Turtle Crossing Signs
When many of us think about the first thing to help reduce turtles getting injured on roads we think warning road signs like wildlife crossing signs. There are many versions of these signs out there and questions around how do you get one installed? Do they even work? In this month’s blog post we will be discussing turtle crossing road signs and trying to answer these questions.
Let’s start with what might be considered the bigger question … do turtle crossing signs even work?
From my personal experience they work on me, when I see turtle crossing signs I perk up and pay attention to every bit of movement and garbage on the road to make sure I don’t hit a turtle and have the time and space to safely pull over and help it.
However, I understand I am not every driver. So, since we haven’t done the scientific work to figure this out I will quote a study by Seburn and McCurdy-Adams 2019:
“Although turtle warning signs may alert some drivers, they should not be considered a replacement for more effective road mitigation tools, such as wildlife fencing and crossing structures.”
Darn! Okay, let’s step back. Just because there isn’t much evidence that they reduce road kill doesn’t mean they aren’t having some important impact. Plus, the study by Seburn and McCurdy-Adams in 2019 was done on a busy 80 km/hr road and signage might work better on different types of roads - say with less traffic and slower speed limits.
What other factors might make a turtle crossing sign more effective?
You have to consider placement. The sign should be before the crossing area, but not too far before that drivers forget about the sign, so maybe 100-200 m before a crossing area.
You also have to consider size. Size will depend on the road and situation. Bigger signs in general might be more visible to drivers but may not be appropriate in all situations.
You have to consider sign design, aka what should it look like and say. Obviously it shouldn’t say ‘brake for turtles’ like our bumper stickers because you don’t want motorists to blindly break without thinking. Just mentioning there is a crossing with an image of a turtle is sufficient. We do have a soft spot for signs that also include a date range such as May-September.
You do have to consider timing. When talking with turtle experts we’ve been told that there is some evidence that drivers will ignore a sign if they never see a turtle on that road and thus the sign essentially stops existing for them (they stop noticing it). As such temporary signs may be more effective. Of course by temporary signage we don’t mean install the sign and then physically take it down at the end of every turtle season. No. The temporary aspect can be accomplished with flashing lights that only engage during the turtle season or even a flip down cover that is placed over the sign in the winter.
As mentioned by Seburn and McCurdy-Adams 2019, signage should not be considered a replacement for more effective mitigation measures like exclusion fencing.
Now, onto the next question. How do you get turtle crossing signs installed?
In order to have turtle crossing signs installed you have to work with the road owner. This is either the province (Ministry of Transportation - MTO) or your municipality. Most municipalities do not have a procedure for considering the installation of turtle crossing signs so it may be difficult to get their attention and action. In 2023 we worked with staff at the City of Kingston to create a procedure for considering the installation of turtle crossing signs. This procedure simplifies to two criteria that must be met for consideration:
The area is through, or adjacent to a natural heritage feature
With 5 separate dead on road species at risk observations within 2 years.
The procedure continues on to consider next steps after initial signage is installed and says:
Where existing signage has been implemented for more than 2 years, and 5 separate dead on road species at risk observations are made within 1 year, flashing lights may be considered.
It is after these two aspects that road mitigation will be considered as the next steps.
This is great for people who live in Kingston, but what about everyone else? Well, when you approach your municipality for installation of turtle crossing signs you can use this procedure as an example of what other municipalities do. Be sure to also have reports (anecdotal is fine but pictures and proof is better) of dead turtles seen on the road section in question.
If the turtle crossing area of concern happens to be on a provincially owned road such as a highway, getting crossing signs installed is going to be harder. It has been decided at the MTO level that un-necessary signage such as wildlife crossing signs are not installed on provincially owned roads unless there is a shown hazard to drivers. What wildlife is a hazard to drivers? Well, the bigger ones like moose and deer. Running over a turtle isn’t considered a hazard to humans, while a car swerving to avoid a turtle is considered to be a hazard that could cause a head-on collision. However, there is a MTO policy they follow to consider signs in situations when threatened or endangered species are at risk:
Location must be verified to support the presence of a regulated species at risk protected under the Endangered Species Act as Endangered or Threatened
Location must be identified as a mortality hotspot where wildlife lives adjacent to the right of way and habitually crosses the road, as established through monitoring and field investigations.
All Ontario turtles may be species at risk, however they are not all listed as threatened or endangered. In the Kingston area it is the Blanding’s turtle that is threatened and our other species are special concern so wouldn’t qualify.
We understand and completely agree that human safety should be first. That is why we never suggest you help a turtle if it will put you or other people at risk! So, in our recent conversation with someone at MTO we asked if they are then more willing and able to go straight to installing exclusion fencing. Of course the answer is yes and no. They will install fencing but it is typically done more as an addition to already scheduled major road work.
So, what is the take home message? Turtle crossing signs can be a first step in a multi-step process to reduce turtle road mortality. It is often an easier step to get municipalities on board with than exclusion fencing, but crossing signs should not be a replacement for complete road mitigation strategies which are proven to reduce road mortality.
References:
Seburn, D.C. and McCurdy-Adams H. 2019. Do turtle waring signs reduce roadkill? Canadian Feild-Naturalist. 133(3):216-220. https://doi.org/10.22621/cfn.v133i3.2279