Ecosystems around the world are fragmented by transportation infrastructure and their traffic. Wildlife have a variety of responses to roads/railways and their traffic, from injury and mortality following collisions, to aversion and other behavioral changes. Wildlife crossing structures (WCS) are relied upon as the primary mitigation for these impacts. However, little is known about their effectiveness, the differential effects they may have on ecological communities, and their utility in mitigating impacts to wildlife and ecosystems. A key and under-studied component of WCS is the condition of the "approach zone", which is the area that wildlife must pass through to get to the opening of the WCS. We present the results of 1 and 2-dimensional studies of the sound and light conditions within 500 meters of WCS openings, beginning at the roadside and proceeding outward into forested, grassland, and mixed vegetation type habitats. We used data-logging sound meters to record traffic noise with both A-weighted (dBA) and C-weighted (dBC) settings. We measured low-level light intensity as total luminescence using a novel approach employing a camera with a very wide-angle lens to capture low light levels. For each WCS, we interpolated the approximately 50 measurements/square km using Kriging in ArcGIS, obtaining a raster map with estimated sound levels as a 3-D "heat-map". We found that sound and light attenuation largely occurred as expected, with potentially critical variations in quiet/dark and noisy/bright areas. For example, in every case of an underpass, the noise intensities near ground level at the underpass opening were lower than those at the roadside above, or ~50 meters from the opening. This is most likely due to light and noise "shading" in the vicinity of the underpass opening, which is lost at certain distances away from the roadway. At a cost of about US$60 million, the proposed wildlife overpass at Liberty Canyon in Southern California is likely to be the most costly such structure built in the US. In an area approximately 1 square km around the proposed Liberty Canyon overpass, we found that traffic noise at 100 m from the roadside were regularly >55dBA and >65dBC and at >500 m from the proposed crossing location could also be >55 dBA and >65 dBC, even when noise levels at intermediate distances were <50 dBA and <60dBC. Light from traffic had a very similar shading and exposure variation as noise. Traffic noise at levels greater than tolerated by sensitive species were throughout the approach zone of all structures, with occasional areas of quiet. These results suggest that the placement and design of WCS and the associated approach zones could determine their effectiveness in meeting the oft-stated goal of de-fragmenting ecosystems. We are using these "disturbance-scapes" as the basis for design and placement principles to improve effectiveness of WCS.