This, man! I see them EVERY F***ING WHERE! And not just a few. Dozens and dozens of them just in my neighborhood alone.
Like you just know people are either slamming them or putting them in their morning coffee on their way to work and tossing the evidence out the window. Which makes you wonder just how many functional alcoholics are there on the roads right now!? Scary thought.
That's one of the few beverage containers I saw on the roadside two years ago while the wife and I were in Iowa. Most regular size bottles and cans had a 10 cent recycling deposit. But you can buy airline bottles of liquor in a freaking gas station!
Not just roadkill, but litter everywhere. I'm not surprised cars don't understand how much general detritus ends up on the shoulder or bike lane but the amount of litter beside quiet country roads and even dirt roads in national parks is just boggling.
We have a protected multi use path along one of the highway bridges, a good 4-5feet concrete wall. Maybe taller. It catches most of the junk but enough still gets over the wall and in the winter after it snows and the plows throw everything over it. It is disgusting, the path is unusable till it gets swept multiple times. Plus the noise from the traffic, cars are just loud. That is without the straight piped trucks/shit boxes.
Out of sight, out of mind.
But not for me walking up the track or riding along. I've packed out a couple of kilos of rubbish, mostly beer cans, from a remote 4WD track, and even more from local roads on the outskirts of town. There are plenty who intentionally dump household or industrial waste as well, which is even more premeditated.
What I’ve noticed is the sheer amount of empty shooters, beer, and seltzer bottles on the side of the road. Every once in a while I’ll see a full sized bottle of things like fireball on the side of the road. It’s terrifying seeing how many empties are thrown out of cars which means there are a ton people drinking and driving near me.
Even if they're not naturally inclined to litter, there is a perverse incentive in the open container law, people figure it's better to toss an empty out the window than get pulled over and nicked for open container.
> empty shooters
I feel like these didn't used to exist and as soon as someone thought up the idea, it created a massive shit storm of those stupid little bottles everywhere.
Agreed. I love seeing the animals around but it makes me really sad when I see a dead one up close
The other day I saw a bunny at the one corner and hadn’t seen one in a while and it made my day and literally two days later there was a dead rabbit at that corner. Made me super upset
When our son was little, like 7 years old, we would all cycle together with the kid on a tag-along on the back of my husband’s bike. This was in a state park with lots of roadkill.
Some of the terrain was pretty hilly, and it was slow going up those hills pulling a kid.
My son, who is now 35, still talks about what a good look he got at the insides of the raccoons and deer and whatnot. I think it was a little traumatic.
I noticed that outside the car we can advocate for just about anything like equal human rights, better future/environment, animal rights/lives, education, active lifestyle, anticonsumption, reduce-reuse-recycle, etc. but none of them matters behind the wheel of a car.
Man on my ride yesterday I had a stretch of the road by the river and there were pieces of turtles all over the place. I would never have realized it was turtles if I were driving. I felt awful.
Loads of people who switch from road to gravel cite cars (and presumably dangerous driving) as the main reason. I wonder if they’ve noticed the kind of trash on the side of those roads. In my experience, it’s mostly alcohol trash.
So while they may encounter fewer cars, I bet percentage of buzzed or drunk drivers is much higher.
Yes I am fine, you’ll note that the previous commenter was talking about how it reminds them how vulnerable we are on the road with cars and I was echoing the sentiment.
I do find it sad to see dead animals on the road, but seeing many of the same animals as road kill is a good indication that the local population is doing well. It is used as an indicator of population size by wildlife researchers.
It bums me out, so I try not to think about it too much.
Worst part for me is knowing how easy it is to avoid killing critters on the roads I ride because I drive them too. Last time I hit an animal was a deer that jumped into the road at night.
Remember: its the wildlife you don't see that has actually been decimated by traffication. Roadkill is a small part of the environmental damage caused by traffication . Tyre and brake fluid particulate matter is a massive polluter, car noise (soundscape pollution) is also a big problem for birds with UK bird population diminished to very few species who can tolerate soundscape pollution. Invasive plants species also benefit a lot from traffication, the list just goes on and on. An excellent book on this: [https://www.britishwildlife.com/article/article-volume-35-number-3-page-232-233/](https://www.britishwildlife.com/article/article-volume-35-number-3-page-232-233/)
Exactly this. I am a birder and have read studies about how even on a hiking trail, the talking and such that comes with the general presence of humans leads to more nest failures, and birds just vacating the area generally. There are too many humans, everywhere.
At least on more remote gravel/forest road tracks I am happy to see fewer dead animals but hope my presence is not disruptive -- these are mostly logged over areas, so less wildlife already.
