I have only been commuting since March, closing in on the 1 year mark! Anyway, how common is roadkill on the side of the road/trail? I got my first taste of it yesterday, and today was even worse. In DC up by the airport there is ... uh... something decomposing on the side of the trail. You smell it coming, and going. And as it gets warmer and the snow melts, well...... I pass by this point everyday, and while this is better than the tacks the smell is god awful! Anybody else deal with this sort of thing? Is it as common as I think?

I see dead squirrels from time to time. They are rarely there longer than a day.
Isn't there someone who is supposed to clean this up?

Yeah, I emailed the park service. Whatever this was it was fairly large, and I really wish it was the squirrel.

The buzzards are your friends. Just don't run over/into one while it is on the job.

Road kill disappears pretty quickly around here. I don't know if its the foxes and raccoons making off with the carcasses or if its somebody from the Department of Natural Resources. Obviously the DNR takes care of the big stuff like deer hit by cars.

Maybe the area is very urban and they aren't used to so much road kill? Anyway, we get lots of it but it disappears quickly.

Since Katrina, I have seen a dead rat, a dead dog and two squirrels. My dog picked up one of the latter in her mouth.

Over the years the worst I've seen (a couple of times) is dead deer. Seeing their gutted carcasses and exposed bones is a little unsettling. I've also *heard* a cat get smacked (sickening crunch + meow) and seen countless squirrels, racoons, birds, etc in various states of flattenedness.

I saw a dead jackrabbit on a bike trail. Not sure how it got there. Not sure if I want to know.

Dead On Road. Something new dead every day as half my commute is in farm/wetland country. Raccoons and possums every week, skunks every month or two, 15 to 20 deer a year. A fun roadkill case was when the city didn't remove a huge raccoon carcass from the bike lane for two days. The next morning on my pre-dawn commute I used medical gloves and tossed the body out into a traffic lane when no cars could be seen on the curvy road. Next AM the mess was gone. My worst was having a big nasty looking dog running toward me as I rode a narrow roadside path over a long bridge. If the dog had hit me or just knocked me off of the bike I would have fallen into heavy traffic. I stood on the pedals to look bigger and whistled loudly. The dog stopped at first then as I got close it jumped off of the path and under a truck. Loud crunch and the dog became dogburger about 3 feet from me as I sprinted past.

I see roadkill all the time, the rural roads I ride home on a littered with cat/ dog/ coyote/ possum/ snake corpses on a daily basis. I try to ignore them but there is usually something along the way. The other day it was someones freshly killed pet Chihuahua the other day. Usually the smaller ones don't bug me much (that one did, there were some young girls checking out the body and I think it was there pet) but every once in a while there is a big one that gets spread for 100' down the road.

The problem where I commute is lots of open space for the animals coupled with lots of traffic at high speed. If you are just experiencing this after a year of commuting I envy you, it's a daily thing for me.

I see about two every 10 miles or so...

whatever you do, keep your eyes open. i once accidently turned and slipped on a squirrel carcass. needless to say i saw the world from the squirrel's perspective. it was fresh or something -- oh it was truly sickening having pureed squirrel stuck to the back of your schoolbag. sick sick sickening oh man that was disgusting...

A good friend of mine that moved to Minneapolis from Fairbanks Alaska (for grad school) told me about his near experience with roadkill last fall. He was on his beat-up dumpster mountain bike he uses to get to and from campus and a squirrel ran out in front of him. He's not exactly skinny, and he didn't have time to react. Both tires bumped over the furry critter, and it immediately GOT UP and ran away. After that, he respected and feared the Minneapolis tree rats.

There are some truly sick people out there. Someone has taken the carcass and dragged it onto the bike trail itself!!! If I had a stronger stomach (or weaker nose) I might have moved it back, but that is truly disgusting. I have to admit, seems like I am lucky compared to some of you!

I commute through rural Michigan, going on 3 years now.

If you're bored, it can be a hobby to watch a newly-dead deer decompose down to skeleton over the course of a year or so.

