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Citizen complaint of the day: Oh, deer
By adamg on Tue, 12/16/2014 - 8:18am
A concerned citizen asks the city to post a "Deer Crossing" sign on Dana Avenue just up from the Milton line:
Deer spotted twice in location.
The state has posted deer-crossing signs in Stony Brook Reservation and on Truman Parkway inbound just past Neponset Valley Parkway.
Neighborhoods:
Free tagging:
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Comments
Does the City have the bucks for the sign?
Or is Boston all out of doe?
Is that Moxie
or Shecky?
Cool, another sign for drivers to ignore
Fortunately (for karmic justice, if not for the deer), hitting one of them will have more serious real-world consequences for the driver than hitting some minor annoyance like a pedestrian.
Basic Driving 101
Deer are everywhere, as are geese, turkeys, and other large format wildlife that can mess up your car and ruin your day.
You don't need "deer" signs - you just need to be prepared and learn proper evasive maneuvers. Kind of like driving in snow - go to an empty parking lot and practice.
Realize as well that if there is one animal and it got across, there probably is a second (or more) ready to bound out just as you hit the accelerator.
That summer with Marlin Perkins
taught you a lot.
Unless you want to drive 15
Unless you want to drive 15 mph everywhere, it's useful to know where there's a large concentration of deer.
Okay then
The entire Boston area, and New England.
Hope you find that helpful.
Because groups of deer, geese,
turkeys, etc. are encountered by every driver every day, and are noted on every traffic report during rush hour. Not.
And by your logic, perhaps we shouldn't have crosswalks or crosswalk signs either.
How about this
Groups of deer, geese, turkeys, etc. are everywhere around us, not in any particular spots, and you should be ready for them to inconvenience you just about everywhere that you might drive in the area.
You don't get out much, do you? Even my neighborhood of 3-5,000 square foot lots has deer everywhere, despite the urban appearance. Guessing where they are going to be is a futile game of "waste the resources".
BTW, you might find crosswalks inconvenient to your acceleration habits, but they, unlike deer crossings, actually attract people to them to cross at particular points. Deer signs? Not only do they not recruit deer, but they would be inadequate.
In my 35+ years of
being a licensed driver, I've driven approximately 500,000 miles, a mix of daily commuting, for work reasons, and when traveling on vacation. About 60 percent of that is Interstate/freeway, about 25% of that is urban/local, and the remainder is true rural.
During all that time, I've encountered a total of three deer, four geese, and no turkeys (at least not the Thanksgiving meal kind) on the road. So, and with respect, your claim that drivers should routinely expect to encounter such animals, especially in the City of Boston, doesn't hold any water with me.
And I believe you totally missed my point about crosswalk signs. Encountering pedestrians is far more common than encountering any of the animals you mentioned. Yet, we provide signs warning drivers of their possible presence. And yes, I agree providing pedestrian warning signs is a good and necessary thing. Likewise, I don't see a problem in providing signs about a hazard that the average driver may have never encountered and, thus, should be made aware of.
For the record, I do not like the general overuse of traffic signs by local and state DOTs - it's actually one of many issues I must deal with in my job. In this case, however, I agree with the complainer. If there's a pattern of deer crossing the road within a particular area, it is entirely reasonable to post signs warning drivers of that potential hazard.
Because groups of deer, geese,
turkeys, etc. are encountered by every driver every day, and are noted on every traffic report during rush hour. Not.
And by your logic, perhaps we shouldn't have crosswalks or crosswalk signs either.
I have to agree somewhat with
I have to agree somewhat with anon. Yes, "deer are everywhere", but they've definitely got their preferences, and without local knowledge, you're likely to not know when you're approaching such a place.
Growing up in CT, we had a
Growing up in CT, we had a lot of deer on our wooded, curvy, narrow road. My mom called the town to find out about having a sign installed and was told they only put signs up when someone has actually hit a deer in the area. Don't know if the rule is the same around here, but that always seemed a bit backward to me!
Deer Crossing sign!
Terrible idea, if anything, a deer crossing sign should be in a more rural area. Why would you encourage deer to cross in such a high traffic area?
This comes to mind...
This comes to mind… https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9K3MoxlCaJ4