Oof. A huge sore spot for me. The worst is dead critters on mtb trails, I’ll endo before I allow myself to hit a chipmunk. The cars is so brutal because I’ll fully stop for anything crossing the road but you rarely see that courtesy extended by others
i live car free. I was riding yesterday and found probably 50-100 dead yellow jacket bees over ten miles. Motorists are unaware. I pondered on the sad irony that the cool hippy women who make their yards pollinator havens, also drive cars.
I moved to oregon many years ago, and would find lots of dead birds cycling along the mountain highways. (I have a spectacular feather collection). I don’t find ANY birds or feathers anymore.
I agree and feel the same.
Not to mention the insects, snails etc.
One step would be to incentivise other modes of transportation such as cycling where possible. Work towards slower roads and smaller cars.
100%. I hate (like everyone else in this sub) how the US has just prioritized cars for so long! I know in some parts of Canada they have wildlife bridges to help larger animals cross highways.
It’s my absolute least favorite part about cycling. Certain times of year one of my favorite routes is practically littered with smashed baby turtles! Ugh. (Though at least they don’t smell as bad as the bigger carrion… that’s a pretty toxic waft.)
I cant count the amount of wildlife that jumps in front of me, i havent hit any so far but i swear to gawd the bunny's are trying to end me. One morning i was doing a hard effort and had my head down...almost hit a full size mattress in the shoulder
Haha as I was pondering the amount of roadkill on my ride yesterday, a squirrel jumped out in front of me and very narrowly avoided my front wheel. Obviously bikers contribute to it as well but on a much much much smaller scale.
We have a wildlife fence along our corridor of a highway with tunnels for connectivity between parts of forests. Department of transportation said it reduced collisions by 90%. If your town/city ever talks about making one, make sure to submit a comment to support it.
Wow that’s great! I know a few parts of the state I live have turtle tunnels on certain roads but obviously that requires the turtles finding said tunnels.
Yes, roadkill, trash and metal parts are all over the road. Stuff you don't notice while in a vehicle. It's a trip.
It's sad that people have no consideration for the environment while behind the steering wheel.
Yes, it hurts my heart every time and I notice it a lot from both my car and bike. When driving on rural roads with low traffic, I happily go under the speed limit as it both feels more calm to me and gives critters a better chance to stay safe. It is also more tiring to constantly scan for animals while driving these roads, but that is what I do. I wish more people were mindful of this. Thank you for caring.
For some reason my brain often thinks about the failures of our system ( economic, social, political, etc) whenever I see roadkill . I see the cars rushing by….oblivious. The machine keeps grinding
Wait until you are riding on a country road with a truck following you, and as soon as a dog runs out to chase you, the truck takes that opportunity to pass, rolling over the dog and driving away while the dog flails in the road.
The other day i saw a raccoon on the trail sitting up but not doing well, on my way back it was dead and flies were around it and animal control was coming to get it but they had the wrong equipment. They thought it was still alive. But yea i see so many dead critters and like everyone else has said, trash. People dont realize how much trash is just everywhere and sorry to be a dick, but its definitely almost all homeless people trash
One of the most awful things I have ever seen was a road kill. Allow me to share. A possum had been hit and killed, but the baby had crawled out on top of the dead mother.
I live in se asia.
I do alot of urban riding to get out of the city to where it's nicer, and what blows me away is the fact see at least one dead bird on every ride. I have seen everything from budgies and parakeets to pigeons, and even larger birds.
That said I have also seen a bunch of motorcycle accidents and dead dogs.
> There really is only so much that you notice in a car.
It's even worse, some drivers go out of their way to do it [on purpose](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k-Fp7flAWMA).
snow mysterious dinosaurs deserve chief hat truck chunky deserted cheerful
*This post was mass deleted and anonymized with [Redact](https://redact.dev)*
I notice them more when I'm in a car compared to a bike. It could be that we have bike roads (Europe), and those are mostly on the road. I look out for them and try to avoid hitting them, but sometimes you can't do much and making a sudden correction, can cause a crash. At one point I had a rabbit running in front of my car for more than km, I didn't want to pass it as the movement was too random and could have jumped in front of my car if I did so.
This could happen on the bike too. I was biking after a rain and I saw like 20-30 snails on the road, I don't think I hit any of them, but it was pure luck, as most of the time I had little time to react.
I don't see roadkill often, but there's this one block close to home where I kept finding a black cat dead. It's always a black cat in the same spot on the grass, always with its head facing west and legs pointed south, and always clearly hit by a car. It's been going on for about a year.
What I've become more aware of than anything since I started bike commuting is how much glass is ask over the city. Broken shards litter every square inch of every sidewalk it seems, and it's often at curbs, too. It's worst by the former Ball jar plant and student housing at the university.
