HomeMy WebLinkAbout04-24-18 Public Comment - A. Breuer - Parking on North 11th Ave.From:Tanya Andreasen
To:Agenda
Subject:FW: parking issues along North 11th Avenue
Date:Tuesday, April 24, 2018 2:34:26 PM
From: Abigail Breuer <abigailbreuer@gmail.com>
Sent: Tuesday, April 24, 2018 2:36 PM
To: Jeff Krauss <Jkrauss@BOZEMAN.NET>; Chris Mehl <CMehl@BOZEMAN.NET>; Cyndy Andrus
<CAndrus@BOZEMAN.NET>; I-Ho Pomeroy <IPomeroy@BOZEMAN.NET>; Terry Cunningham
<TCunningham@BOZEMAN.NET>
Cc: Ed Meece <EMeece@BOZEMAN.NET>; Tanya Andreasen <TAndreasen@BOZEMAN.NET>
Subject: parking issues along North 11th Avenue
Dear City Commissioners,
As a resident of the Bozeman High School (BHS) Parking District, I understand the desire to share
parking with non-residents. Yet, before such a move is made, the School District must be held
accountable for its parking impacts and provide safe student access to BHS. Already surrounding
BHS, the School District shows disregard for the use of City streets, student safety, and neighbors’
homes. Moreover, neither the District’s new stadium plan nor the anticipated auditorium
realistically account for parking impacts on surrounding residential streets. Adequate parking and
space to accommodate School District impacts on the District’s own property, including student pick
up and drop off, must be a prerequisite to opening the BHS Parking District to additional users.
Already, 10-12 cars are parked illegally for hours each day in the No Parking Zone (north) of the
North 11th Entrance as visitor parking at BHS is either inadequate or far away (see photo, this
morning, about 9:30am). Similarly, on-street parking between the tennis courts along North 11th
Avenue and Durston Road—which was signed no parking until the construction of the North 11th
Entrance—has effectively become a student lot from 7am-2pm, M-F. When snow narrows the road,
residents across from this area—myself included—can only get in and out of their driveways with
difficulty. Egress is apparently also difficult from the West side of the street: my car sustained
$2000 in body damage while parked on the East side of North 11th Avenue earlier this year from a
truck exiting the District’s Support Services building parking lot.
Further, given the absence of a formal pick up and drop off area at the High School’s North 11th
Entrance, BHS parents rely upon the East side of North 11th Avenue as a loading and unloading zone
—occluding neighbors driveways and encouraging jay-walking for “10-15 minutes of chaos” in the
words of a School District representative, or 20+ minutes based on the observation of area residents,
at least twice/day. As buses are accorded the West side of the street, student drop off is effectively
forced to take place on the residential side of North 11th Avenue.
This is not just a nuisance, but is unsafe. The configuration of the central Teacher’s Parking lot
entrance, presence of buses, and lack of a student drop off area at the North 11th Entrance violates
8 of 21 guidelines of an extremely well-vetted publication on school entrances, and offers above-
average chances for a pedestrian to get hit. In fact, this configuration is used as an “example to
avoid” in several sections of the publication, Traffic Operations and Safety at Schools (2004) by the
Texas Transportation Institute, a review of school entrances in 15 states and 3 countries, funded by
the U.S. Department of Transportation.
Further south along the High School campus near the intersection of 11th and Main, elementary
school children are dropped off by buses directly into the north Teacher’s Parking lot, which is
located on City-owned land. This is an unsafe situation by any estimation, as these children are not
tall enough to be visible over the hood of a car.
I am glad for the Commission to discuss different parking options within existing parking districts.
However, adequate parking and space to accommodate School District impacts on District property,
including safe student pick up and drop off, must be a prerequisite for opening the BHS Parking
District to additional users.
Thank you,
Abigail Breuer
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