Road trial to help cassowaries cross roads safely

17/6/2016

Today MBC (Mission Beach Cassowaries Inc) attended a meeting held by Transport and Main Roads (TMR), which included representatives from Environment Heritage Protection (EHP), Terrain NRM, Mission Beach Police, Cassowary Coast Regional Council (CCRC), Mission Beach Community Association (MBCA), C4, the Tully Vet and other community interest groups and individuals to give local feedback on the design of planned signage and line marking to be placed at Carmoo.

The on site meeting was held at the notorious cassowary road death hotspot on the Carmoo turnoff corner where the deaths of over 20 cassowaries have been recorded as they attempted to cross the road to access their essential habitat.

Apart from some minor adjustments, all those present were pleased with the design and congratulated TMR for responding to a community call to address the unacceptable number of cassowaries being killed on Mission Beach roads.

The trial will include;

extra signage warning drivers of approaching, and being within a cassowary crossing zone,
four coloured pavement signs within the zone, and
a Vehicle Activated Sign (VAS) at either approach which will illuminate if drivers exceed the speed limit of 80kph.

Road pavement sign

New road sign

Vehicle Activated Sign

Regular commuters can become complacent while driving and the VAS's have been proven to help alert drivers of the speed limit.

The signage is expected to be installed by the end of August.

Thank you to TMR and to Terrain who initiated the workshop in September 2015 which culminated in the community working closely with the state government resulting in this positive action to help cassowaries cross our roads safely.

6 Comments

rebecca smith

17/6/2016 07:26:39 pm

Good start, but will there be sanctions for people exceeding 80 km/hr? Also, 80 km/hr is still too fast to avoid hitting animals that wander or run onto the road. 60 km/hr is a better speed for safety, and better still is 50 and 40 km/hr, which is why suburban streets are 50km/hr and school zones 40 km/hr.

Liz

18/6/2016 10:52:47 am

Thanks for your comment Rebecca. The obstacle for ideal road management to reduce cassowary deaths (i e lower speeds as in the Daintree) is that the State Main Roads department is in the business of building roads to allow traffic to travel between A and B as fast and as safe as possible. So they build roads wider and straighter. TMR have worked with the community over a long period of time to trial various traffic calming. The large signs, although a positive message to visitors to a our area showing we are a community that cares, are not effective in encouraging regular commuters to keep to the speed limit. Fencing to channel birds under the road has not worked. Cassowaries have still been hit and killed in the section where the white lines are on the road and road shoulders around Licuala National Park. The reduction of the speed to 60 with white lines either side of the cassowary crossing at Garrett Corridor (Mission Circle) appears to have been effective with traffic generally not travelling as fast along the straight road between Wongaling and Marc Park.
This is also a Main Roads initiative and is not being installed for speed enforcement. The trial is to find out how many people exceed the current speed limit.

Kate Reid

18/6/2016 01:23:06 am

I am used to a 40kph limit round schools at school open & close windows. Do the birds cross at particular time periods? Perhaps a much lower limit than 80kph could apply during those windows? Such a hard thing to change driving culture it's a great job that you are doing.

Liz

18/6/2016 11:04:27 am

Thanks Kate. The wheels of government turn very slowly. We are encouraged by this action and TMR willingness to help address the cassowary road death problem. I agree the ideal would be a much slower speed limit through well signed and identified known cassowary road death hotspots. There is a very comprehensive research report that makes recommendations for traffic management at all the hotspots with the main objective being to reduce the speed through those zones. Once regular commuters got used to where the crossing zones are, especially if they are alerted with Vehicle Activated signs, we may be well on the way to being a community that can coexist with cassowaries without increasing the threats to their survival.

Cary

18/6/2016 12:51:12 pm

Would local residents be responsible for cassowary injuries\fatalities?
Is there a statistic on this?

Liz

18/6/2016 01:49:45 pm

Thanks for your questions Cary. The reporting template is currently being reviewed by EHP to collect all important data so it can be used to help reduce cassowary road deaths. The information being collected to date has not included who is involved in cassowary road strikes.

It is known however that drivers who use a road regularly are most likely to become complacent to signage and speed limits.
Most of the cassowary deaths occur during the peak hours of work related traffic i e early morning and late afternoon.
Many of the deaths are not reported by the person/s involved in a cassowary strike.
Drivers involved in cassowary road strikes are not penalised but encouraged to report so more can be learnt about the contributing factors to the incident.
Tourists are much more likely to be travelling slowly in the hope of seeing a cassowary.

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Road trial to help cassowaries cross roads safely

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