We just had an Ironman race in our town and I went riding the day after. I have never seen so many empty GUs and Gels littered alongside the roadkill.
*Bonus: saw my first roadkill snake and it looked kinda cool, like I could keep it as taxidermy 🦴
It's a bit rude to refer to your fellow cyclists as "roadkill" /s
Seriously though I thought I was going to die the other day when I came around a corner on a descent only to be met with a big freshly dead kangaroo carcass in the middle of the corner. At least stop and drag the thing to the side of the road.
The dead chipmunks on my local trail have made me acutely more aware of how much roadkill bikes create daily.
/s kinda. I've never hit anything, but I see a corpse from time to time on my local trail. Those dang Chipmunks and Squirrels dart across the trail right in front of me all the time. It's especially bad in the fall. Still much safer to ride the trails....although I do worry about taking evasive action to avoid a critter and end up crashing.
biking through kansas you see TONS of dead frogs and turtles. And these roads criss cross the state in a grid pattern basically forever. I can reason away that you only see a small fraction of the actual wildlife as road kill, but its still incredibly sad to think that these animals have to live with one more anthropogenic problem.
Don't get me started on squirrels, I'm currently encouraging them to get out of the way by making pew-pew-pew sounds. At least the rabbits have the good sense to dive into the bushes.
Unfortunately automobiles are the only thing controlling the population of prey species around here because all the natural predators are no where to be found.
For many bicycling is a fun aerobic sport to participate in. For some the sport (it seems) is to find yet another reason to endlessly complain about cars.
At least this complaint is original. I haven't heard this take before.
>Anyone else struggle with this?
No. It's just roadkill, ignore it. Move on and enjoy whatever meat you're having for your next meal.
And stop looking for reasons to hate cars.
lol...you're griping about how much roadkill cars create as though the problem was the cars and not you not being able to handle seeing a dead animal in the road and getting over it. You're not the only one who notices it but other people just get over it because dead things in nature are normal. If this is something you "struggle" with and need to commiserate with other people over, it's better to know now than later that the problem is your fear and you should get over it.
>You can not hate cars but also acknowledge the danger they pose both to bikers, animals and pedestrians alike. What do you lose by acknowledging this?
This is a non-sequitor. Of course you should acknowledge the potential danger a car can form. That's why you pay attention on the road, follow the rules of the road, wear a helmet, etc. That's not what your original complaint is.
You were complaining that roadkill bothers you. Here's the deal: cars hit animals because cars are going fast on roads and animals tend to not always follow basic pedestrian safety. That doesn't mean that cars are uniquely dangerous, it just means that cars were designed to use roads that must be built on land where humans travel across which happens to be the same land all the rest of the animals around them use. That's really all there is to it.
EDIT: Well, you blocked me so I'll have to respond in my comment here. You're cultivating a freakish sensitivity to normal things that isn't based on anything rational. If you're perfectly willing to eat cooked dead meat, it stands to reason you'd be ok, or at least not be stressed out about, with the sight of uncooked dead meat on the road. If you don't want to fix your problem that's fine but then you're also using it to justify complaining about cars, which is foolish. I know you don't care but, like, how many bugs do you think you've crushed under the tires of your bike? It's the same thing but you're only focused on the car aspect of roadkill, which implies that this problem you're having is *special*.
I hope you learn to get better. Have a good one.
EDIT 2: u/not_the_cabbages, responding here so I can reply.
>do you work for the auto lobby or something??
No, I just have common sense. You don't have to imagine a conspiracy to understand why someone has a different opinion of you. That's weird.
>I don’t think OP was at all saying this problem was special to her and clearly a LOT of people agree.
Like I said before, this is *not normal*. OP's post is complaining about cars hitting animals (a perfectly normal thing to see) and acting like it's some trauma inflicted to her by auto drivers. Then she wonders if others "struggle" with this stuff and makes a post like this. A few commentators agree with her because a lot of folks circlejerk in this sub about finding every possible excuse to hate on cars. Most people (i.e. people who don't visit this sub) don't think much about roadkill when they see it. *Most* people tend to move on pretty quickly. That is fairly normal.
>Cars ARE dangerous
A bike can be dangerous too if you race one downhill and plow into playground full of kids. The truth of the matter is that cars are fine. If a driver is an idiot, or impaired, then them operating one could be different, but what's dangerous is not the object (the car) but the action (reckless driving).
This is just another example of a irrational hatred towards cars. I like bicycling, but stuff like this gives cyclists a bad name.
>Both of your comments were very condescending for no reason.
OP was the one on their high horse acting like she's better than every driver because she would never hit an animal on the road with her bike, unlike those "others" with their dangerous cars. How could they be so reckless with their *vehicles*.
