HomeMy WebLinkAbout09-08-23 Public Comment - P. Melniker - Speed Limit changesFrom:Pete Melniker
To:Agenda
Subject:[EXTERNAL]Speed Limit changes
Date:Friday, September 8, 2023 1:35:59 AM
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Concerning your concern for speed limits and Bozeman streets
1. Changing the speed signs may only work because as people ignore them they will actually go
at the original speed limit signs.
2. Recently I have been in Colorado and Utah where the digital speed monitors make you
aware of your speed. I know Bozeman has a few, but I understand that they are financed by
the police department. Forget the money on the new signs and put the money into digital
speed monitors. They work.
3. On stop signs both state use flashing lights all the way around the stop sign. You do not miss
them even during the day.
4. Speed limits do not work without enforcement. Just look at the interstate. Put an HP in the
median and EVERYONE slows down. No HP’s and the trucks do 80 mph, when the truck
speed limit is70 mph.
5. Recently a bicyclist was killed by a driver who ran a red light. Dry roads, just negligence. The
penalty a misdemeanor. It was murder it was vehicular manslaughter. Regardless of the
laws people look at it and see crime that is not penalized. You get a worse outcome for a
DUI even if you do not create damage.
6. Homeless people on city streets. Moving them every so often (5 or 10 days) is ineffective.
You give them a campsite and a garbage collection container. And then people go help them
clean up the streets. Charge them a campsite fee. (10.00/day) Just like a KOA or a Forest
Service campsite. Put stickers on the vehicle or on the tent. PAID IN ADVANCE. There are
plenty of jobs in Bozeman that people could afford 300.00/ month. It is not fair for all of the
residents to support them. The cost is in taxes and everyone in the city and the county who
shop in Bozeman also pay the bill by the stores raising prices to pay the taxes. Keep this up
and we will have the homeless in tent camps like Seattle, Portland and San Francisco.
7. HRDC provides services for homeless, but do they have any programs to get people out of
this situation? Then they go help clean up these camp sites. It is like the father who tells the
teenager to take out the garbage and eventually frustrated without enforcement takes out
the garbage himself. He enables the teenager to disregard the father’s instruction. This is
what Bozeman is doing and the repercussions will be on the city fathers and people who
cater to the homeless. If people do not have any discipline or regard for personal and civil
responsibility and respect for the city without repercussions then they will continue to need
the city to take care of them AND IT WILL GET WORSE. Even the cold of the winter does not
seem to reduce the problem. When the city gives away services without any responsibility
someone has to pay the bill.
Thank you
Pete Melniker
5200 Johnson Rd.3
Bozeman, MT