Roads kill an estimated 1 million vertebrate animals per hour globally, making road mortality one of the largest sources of direct wildlife death and individual animal suffering caused by human infrastructure.
Road mortality causes acute suffering in animals struck by vehicles — often prolonged, as injured animals may lie suffering for hours before dying or being found. The scale is staggering: billions of individuals annually. But the welfare dimension extends beyond immediate mortality to the population-level effects of habitat fragmentation that reduce genetic diversity and behavioral flexibility, increasing the vulnerability of populations to other stressors. Wildlife crossing infrastructure has proven effective and generates cost savings through reduced vehicle damage and accident costs that offset construction investments. The barriers are awareness and political will, not technology or economics.