Meanwhile she employs absolutely no concern - despite it being infinitely worse - towards the factory farms that supply her with meat for her diet. So the complaint isn't really about dead animals, is it? It's just another excuse to hate on cars. I personally find it irritating that many people think of cyclists as a subgroup of people who are monolithic in their beliefs that cars are the enemy. It's dumb and takes away a lot of fun of the sport.
I sincerely believe that OP would enjoy riding her bike more if she stopped trying to psychologically deal with the daily loss of vermin on the road and just learn to accept it and move on.
EDIT 3: /u/not_the_cabbages
>You didn’t “disagree with her opinion” you told her she has mental health problems for expressing a fairly normal point of view.
I did not. You inferred that because you're not reading carefully. She asked all of us if we shared her resentment of others for what amounts to be a very normal thing to encounter in literally everyday life and I told her she's being ridiculous and to stop being so.
I've already gone over why it's not a normal point of view, but I'm happy to break it down in supremely basic terms one more time. You see, cars are a normal thing everywhere you go in this country. Animals are a normal thing everywhere too. Animals routinely go wherever they want if it suits them regardless of whether a car may hit them or not. Thus dead animals on roads is a *common* thing to see if you're traveling on said roads daily. Now, 99.9% of people will see that dead animal and not make a post to bitch about who's responsible. They just move on, all of them. 99.9%. Moving on from the sight of roadkill is normal, making a complainy post on Reddit isn't. It's being special.
Like I said before, this is a unique complaint against cars from a cyclist that I've personally never heard before and I've heard from a lot terminally-angry bicyclists (mostly on this sub) who think a part of their hobby is to never stop complaining about cars. Not every bicyclist is like that, but the ones who are make the rest look bad by association. I'd like fewer of those people and more who actually enjoy bicycling for the health effects and the joy it brings them, not the bitterness and resentment of others. I think it would be better for them and for everyone.
If a fellow cyclist really, genuinely can't get over that dead rabbit that she saw, you tell them that that is a part of life, that they will definitely be seeing things like that again, and to get over it or stay home. If you want to know what real empathy is, that is what it is.
>I don’t know why I tried to reason with you
...Um, what? Dude, I responded to a non-vegan bicyclist ranting against cars because *they* can't handle the sight of roadkill with a complaint of my own and a demand they get over it, and that prompted you to ask me if I work for the auto lobby. I don't believe you were ever interested in a good-faith discussion. You can have the last word, I'm out.
Dude this is such a weird take, do you work for the auto lobby or something?? You clearly haven’t read any of the other responses to this post. I don’t think OP was at all saying this problem was special to her and clearly a LOT of people agree. Cars ARE dangerous, it’s okay to admit that and it’s also okay for someone to be bothered by dead animals. Both of your comments were very condescending for no reason.
I don’t know why I tried to reason with you, normal people don’t spend their time putting other people down on the internet as you did here. You didn’t “disagree with her opinion” you told her she has mental health problems for expressing a fairly normal point of view. In the future I hope you learn some empathy.
I wish I had $1 for everything single serving fireball shot bottle I see while cycling.
Oh you must be riding on my fathers street
And vape cartridges
If that so you could buy enough Fireball to open my own distillery and still have change for a new bike lol
For me it's Twisted Tea cans.
This, man! I see them EVERY F***ING WHERE! And not just a few. Dozens and dozens of them just in my neighborhood alone. Like you just know people are either slamming them or putting them in their morning coffee on their way to work and tossing the evidence out the window. Which makes you wonder just how many functional alcoholics are there on the roads right now!? Scary thought.
That's one of the few beverage containers I saw on the roadside two years ago while the wife and I were in Iowa. Most regular size bottles and cans had a 10 cent recycling deposit. But you can buy airline bottles of liquor in a freaking gas station!
Just FYI, that isn't real Fireball whisky. Those single serving shots are much lower alcohol content malt liquor flavored to taste like Fireball.
disgusting
If open containers weren’t illegal it wouldn’t happen
Not just roadkill, but litter everywhere. I'm not surprised cars don't understand how much general detritus ends up on the shoulder or bike lane but the amount of litter beside quiet country roads and even dirt roads in national parks is just boggling.
We have a protected multi use path along one of the highway bridges, a good 4-5feet concrete wall. Maybe taller. It catches most of the junk but enough still gets over the wall and in the winter after it snows and the plows throw everything over it. It is disgusting, the path is unusable till it gets swept multiple times. Plus the noise from the traffic, cars are just loud. That is without the straight piped trucks/shit boxes.
It's really a shame that some people either don't know the impact of what they're doing or just choose to ignore it altogether.
Out of sight, out of mind. But not for me walking up the track or riding along. I've packed out a couple of kilos of rubbish, mostly beer cans, from a remote 4WD track, and even more from local roads on the outskirts of town. There are plenty who intentionally dump household or industrial waste as well, which is even more premeditated.
