Let’s Do What Works

About a week or so ago I saw a photo, accompanied by an article, on my Facebook page. It was of a highway overpass somewhere in the American West, I think it was Utah, and it was a bridge for animals, so they won’t have to cross the road and it will save wildlife.
The basic tone of the accompanying article was “Wow. It works!” as if that were a surprising thing. These have been around for years, some places more than others, and of course they work.
Animals don’t think like we do. They don’t have language, and can’t read books, so you’re never going to have a good conversation about history, or politics, or great literature with a moose, but they are not so stupid that they would cross a freeway and risk their life if there’s a perfectly safe pedestrian crossing nearby. Animals actually tend to be pretty good about navigating their environment.
But also, road planners and politicians should know they work, because they have worked in other places. And that is a bigger point. When a program works exceptionally well, it seems to me they should be imitated. Places which have legalized marijuana are reaping numerous benefits, so why isn’t that happening everywhere? Countries with universal health care have healthier people, and no economic problems associated with health, so why is it not possible in the U.S.? China and Japan have been testing high speed trains for decades, so why hasn’t a network of them spread across the Earth?
We have all the ideas we need to make civilization work. Animal bridges is at least a positive step.