HomeMy WebLinkAbout12-12-21 Public Comment - M. Egge - CIP SIF009 KagyFrom:Mark Egge
To:Agenda; Cyndy Andrus; Terry Cunningham; Christopher Coburn; I-Ho Pomeroy; Jennifer Madgic
Subject:SIF009 CIP Comment
Date:Sunday, December 12, 2021 3:26:33 PM
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Madam Mayor, Mr. Deputy Mayor, and Commissioners,
I'd like to inject a bit of additional data into your consideration of CIP item
SIF009, which allocates nearly a year's worth of transportation budget to
widening Kagy. From an auto-centric engineering perspective, wideningKagy may have made sense based on the information available in 2016.
Based on the best available traffic data since, there's no longer any
justification for widening the roadway.
The 2007 Greater Bozeman Area Transportation Plan (page 9-3) includes a
table of target capacities for roadways of various types:
Volumes up to 22,500 vehicles per day are considered "ideal managementconditions" for a three lane facility. Based on the trend through 2015 (see
graph below), it once seemed plausible that the three-lane capacity would
be eclipsed within a few years of the project completion (see forecast,
below). Based on current information, however, there is no suggestionthat three lanes will be inadequate any time soon (if ever). Ever since Graf
Street opened, the upward trend in traffic volumes on Kagy has completely
disappeared.
Moreover, transportation pundits are predicting a permanent reduction in
peak hour travel demand due to flexible work schedules and work from
home impacts of the pandemic. This matters since peak hour volumestypically drive traffic engineering decisions (even the busiest roads usually
have ample capacity all but a few hours per day).
Zooming in on the count data, we see that not only are total volumesdown since Graf Street opened, but that pandemic-era peak hour traffic
volumes (relative to total daily volumes) have declined by an even greater
margin:
Compared to 2018, 2021 Kagy volumes between 3 – 5 pm are only ~70
vehicles per hour lower (6%), but 5 – 6 pm (peak hour) volumes are 212vehicles lower (14%).
It's clear in the data that improving our road network elsewhere coupledwith reduced peak hour traffic from COVID-19 has eliminated any
suggestion of need to widen Kagy to four lanes. When Opportunity Way
connects to 19th it's likely that volumes on Kagy may decline further.
Nothing about current traffic volumes or trends suggest any sort of
urgency for completing this project. Widening Kagy will make our system
worse for pedestrians and cyclists crossing Kagy to reach campus. Based
on current traffic counts, it's not clear that widening Kagy would evenbenefit motorists.
I would urge you at your CIP meeting on Tuesday to send this project
SIF009 for another round of design (and to move it to the unscheduledcolumn), and in its place to move forward design and construction of
SIF157 and SIF158 (College Street reconstruction, to include sidewalks
and bike lanes) and to send Church Street (SIF165) for preliminary design.
These projects will move the needle in support of Bozeman's goals forproviding an effective transportation network for users of all modes.
Thank you for your consideration,
Mark Egge
542 N Black Ave
Bozeman, MT 59715