Don't know if it's just German but I rarely see litter if at all. The main problem here is probably cigarette stumps.
I like that you call them stumps. We call them butts in merica
What I’ve noticed is the sheer amount of empty shooters, beer, and seltzer bottles on the side of the road. Every once in a while I’ll see a full sized bottle of things like fireball on the side of the road. It’s terrifying seeing how many empties are thrown out of cars which means there are a ton people drinking and driving near me.
It also makes you wonder what kind of trash human beings consider the side of the road as their personal garbage can
The kind that drink fireball while driving.
Teenagers
they continue it well into adulthood
Even if they're not naturally inclined to litter, there is a perverse incentive in the open container law, people figure it's better to toss an empty out the window than get pulled over and nicked for open container.
wait, its illegal to have empty alcohol containers in your car?
In the US it is. IDK about elsewhere.
> empty shooters I feel like these didn't used to exist and as soon as someone thought up the idea, it created a massive shit storm of those stupid little bottles everywhere.
They are everywhere. I also see them littered around ski resorts.
Agreed. I love seeing the animals around but it makes me really sad when I see a dead one up close The other day I saw a bunny at the one corner and hadn’t seen one in a while and it made my day and literally two days later there was a dead rabbit at that corner. Made me super upset
I actually rarely see bunnies on the road which is funny because we have SO many where I live. Maybe they are just quicker than the rest 🤷♀️
Sunday my mom and I saw an opossum with its babies all dead :( she’s vegan so she started crying.
Yep, I see dead animals all over, every single ride. And the *countless* amounts of trash they just hurl out the window.
When our son was little, like 7 years old, we would all cycle together with the kid on a tag-along on the back of my husband’s bike. This was in a state park with lots of roadkill. Some of the terrain was pretty hilly, and it was slow going up those hills pulling a kid. My son, who is now 35, still talks about what a good look he got at the insides of the raccoons and deer and whatnot. I think it was a little traumatic.
I noticed that outside the car we can advocate for just about anything like equal human rights, better future/environment, animal rights/lives, education, active lifestyle, anticonsumption, reduce-reuse-recycle, etc. but none of them matters behind the wheel of a car.
Yeah I saw at least 2 smashed hawks on the road today. I hate it.
Man on my ride yesterday I had a stretch of the road by the river and there were pieces of turtles all over the place. I would never have realized it was turtles if I were driving. I felt awful.
The turtles I saw today were VERY upsetting. I thought I was looking at a smashed watermelon as I approached the first one 😭😭
Loads of people who switch from road to gravel cite cars (and presumably dangerous driving) as the main reason. I wonder if they’ve noticed the kind of trash on the side of those roads. In my experience, it’s mostly alcohol trash. So while they may encounter fewer cars, I bet percentage of buzzed or drunk drivers is much higher.
That makes me sad too. It also reminds me of my own vulnerability on the road
Yes! Every time I see one I just think “huh that could be me”
Are you ok? Like mentally? This is not a thought that normal people have when they see a dead animal in the road.
Yes I am fine, you’ll note that the previous commenter was talking about how it reminds them how vulnerable we are on the road with cars and I was echoing the sentiment.
I do find it sad to see dead animals on the road, but seeing many of the same animals as road kill is a good indication that the local population is doing well. It is used as an indicator of population size by wildlife researchers.
Well I guess that is a positive spin :/
This looks like a response from a politician.
Also, something is going to eat them. A busy road is basically a buffet for scavengers
It bums me out, so I try not to think about it too much. Worst part for me is knowing how easy it is to avoid killing critters on the roads I ride because I drive them too. Last time I hit an animal was a deer that jumped into the road at night.
Also how little the city cares about clearing bike lanes from debris.
Remember: its the wildlife you don't see that has actually been decimated by traffication. Roadkill is a small part of the environmental damage caused by traffication . Tyre and brake fluid particulate matter is a massive polluter, car noise (soundscape pollution) is also a big problem for birds with UK bird population diminished to very few species who can tolerate soundscape pollution. Invasive plants species also benefit a lot from traffication, the list just goes on and on. An excellent book on this: [https://www.britishwildlife.com/article/article-volume-35-number-3-page-232-233/](https://www.britishwildlife.com/article/article-volume-35-number-3-page-232-233/)
Exactly this. I am a birder and have read studies about how even on a hiking trail, the talking and such that comes with the general presence of humans leads to more nest failures, and birds just vacating the area generally. There are too many humans, everywhere. At least on more remote gravel/forest road tracks I am happy to see fewer dead animals but hope my presence is not disruptive -- these are mostly logged over areas, so less wildlife already.
