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by melling 2444 days ago
Los Angeles is going to build a wildlife overpass:

https://www.cbsnews.com/news/worlds-largest-highway-overpass...

Pedestrians and nature need to be given a higher priority.

4 comments

We have multiple of these here in Belgium and the Netherlands. Even between countries.

https://www.thebulletin.be/first-wildlife-bridge-over-brusse...

https://www.thebulletin.be/wildlife-crossing-flemish-brabant...

I talked to a biologist a while ago who told me that there are species that are so averse to move through 'different' environments that a single lane street through a field can effectively cut the habitat into two different habitats with individuals on both sides never interacting/crossing the street again. That's pretty sad and a way larger effect of land use than I had ever imagined.
The Netherlands is also well known for their ecopassages over highways (also known as ecoducts), according to Wikipedia there are 66 eco passages in the Netherlands as of 2015 [0]. There are some nice pictures of them in the wiki article as well.

[0] https://nl.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ecopassage

One of those ecoducts [0] has a millitary shooting range on one side, which I always found quite funny. It is of-course quite safe since shooting exercises are rare. (Ignoring the fact that for some time, our soldiers would practice by shouting 'pang pang' ('bang bang' translated) [1] because ammo was too expensive)

[0] https://www.google.com/maps/@52.1051185,5.3619931,3a,75y,296...

[1] https://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/europe/dutch-soldie...

More remarkable than ecopassages are the underpasses built specifically for canals or major rivers. There are a few of these on the way from Den Haag to Utrecht that are pretty mind-boggling. It's also interesting to see cargo shipping going OVER the highway.
It was very noticeable to me in Dutch cities that there is wildlife.
We have one over I-90 in Washington! I think I heard they're building another one as well. Apparently they have them in Banff in Canada as well.

https://www.seattletimes.com/seattle-news/its-a-long-time-co...

https://www.nationalgeographic.com/animals/2019/04/wildlife-...