Armed with an SUV: The Rober Experiment

Gizmodo has an interesting and troubling article from Jesus Diaz, reporting on a recent study by Mark Rober from NASA. Rober put rubber alternating rubber animals – a turtle, a snake and a tarantula – on the shoulder of a road. Out of the traffic lane, mind you; on the shoulder. And kept track of what passing drivers did.

6% – Six Percent! – of the drivers swerved out of their lanes, onto the shoulder, to run over the rubber animals.

[Is WC the only one who immediately thought of Anthony Burgess's novel, A Clockwork Orange, and the protagonist, who drives back from a night's orgy of violence, "driving over small, squealing animals"?]

But here’s the punchline. Of the 6% who went out of the way to drive over and kill the animals, 89% were driving sport utility vehicles, SUVs. Bezoomny.

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