Can confirm. SW lower Michigan is roadkill heaven - or hell depending on perspective
Oof. A huge sore spot for me. The worst is dead critters on mtb trails, I’ll endo before I allow myself to hit a chipmunk. The cars is so brutal because I’ll fully stop for anything crossing the road but you rarely see that courtesy extended by others
i live car free. I was riding yesterday and found probably 50-100 dead yellow jacket bees over ten miles. Motorists are unaware. I pondered on the sad irony that the cool hippy women who make their yards pollinator havens, also drive cars. I moved to oregon many years ago, and would find lots of dead birds cycling along the mountain highways. (I have a spectacular feather collection). I don’t find ANY birds or feathers anymore.
I agree and feel the same. Not to mention the insects, snails etc. One step would be to incentivise other modes of transportation such as cycling where possible. Work towards slower roads and smaller cars.
100%. I hate (like everyone else in this sub) how the US has just prioritized cars for so long! I know in some parts of Canada they have wildlife bridges to help larger animals cross highways.
[Washington too.](https://conservationnw.org/our-work/habitat/i-90/)
The amount of flies on your legs / torso (especially with sunscreen) when only riding a slow speed on a bike with small area shows you a lot
I can honestly say I’ve never had this experience and I hope I never do!
Really? Lol that always happens when you are somewhat close to water or forests
It’s my absolute least favorite part about cycling. Certain times of year one of my favorite routes is practically littered with smashed baby turtles! Ugh. (Though at least they don’t smell as bad as the bigger carrion… that’s a pretty toxic waft.)
Yep it shows how cars are killing machines, it must be a factor in the declining population of everything from insects to deer.
Daily commute is along a trucking route into the city… the number of plastic pee bottles is just disheartening.
Right why can't they just pee out the window?
I cant count the amount of wildlife that jumps in front of me, i havent hit any so far but i swear to gawd the bunny's are trying to end me. One morning i was doing a hard effort and had my head down...almost hit a full size mattress in the shoulder
Haha as I was pondering the amount of roadkill on my ride yesterday, a squirrel jumped out in front of me and very narrowly avoided my front wheel. Obviously bikers contribute to it as well but on a much much much smaller scale.
I have added a 'roadkill' album to my photos. It is a grizzly, heartbreaking documentation. (spelling)
We have a wildlife fence along our corridor of a highway with tunnels for connectivity between parts of forests. Department of transportation said it reduced collisions by 90%. If your town/city ever talks about making one, make sure to submit a comment to support it.
Wow that’s great! I know a few parts of the state I live have turtle tunnels on certain roads but obviously that requires the turtles finding said tunnels.
THIS
Yes, roadkill, trash and metal parts are all over the road. Stuff you don't notice while in a vehicle. It's a trip. It's sad that people have no consideration for the environment while behind the steering wheel.
Yes, it hurts my heart every time and I notice it a lot from both my car and bike. When driving on rural roads with low traffic, I happily go under the speed limit as it both feels more calm to me and gives critters a better chance to stay safe. It is also more tiring to constantly scan for animals while driving these roads, but that is what I do. I wish more people were mindful of this. Thank you for caring.
For some reason my brain often thinks about the failures of our system ( economic, social, political, etc) whenever I see roadkill . I see the cars rushing by….oblivious. The machine keeps grinding
“When you’re driving you get the snapshot when you’re cycling you get the movie.” Grant Petersen
Wait until you are riding on a country road with a truck following you, and as soon as a dog runs out to chase you, the truck takes that opportunity to pass, rolling over the dog and driving away while the dog flails in the road.
You underestimate how many chipmunks have committed suicide under my bike tires
The bike trail near me had an usual amount of half-squirrel tail puffs littered around. And the occasional bisected snake
The other day i saw a raccoon on the trail sitting up but not doing well, on my way back it was dead and flies were around it and animal control was coming to get it but they had the wrong equipment. They thought it was still alive. But yea i see so many dead critters and like everyone else has said, trash. People dont realize how much trash is just everywhere and sorry to be a dick, but its definitely almost all homeless people trash
One of the most awful things I have ever seen was a road kill. Allow me to share. A possum had been hit and killed, but the baby had crawled out on top of the dead mother.
I live in se asia. I do alot of urban riding to get out of the city to where it's nicer, and what blows me away is the fact see at least one dead bird on every ride. I have seen everything from budgies and parakeets to pigeons, and even larger birds. That said I have also seen a bunch of motorcycle accidents and dead dogs.
