Road Hazards in Michigan

Do you know what the most dangerous animal to mankind is in North America?

Forget your grizzly bears, your killers bees, your scorpions, your rattlesnakes.

It’s Bambi.

Yep.

According to reports, more people die by running their vehicles into white-tailed deer than by any other interaction with native fauna.

True, moose are bigger and heavier, and it’s even nastier if you run into one of those. As they say in Newfoundland, “Moose on your plate is better than moose on your car.”

(Yes, the brown stuff is moose stew. I won't show you the "before" picture...).

There just aren’t as many of them.

Central Michigan, where I happen to be this week, is particularly prone. Deer hunting season (no, not with cars) is such a big deal that the first day of that season is often a statutory holiday - nobody shows up for work anyway, so the companies figure they might as well just shut down.

General Motors, whose crash test lab is nearby, is the only car company I've ever seen which has a 'white-tailed deer' crash test. They suspend a canvas bag filled with - well, I don't really want to know what it's filled with; let's assume sawdust - at the height of an adult deer's body (I gather the deer's legs are pretty much irrelevant in a highway-speed crash) and run their cars into it, to see how they do.

As you can see from these signs, the authorities do try to warn motorists of the danger these creatures pose.

(The 'leaping deer' one must be a new sign; no bullet holes in it yet.)

The pixelboard sign alternates between this (“DON’T VEER FOR DEER”) and another message (“HI DEER CRASH AREA”).

Apologies for the Amurrican spelling...

(BTW, it was very difficult to get a clear photo of this sign. Sometimes, the letters didn’t show up at all when I pushed the button, other times some were legible, others very faded. Anybody know why? Maybe the individual bulbs/LEDs/whatever making up the letters are flickering and the shutter speed was too fast to capture them all? This, the best shot I could get, was actually taken from farther away with more telephoto - any hints there?)

Apparently, deer aren’t the only dangerous thing on Rochester streets. This sign is heading IN to town:

Comments

[lou]

Kenzie,

Is that deer meat and sorbet? To clean your palate?

Missing you in Hell - Michigan that is. :)

[Cliff S]

I don't know about the signs for sure, but many battery powered displays - like what we use at autoslaloms - will turn on and off the LED's very quickly (too quick for humans to see) to save on power - it gives them a longer run time before the batteries run out.

Your camera's shutter was likely faster then the frequency the LED's were on, a slower shutter speed should do the trick.

[jcf]

The bulbs do flicker - I seem to recall 10 times a second. If your camera shutter opens for less then 1/10 of a second, then it may not capture any light from the bulbs. When you use telephoto, the aperture is likely smaller, forcing a longer exposure time, and therefore giving you a better chance of seeing the bulbs light up.

[K Tran]

Regarding the LEDs, I think you're running into two different 'issues' here.

First, LEDs have more directional light beams versus the all around light cast by regular bulbs. If you're off-center, then they fade pretty fast (sort of LCD TVs). That's probably why it was easier to capture them all from farther away.

The second is that most high-power LEDs (like these are) are not really powered 'on' all the time in order to increase their longevity. Rather, they are power cycled on and off (technical term is Pulse Width Modulation) faster than the human eye can see - but of course, cameras can see the difference. You'll notice the same if you've ever tried to capture videos of vehicles with newer LED headlights/tail-lights (e.g. Audis).

hope that helps!

[Frank]

Don't veer for deer?

I have veered for deer many times and saved thousands of dollars in repair costs and possibly lives as a result (just imagine a deer crashing through the front windshield at 130 kph; Yeah, I shouldn't have been going that fast, but at least I lived to learn from my mistake).

[Jim Kenzie]

Hello Cliff, 'jcf' and 'K Tran':

That's probably it - thanks!

Jim Kenzie