ABSTRACT
Despite long interest in the relationship between roads and nature, the biology of road right-of-ways, roadside verges, central reservations and junction reservations does not seem to have attracted much attention. Only a handful of systematic inventories on the species encountered (mostly, the birds) are available. The paucity of studies appears very strange for two reasons. First of all, the area of roadside verges and central reservations is very extensive in some countries. Surely something so extensive and visible as roadside verges ought to have attracted more interest. Secondly, it has often been said that roadside verges could make a contribution to nature conservation, especially if managed in an appropriate manner. That being the case, expectedly more interest ought to have been shown in the kinds of wildlife that could benefit from roadside nature reserves.
