YHK - yet another hacker news clone

Largest wildlife overpass in North America reduced wildlife collision by 91%

23 points consumer451 2 hours ago 13 comments

AmazingEveryDay 1 hour ago | parent

Conflicted about this - food insecurity is a real thing. However it may offend some people's sensibilities, there are many people that have a significant reliance on roadkill to fulfill their dietary needs. It can make the difference between going to bed well-fed, or going to bed with a deep hunger in the pit of one's stomach.

pvaldes 1 hour ago | parent

> going to bed with a deep hunger in the pit of one's stomach.

I'm fine with that, as their dinner shouldn't depend on me suffering an horrible car crash and being hurt or killed.

The people will save a lot of money if they don't need to replace 500 cars each year, therefore more money to feed themselves. They will not be forced to eat dog corpses.

gucci-on-fleek 1 hour ago | parent

> there are many people that have a significant reliance on roadkill to fulfill their dietary needs.

I doubt that many people are collecting roadkill on a 75mph 6-lane divided freeway though, since I can't really think of any safe way to collect it.

But even if you could collect it, hitting anything small at that speed will completely pulverize it, and hitting anything larger will seriously hurt the vehicle's occupants, so it's probably best to stick to smaller roads.

whatisthiseven 22 minutes ago | parent

This is peak bean soup theory on HN.

Always has to be at least one commenter, "but what about my highly specific scenario? All the other people benefiting are an aberration to my specific need or wild singular example"

Fund SNAP, not discount game meat through the deaths of others.

probablyStimmed 17 minutes ago | parent

Nailed it. Adding the fact that the majority of HN comments are negative or at least at odds with the post, HN is a bean soup fallacy/theory/dilemma generation system.

consumer451 9 minutes ago | parent

Agree 100%. Also, hitting a deer at highway speeds can lead to the death of the occupants of the vehicle.

This is not some country road!

ducktoysleftout 2 minutes ago | parent

SNAP is funded. Food pantries are abundant. Nobody is eating roadkill to survive as a matter of necessity. If you’re eating carrion that’s probably a lifestyle choice and indicative of some mental illness.

A wildlife overpass is certainly not going to be cheap, but I could see the road user safety benefit penciling out over the life of the asset. I wonder why you would send the animals over (and span the whole roadway) rather than under (cut and cover a box culvert). Either way, it would be nice to see this better funded for rural America.

probablyStimmed 21 minutes ago | parent

Ignoring my incredulity at this response, the risk to the lives of the drivers seems to me to be of greater importance than the potential that some people might benefit from the carcasses lying on the side of road.

faitswulff 19 minutes ago | parent

The best thing I can say about this comment is that it almost certainly wasn't written by AI.

malfist 18 minutes ago | parent

My brother almost died in a car wreck with a deer.

dendrite9 3 minutes ago | parent

Last thought before the deer goes through my windshield and kills me is: "At least someone can eat this roadkill."

Reducing car/animal collisions is a good thing for cars(drivers) and animals.

ChrisArchitect 5 minutes ago | parent

As expected from the press release at open about 9 months ago. (they estimated 90% reduction https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46321557)

But why did it cost $15M?