Implications of upgrading a minor forest road on traffic and road-kill in southeast Queensland

The planned upgrade of a minor road in Brisbane connecting two suburbs through a forested area raised concerns about possible increases in road-kill in an area of high wildlife abundance and diversity. Extensive consultation with community representatives resulted in the incorporation of traffic calming devices in the design of the forested section of the road. To assess the effectiveness of these, road-kill surveys were carried out before and after the upgrade and vehicle numbers and speeds were obtained from traffic census data. Vehicle numbers almost doubled following the upgrade. The number of road-kills increased by a factor of three after the upgrade but there were marked differences for different sections of the road, with higher rates in suburban areas and lower rates in the forest section. The study supports previous work showing the importance of low speeds for reducing road-kill and showing that low speeds are best achieved by the inclusion of traffic calming devices in the road design.