DIXFIELD – Moose apparently like the speed bumps that were installed in 2005 along the side of Route 4 in Phillips to prevent them from running into the roadway in high-crash locations.

The gangly critters have been observed walking the length of the angular stone walls, then heading onto the road, Maine Department of Transportation regional manager Norm Haggan said by phone Wednesday afternoon in Dixfield.

“They’re using them as a place to get up and dry their feet off,” Haggan said.

The bumps consist of 4- to 8-foot-wide strips of riprap of various lengths, the intent of which is to slow any moose running onto the road. They’re not a barrier to moose and aren’t intended to prevent the animals from entering the roadway, as would fencing.

“They’re not a big deterrent so, apparently, they’re not effective. When it’s car versus moose, the moose is still the boss,” Haggan said.

Moose speed bumps would have been – and may still be – installed in car-moose high-crash locations at the toe of slopes along Route 4 in Madrid. However, due to lack of funding that project to rebuild about three miles this year was placed on hold, Haggan said.

Moose speed bumps were first installed along Route 27 in Eustis and proved more effective than those in Phillips, primarily because they’re made of big logs, not smaller rocks, he said.

“It’s a higher step for them to get up on. But the bottom line is if moose want to go somewhere, they’re going to go. Moose aren’t scared of cars, so people have to be aware of them,” he said.

Other methods that have been used to avoid collisions on Route 4 in Phillips are road shoulders in high-crash locations that were designed with a 3-to-1 slope to increase roadside visibility, and wide paint striping along the emergency lane and centerline.

It isn’t known if the slope change is effective, but the paint-striping idea worked on drivers like speed bumps worked on Route 4 moose.

Wider striping creates a visual break for drivers when a moose or deer straddles the line, giving more reaction time to avoid a collision. It was also thought to create the illusion of a narrower roadway, thus causing drivers to slow down. The first idea works, but the illusion doesn’t.

“Once people get used to them – the stripes – it was thought that they’d pay a little more attention,” Haggan said.

According to 2003 MDOT studies, drivers didn’t decrease speeds when wider striping was present.

That’s why the MDOT is relocating its pair of flashing moose-warning signs along Route 4.

Haggan attributed the rash of moose and deer collisions this month and last to thickening onsets of mosquitoes and black flies, but Karen Morris disagrees.

Morris is Maine’s moose specialist, a wildlife biologist with the Maine Department of Inland Fisheries and Wildlife.

“People have been building roads in the types of habitat (moose) use this time of the year. MDOT puts salt on the road in the winter and moose have a strong attraction to it,” Morris said.

Moose move around very little during the winter, remaining on hills. But come May and early June, they head to lowlands, roads and ponds, seeking salt.

Additionally, female moose have “just booted out last year’s calf, so there’s a lot of moose that have teenage problems – they’re out on the roads and clueless. Some moose do learn to avoid roads and cars, but it’s hard to teach a dead moose anything. As long as we have moose and cars, we’ll never totally eliminate the problem,” Morris said.