufacturers to find out which systems work best. According to Euro NCAP, independent analysis of real world crash data in the UK and Germany indicates that the deployment of effective autonomous emergency braking systems on passenger cars could prevent one in five fatal pedestrian collisions.
    Read More
  • Enforcement comes in many guises
    June 22, 2016
    Colin Sowman looks at some enforcement case studies from around the world. It is a sad fact of life that unenforced laws are not adhered to by a sometimes sizable proportion of the public and once enforcement is seen to be lacking, some drivers can take this to extremes and authorities must decide how to regain control.
    Read More
  • 'Talking cars' could save lives, study says
    November 26, 2020
    ITS Australia-led research suggests curve warnings on roads would help drivers
    Read More

Highlighted Content