> There really is only so much that you notice in a car. It's even worse, some drivers go out of their way to do it [on purpose](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k-Fp7flAWMA).
snow mysterious dinosaurs deserve chief hat truck chunky deserted cheerful *This post was mass deleted and anonymized with [Redact](https://redact.dev)*
Think only of the poor snakes caught up in (and more than likely shredded by) Sapim
I notice them more when I'm in a car compared to a bike. It could be that we have bike roads (Europe), and those are mostly on the road. I look out for them and try to avoid hitting them, but sometimes you can't do much and making a sudden correction, can cause a crash. At one point I had a rabbit running in front of my car for more than km, I didn't want to pass it as the movement was too random and could have jumped in front of my car if I did so. This could happen on the bike too. I was biking after a rain and I saw like 20-30 snails on the road, I don't think I hit any of them, but it was pure luck, as most of the time I had little time to react.
Humans... Everyday I pray to the Asteroid God but he never shows up. Maybe because I'm not religious... But I keep praying.
I don't see roadkill often, but there's this one block close to home where I kept finding a black cat dead. It's always a black cat in the same spot on the grass, always with its head facing west and legs pointed south, and always clearly hit by a car. It's been going on for about a year. What I've become more aware of than anything since I started bike commuting is how much glass is ask over the city. Broken shards litter every square inch of every sidewalk it seems, and it's often at curbs, too. It's worst by the former Ball jar plant and student housing at the university.
Needless death and cars are kinda a thing 😔
We just had an Ironman race in our town and I went riding the day after. I have never seen so many empty GUs and Gels littered alongside the roadkill. *Bonus: saw my first roadkill snake and it looked kinda cool, like I could keep it as taxidermy 🦴
That’s terrible! It should be on the race directors to clean that up
It's a bit rude to refer to your fellow cyclists as "roadkill" /s Seriously though I thought I was going to die the other day when I came around a corner on a descent only to be met with a big freshly dead kangaroo carcass in the middle of the corner. At least stop and drag the thing to the side of the road.
The dead chipmunks on my local trail have made me acutely more aware of how much roadkill bikes create daily. /s kinda. I've never hit anything, but I see a corpse from time to time on my local trail. Those dang Chipmunks and Squirrels dart across the trail right in front of me all the time. It's especially bad in the fall. Still much safer to ride the trails....although I do worry about taking evasive action to avoid a critter and end up crashing.
biking through kansas you see TONS of dead frogs and turtles. And these roads criss cross the state in a grid pattern basically forever. I can reason away that you only see a small fraction of the actual wildlife as road kill, but its still incredibly sad to think that these animals have to live with one more anthropogenic problem.
"Oh no, Mr. Squirrel!"
Don't get me started on squirrels, I'm currently encouraging them to get out of the way by making pew-pew-pew sounds. At least the rabbits have the good sense to dive into the bushes.
Next step is a BB gun mounted to your bars, right? Don't aim to hit, just scare em a bit.
Unfortunately automobiles are the only thing controlling the population of prey species around here because all the natural predators are no where to be found.
Bike people are in the right but they’re also fucking dumb for not accepting that the death machines are not going away. Bike paths or nada.
For many bicycling is a fun aerobic sport to participate in. For some the sport (it seems) is to find yet another reason to endlessly complain about cars. At least this complaint is original. I haven't heard this take before. >Anyone else struggle with this? No. It's just roadkill, ignore it. Move on and enjoy whatever meat you're having for your next meal. And stop looking for reasons to hate cars.
You can not hate cars but also acknowledge the danger they pose both to bikers, animals and pedestrians alike. What do you lose by acknowledging this?
