Turtles are killed on roads, yet there is little evidence of negative road effects on abundances. We hypothesized that reduced predation of roadside nests could compensate for adult road-kill. To test this, we quantified the relative differences in predation of artificial painted turtle (Chrysemys picta) nests near and far from roads, in a field experiment controlling for potentially confounding differences between sites. We then estimated how much adult road-kill could be compensated for by an increase in roadside nest success using Population Viability Analysis (PVA). Linearly arranged roadside nests had a 26% higher survival rate than non-road nests in a "natural" (clumped) configuration. This lead to an estimate that 3-6% annual adult road kill can be compensated for by the lower nest predation. This suggests that compensation for adult road kill via predation release is a plausible explanation for the lack of road effects on turtle abundances.