I drove long double trailers on th NY thruway and hit 5 deer in two years (When you are 117 feet long and weigh 140,000 lb it is hard to take evasive action). A spare driver ran my Mack out of oil and blew the engine, The new engine was very clattery. If I passed deer when it was light out I could see them move away from the road before I got there. I wonder if a Harley with straight pipes ever hit a deer?
I had a 55 year driving career and those 5 deer were the only ones I ever hit.
I know this is likely a prank call, but it sure is funny.
I had a guy many years ago in college take the opposite track. He thought if you didn’t see a deer crossing sign, you didn’t have to watch for deer. We had to explain to him that deer can’t read signs and they could be anywhere.
Perhaps, with the right approach, deer could be taught to read. Mr. Ed, the talking horse could read and write, Wilbur, his owner asked him if he had trouble learning to.read and write in English. “No”, Mr. Ed replied. “I learned Latin first”. Perhaps we might try posting the deer crossing signs in Latin.
It would probably be easier to teach the deer to read than to teach many college students how to read. I found it ironic in the library at the university where I taught that symbols are used for the restrooms and the food snack area instead of words.
Now that’s something to think about-symbols for signs in the library. Come to think of it, we had the tactile version for the library too. Oh those feds again.
Quoting oldtimer11
“I wonder if a Harley with straight pipes ever hit a deer?”Yes absolutely. I know three guys who have hit deer on bikes. The one on the loud Harley with no helmet was killed. The other two were riding a Goldwing, which was totalled, and a BMW R1100RT which I now own. Both are very quiet bikes.
The state tried deer whistles on its fleet of highway patrol cars several years ago. Those with the whistles did no better at avoiding deer than those without.
Deer strikes are less likely on limited access highways in MD because there are fences to keep deer and other animals (people included) from getting onto the highway. I’m sure a lot of other states do the same. People hit a lot of deer on the roadways here, but they tend to be on other roads. It might be the same in NY.
Germany tried installing a series of reflectors alongside the roadways. When headlights hit them, they formed a long blue line of light. This was supposed to scare the animal into not crossing. Didn’t work.
Then they tried fences that are sprayed with predator odors. Still didn’t work.
Now they’re using infrared detectors that make a warning sign flash if an animal is approaching the road. These work, but they’re too expensive to deploy on a large scale.
The standard four foot high fences along local interstates won’t even slow a deer down. How high are those fences in MD @jt?
I saw four young deer this morning. The sun was just rising behind me, painting the cloudy sky pink and orange. I stopped as three of them went across the road in front of my car and jumped the fence on the left side after clearing the ditch. The smart one ran along the trees that bordered the ditch on my right, then back into the field. I don’t know how fast deer can run, but they were moving.
Deer strikes are less likely on limited access highways in MD because there are fences to keep deer and other animals (people included) from getting onto the highway.
Those must be pretty high fences…I’ve seen deer clear a 6’ fence as easily as I walk across a mud puddle.
They are about 7 to 8 feet tall. There are also concrete walls where highways run next to residential neighborhoods. Those are about 20 feet tall.
As I may have mentioned, I live in a high deer traffic area. I am aware of how high deer can jump. One of my neighbor’s tried to grow vegetables next to the forest. He eventually put up a 6-foot fence, and it still didn’t stop the deer. No one has a vegetable garden in my neighborhood since the deer or rabbits will get it all. Some folks grow tomatoes and peppers on their decks; about 12 feet off the ground.
@jtsanders no vegetable gardens, but the deer netting works on hastas up at the cabin! Perhaps the caller into the radio show should have suggested putting up signs to warn the deer cross traffic may not stop!
As a kid in Minnesota when they first started building the interstates, I seem to remember fencing on the sides but then it disappeared. Maybe I’m misremembering but I sure thought there was fencing for a while. If we could only find one deer that we could teach limited English to, he could teach the rest of them. Maybe we should have a study.
We have deer netting around our gardens. The gardens have plants that deer aren’t supposed to eat. Of course they eat them. I wasn’t going to put up 8-foot deer netting or a deer net cage to grow vegetables that the rabbits would get. The netting is also a big pain when mowing the lawn.
I seem to remember fencing on the sides but then it disappeared.
That fencing probably wasn’t for deer…but for snow drifts. There are plenty of spots in upstate NY that still has them.
The county work crews in my area have just started putting in the posts for the snow fencing along the county roads. That is the first reminder that winter is approaching…dammit!
:-((
Snow fencing will nor deter deer. We have a backyard fence mush higher than a snow fence and deer have repeatedly leapt over it, as we back onto a green space park.
No deer where I live, but rabbits galore. I always had good results planting lots of MARIGOLDS around and among my vegetables (tomatoes, cucumbers, peppers mostly). I’m told that rabbits hate the smell of marigolds and will stay away unless they’re very hungry, i.e. there’s a drought. Also, the colorful marigolds attract more pollinating insects like bees. And they look pretty too.
No it wasn’t snow fencing. This was more chain link. Snow fencing until very recently has been the wood slated fence. Recently now they are using the orange plastic stuff that really makes the landscape look great, but it does help keep the drifts off the roads. I’ve give them credit though that they also are trying to promote farmers planting evergreens along roads in open areas and that looks much nicer. You have to be careful though or you’ll create a tunnel filled with snow.
Perhaps the deer can learn to push a button activating the flashing yellow lights when they wish to cross. Now comes my unbelievable observation. I stopped at a stop sign intending to make a right turn onto a 3 lane one way thoroughfare at about 10 PM. I was 100% sober and not sleep deprived. About 100 feet away was a non- intersection pedestrian crosswalk with streetlights on both ends. The light poles had buttons to activate traffic and pedestrian signals. A fairly large gray cat approached the crosswalk. jumped up and pushed the button with it’s front paws. I completed my turn as the traffic signal turned yellow then red and stopped. The cat waited for the walk signal then crossed directly in front of me in the middle of the cross walk! I have seen the video of a black cat jumping and hitting a wall switch turning a hall light on and off. This was far beyond that! Deer? Probably not.
I’m going to assume after thinking about it that you are still sticking to your story-of course no pictures. We always had cats as a kid and I found them pretty intelligent actually. We had one that would come in the porch and then rattle the door knob when she wanted to come in. There was no door bell at the back door or she might have used that. And don’t ever think cats are afraid of dogs-no way.