lol...you're griping about how much roadkill cars create as though the problem was the cars and not you not being able to handle seeing a dead animal in the road and getting over it. You're not the only one who notices it but other people just get over it because dead things in nature are normal. If this is something you "struggle" with and need to commiserate with other people over, it's better to know now than later that the problem is your fear and you should get over it. >You can not hate cars but also acknowledge the danger they pose both to bikers, animals and pedestrians alike. What do you lose by acknowledging this? This is a non-sequitor. Of course you should acknowledge the potential danger a car can form. That's why you pay attention on the road, follow the rules of the road, wear a helmet, etc. That's not what your original complaint is. You were complaining that roadkill bothers you. Here's the deal: cars hit animals because cars are going fast on roads and animals tend to not always follow basic pedestrian safety. That doesn't mean that cars are uniquely dangerous, it just means that cars were designed to use roads that must be built on land where humans travel across which happens to be the same land all the rest of the animals around them use. That's really all there is to it. EDIT: Well, you blocked me so I'll have to respond in my comment here. You're cultivating a freakish sensitivity to normal things that isn't based on anything rational. If you're perfectly willing to eat cooked dead meat, it stands to reason you'd be ok, or at least not be stressed out about, with the sight of uncooked dead meat on the road. If you don't want to fix your problem that's fine but then you're also using it to justify complaining about cars, which is foolish. I know you don't care but, like, how many bugs do you think you've crushed under the tires of your bike? It's the same thing but you're only focused on the car aspect of roadkill, which implies that this problem you're having is *special*. I hope you learn to get better. Have a good one. EDIT 2: u/not_the_cabbages, responding here so I can reply. >do you work for the auto lobby or something?? No, I just have common sense. You don't have to imagine a conspiracy to understand why someone has a different opinion of you. That's weird. >I don’t think OP was at all saying this problem was special to her and clearly a LOT of people agree. Like I said before, this is *not normal*. OP's post is complaining about cars hitting animals (a perfectly normal thing to see) and acting like it's some trauma inflicted to her by auto drivers. Then she wonders if others "struggle" with this stuff and makes a post like this. A few commentators agree with her because a lot of folks circlejerk in this sub about finding every possible excuse to hate on cars. Most people (i.e. people who don't visit this sub) don't think much about roadkill when they see it. *Most* people tend to move on pretty quickly. That is fairly normal. >Cars ARE dangerous A bike can be dangerous too if you race one downhill and plow into playground full of kids. The truth of the matter is that cars are fine. If a driver is an idiot, or impaired, then them operating one could be different, but what's dangerous is not the object (the car) but the action (reckless driving). This is just another example of a irrational hatred towards cars. I like bicycling, but stuff like this gives cyclists a bad name. >Both of your comments were very condescending for no reason. OP was the one on their high horse acting like she's better than every driver because she would never hit an animal on the road with her bike, unlike those "others" with their dangerous cars. How could they be so reckless with their *vehicles*. Meanwhile she employs absolutely no concern - despite it being infinitely worse - towards the factory farms that supply her with meat for her diet. So the complaint isn't really about dead animals, is it? It's just another excuse to hate on cars. I personally find it irritating that many people think of cyclists as a subgroup of people who are monolithic in their beliefs that cars are the enemy. It's dumb and takes away a lot of fun of the sport. I sincerely believe that OP would enjoy riding her bike more if she stopped trying to psychologically deal with the daily loss of vermin on the road and just learn to accept it and move on. EDIT 3: /u/not_the_cabbages >You didn’t “disagree with her opinion” you told her she has mental health problems for expressing a fairly normal point of view. I did not. You inferred that because you're not reading carefully. She asked all of us if we shared her resentment of others for what amounts to be a very normal thing to encounter in literally everyday life and I told her she's being ridiculous and to stop being so. I've already gone over why it's not a normal point of view, but I'm happy to break it down in supremely basic terms one more time. You see, cars are a normal thing everywhere you go in this country. Animals are a normal thing everywhere too. Animals routinely go wherever they want if it suits them regardless of whether a car may hit them or not. Thus dead animals on roads is a *common* thing to see if you're traveling on said roads daily. Now, 99.9% of people will see that dead animal and not make a post to bitch about who's responsible. They just move on, all of them. 99.9%. Moving on from the sight of roadkill is normal, making a complainy post on Reddit isn't. It's being special. Like I said before, this is a unique complaint against cars from a cyclist that I've personally never heard before and I've heard from a lot terminally-angry bicyclists (mostly on this sub) who think a part of their hobby is to never stop complaining about cars. Not every bicyclist is like that, but the ones who are make the rest look bad by association. I'd like fewer of those people and more who actually enjoy bicycling for the health effects and the joy it brings them, not the bitterness and resentment of others. I think it would be better for them and for everyone. If a fellow cyclist really, genuinely can't get over that dead rabbit that she saw, you tell them that that is a part of life, that they will definitely be seeing things like that again, and to get over it or stay home. If you want to know what real empathy is, that is what it is. >I don’t know why I tried to reason with you ...Um, what? Dude, I responded to a non-vegan bicyclist ranting against cars because *they* can't handle the sight of roadkill with a complaint of my own and a demand they get over it, and that prompted you to ask me if I work for the auto lobby. I don't believe you were ever interested in a good-faith discussion. You can have the last word, I'm out.
Trying to make me out to be mentally ill just because I have empathy for animal lives? You must be fun at parties
Dude this is such a weird take, do you work for the auto lobby or something?? You clearly haven’t read any of the other responses to this post. I don’t think OP was at all saying this problem was special to her and clearly a LOT of people agree. Cars ARE dangerous, it’s okay to admit that and it’s also okay for someone to be bothered by dead animals. Both of your comments were very condescending for no reason.
I don’t know why I tried to reason with you, normal people don’t spend their time putting other people down on the internet as you did here. You didn’t “disagree with her opinion” you told her she has mental health problems for expressing a fairly normal point of view. In the future I hope you learn some empathy.