HomeMy WebLinkAbout12-21-20 Public Comment - E. Lange - re_ 3 vs 4-lane KagyFrom:Edward Lange
To:Agenda
Subject:re: 3 vs 4-lane Kagy
Date:Monday, December 21, 2020 2:14:31 PM
Dear Commissioners,
As someone who bikes across Kagy on a daily basis, the idea of expanding it to 4-lanes greatly
concerns me! Three lanes may make a lot of sense. However, the bottom line is that there is a HUGE
amount of bicycle & pedestrian traffic that crosses Kagy back and forth to MSU and other
destinations – and that bike-ped traffic is only going to increase over time.
So before you make any decisions, please:
1. Review all the data VERY carefully to make sure your decision is justified. And absolutely delay
the project if data needs to be updated or more in-depth data is needed. For example, has the
data been updated since Graf was connected to 19th? How will traffic patterns change when
Arnold is connected to 11th and additional connections are made from 11th to 19th?
2. I can’t think of a street anywhere in the City that is a higher priority for making the maximum
investment in bicycle-pedestrian safety facilities. Make sure you fully study what the best
options are, and then don’t hesitate to fully invest in them!
The following email from Jeff Milchen makes a number of additional important points.
Thank you,
Ted Lange 4470 White Eagle Circle
From: bozone-orgs@npogroups.org <bozone-orgs@npogroups.org>
Sent: Monday, December 21, 2020 1:49 PM
To: bozone-orgs@npogroups.org
Subject: Re: [bozone-orgs] City Climate Plan and Budget Meeting 12/22/2020
In TV dramas, emergency vehicles often arrive in the nick of time save someone's life.
In reality, overly-wide roads within communities increase speeding, endanger us
when we cross roads by foot or bike, and lead to innocent people being struck by
vehicles every day. I'm not assigning bad intentions to anyone involved in this
process, but I've followed similar projects in other places. Emergency vehicles are
almost always dragged out by boosters to justify road widening, but I've never seen
evidence to show any reduction in response time could outweigh increased harm.
Any time savings following widening are temporary (see Randy Carpenter's excellent
commentary in the Chronicle that addresses induced demand) and planners never
include major delays that will occur during the year of construction. Most road
widening projects will never end up saving net travel time if time lost to construction
delays is factored in -- so they simply ignore all those massive delays.
The argument from some officials that this project has been "in the pipeline for
years," is the worst and emptiest of all arguments. There's never been a sound basis
to consider more than three lanes, but commuting has decreased and -- after many
companies and workers have realized remote work is viable -- many people won't
return to driving to work daily. (Office parks off Kagy are one major traffic source.)
We need to reassess whether past traffic projections are still valid.
Finally, we can't afford a minimum of $16 million to turn Kagy to a four-lane
thoroughfare as our property taxes continue spiking (displacing working-class
residents and driving development outside the city limits to further worsen traffic).
The challenge we face should be redefined from moving cars to moving people. Once
we ask how to move people safely at low cost to taxpayers -- and reduce how much we
are forced to travel -- far more cost-effective solutions emerge.
I hope folks will write to express their views to commissioners before
tomorrow night's meeting. Just email agenda@bozeman.net to reach all five
commissioners and have your comments on the record. Thanks to all who've sparked
the discussion.
Jeff Milchen
Jeff Milchen
222 S. Black Ave
Bozeman, MT 59715
406-579-1828 (cell)
Jeff.Milchen@gmail.com