Technology. It surrounds us and plays a part in all aspects of our everyday lives. We depend upon it. And, at times, expect too much of it.
As in the case of an experimental wildlife detection system installed by the Colorado Department of Transportation along a mile of U.S. Highway 160 between Durango and Bayfield.
The system from Senstar Corp. was based on technology developed for perimeter security at airports, prisons and military bases. It is used to detect trespass in secure areas.
Cables buried on each side of the highway, sensitive to electromagnetic fields, were designed to detect the passage of large animals, such as deer and elk, and trigger a series of warning signs to alert drivers that wildlife might be crossing the road.
It was a promising adaptation of technology. Such systems have proven effective in detecting humans, but in the case of animals, not so much. The difference? Terrorists, saboteurs and escaped prisoners don’t pause for a snack on the way. True, it wasn’t the larger animals who sabotaged the system, but the smaller ones.
Burrowers, invited by the soft sand that covered the buried cables, dug in and chewed on the wires. So much for a $1 million demonstration of technology.
Unfortunately, the experiment failed a second test as well. CDOT tracked the system during the times it was working and was chagrined to find that drivers ignored the flashing “Wildlife Detected” signs. Despite the danger, they did not slow down.
We applaud CDOT’s decision to ditch the detection technology and instead build more wildlife underpasses, as many as eight for large animals and 16 for smaller ones, along 20 miles of the highway east of Durango.
But we should all be more cognizant of the implications of the second failure. This is a crowded stretch of undivided highway, our major east-west corridor, and it is growing more so as the county population grows.
Commute hours provide a daily demonstration of speeding, impatience and drivers distracted by cellphones on U.S. 160.
CDOT can provide protection for wildlife, but at this rate, we are not sure it can protect us from ourselves.