The skunk that got whacked back in December on mile 6 of my commute finally stopped making skunk smell, now it's just rotting which I'm used to.

There are some interesting smells as the snow melts, but usually the carcasses have dehydrated a bit by then and it's not overpowering.

A deer that's about 3 weeks dead is the worst. Hasn't dried out yet, and the stench can be pretty bad out to 100 feet or so.

I rarely see anyone take care of roadkill. If some happens in front of my property I'll go out with a shovel and bury it, otherwise I'll be watching it for months.

Here in the city, they don't usually last long, maybe a day or two. Either the city or some homeowner cleans them up, I'm not sure (I've buried my share of squirrels). If you're out in a more rural area, and are feeling brave, try and toss it into the woods/fields nearby. It may help keep the smell down, plus you won't have to look at it every day. If it's something big, call whatever authorities responsible for such cleanup.

Or, take ItsJustMe's advice and observe the wonders of decomposition, haha

Last winter, a car flew past me, and then ran right over a squirrels head, killing it instantly. I bagged the squirrel, brought it home, and ate it for dinner.

Someone may have done this so that the city or park crew will see it and hopefully haul it away.

As far as seeing roadkill, I see dead stuff all the time. I live in an urban area, but there are lots of parks and greenbelts between home and work. Let's see, I've seen...
dogs
cats
tortoises/sliders
frogs/toads
coyote
snakes
skunk
racoon
armadillos
bobcat
vulture
squirrells
cow

Okay, the cow probably wasn't roadkill perse, but it was by the road and dead. I don't know how it got out of the fence, but it was gone by the time I rode home.

Yeah, what IS that thing? I saw it Monday on my snowy and icy commute, but it was not stinking yet. It's not a deer... maybe a big beaver? I had to look twice to make sure it wasn't a person.

I also see the usual suburban roadkill: squirrels, cats, 'possum, skunks (those are the worst, smell-wise). I once saw a couple of boys shoveling a small dog into a Krispy Kreme box. The dog was theirs as they were both crying. I found it ironic that although the dog was theirs, they didn't want to touch it once it was dead and used the box and shovel instead.

I think the worst was a news article I read in the paper earlier this year. I man riding his bike to work in the early morning darkness came upon a dead body. Someone was stabbed after an altercation and he had staggered out onto the driveway and collapsed in the gutter. Shudder...... Considering the time of day I commute and the amount of traffic, the chances of my finding a dead body are almost zero. Whew!

I've only seen the state animal of Texas - a dead armadillo... Almost ran over one on the side of the road this morning, as a matter of fact...

I avoid the smushed remains of a skunk every day. Run over multiple times, then only half way cleaned up... you can still make out the spine and some of the fur around it and its been 3-4 months like this. Yeeeuk. Saw a huge skunk upside down on the road this morning in the same area. And a dead bird, squished.

The only roadkill in Las Vegas is domestic animals (pets) and the occasional bird. Not really a problem on my commute.

Oh you wanna hear sick? The nastiest road-kill incident I've ever seen took place when I got curious enough to pedal to downtown L.A. to check out the local messengers 'games'. They held their obstacle course competition down in the L.A. river below the 6th street bridge. Anyway, there was a nasty, knarly, big, bloated, long dead possum which they decided to use as the turn around for this 'out and back' race.

Well one of the more deeply disturbed compeditors dismounted and snatched up the reeking carcass and proceeded to charge a few of the course judges. When his first attempts did not ilicit whatever response he intended he charged again - this time holding the decomposing vermin in his teeth!

Now I ask you, could I even make that up?

It was my first and last messenger competition.

DanO

That's an interesting observation. My favorite cat was killed on the road in front of my house a couple of years ago. When I came out there were a dozen or so people standing around. I walked up, looked, and said "Yes, that's my cat." I bent down and picked it up, holding it the same as if it were alive. People really looked shocked when I touched it at all. I wasn't in a mood to talk, I just turned and walked back to the house.

It wasn't bloody or even deformed, it was just dead. People have funny hangups.