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HomeMy WebLinkAbout08-26-25 Public Comment - Z. Osman - Re_ Shared-Use Paths, Fowler Place Subdivision, and Other Minor ArterialsFrom:Zehra Osman To:Nicholas Ross Cc:Bozeman Public Comment Subject:[EXTERNAL]Re: Shared-Use Paths, Fowler Place Subdivision, and Other Minor Arterials Date:Tuesday, August 19, 2025 9:52:13 PM Attachments:image001.png CAUTION: This email originated from outside of the organization. Do not click links or open attachments unless you recognize the sender and know the content is safe. Nick, I appreciate your respectful and comprehensive response and I learned a lot from it; you mentioned some concerns and perspectives I had not previously known or considered. Thankyou. I look forward to seeing the other mitigation measures you presented last Tuesday. Zehra On Tuesday, August 19, 2025, Nicholas Ross <nross@bozeman.net> wrote: Hi Zehra, I genuinely appreciate how respectful you and Friends of Fowler have been through this engagement and hope we’ve built a trust from which we can speak honestly and transparently. Myjob is to serve the interests of all of Bozeman. This is also the perspective that members of ourTransportation Advisory Board have committed to use in advising staff and Commission. While Itruly wish I could appease all, I fully respect that perspective may not be compelling when a certain group feels they may be harmed by decisions we recommend. To that end, please allow me the space to try and de-escalate some tension here that I believe is stoking unnecessary fear. “Of course cyclists want to go as fast as possible…” The scenario that has been presented in meetings and emails evokes lycra-clad triathletes andspeeding ebikers but is simply not the overarching reality we see in Bozeman. When our public overwhelmingly tells us they prefer shared use paths over bike lanes, it’s explicitly because theyare not this class of rider. They are people like you and I who aren’t comfortable riding fast withtraffic in a mixed lane or bike lane environment. They’re moms and dads with kids, they may bepushing strollers, they’re active folks who may not have the quads to push it like the fittest in our community (). While I fully appreciate that the proposed alignment of path near home is ratherunique to Bozeman, separating people on bikes from traffic by moving the usage between parkedcar and building frontage is a best practice in many places of higher safety performance than Bozeman. Only when bicycle volumes are far higher than what could be expected here does thisalignment create conflict. While I of course cannot and will not guarantee the behavior of everycyclist who will use this corridor, I also cannot in good conscience recommend making decisionsbased on a scenario that has proven to be exceptionally rare. Conversely, “safely” crossing a signalized intersection is exactly what teacher Kelly Fulton was doing when he was killed by a distracted driver at Oak and 15th. Forcing bike riders to crisscross a minor arterial, even at intersections, invites mistakes to be made and when mistakes happenbetween vehicles and humans the consequences are dire. I will always respect the will ofCommission to direct staff, but to truly create a city that is safe and welcoming for activetransportation these are the kinds of tough decisions that must be made. Regarding parking availability, we are explicitly maintaining parking in the northbound directionfor the need you state. There will be plenty of on-street parking capacity to serve the demand on this stretch. Finally, I ask we consider the drastically different maturity of the streetscape between S Willson and this section of Fowler. The relatively sparse urban canopy along this segment of Fowler can beimproved by this project in a manner that we could not through a more mature part of town like SWillson. As means of demonstrating my commitment to this distinction, I’ll point to staff’s recommendation on our Babcock 11th to 19th project. There we have favored bike lanes over shared use paths explicitly because the latter would require dramatic removal of mature trees asthe potential path headed toward downtown. I’d be happy to meet with you and anyone else interested, as I’m often uneasy about this form ofwritten communication feeling combative. That’s truly not my intent and I hope it’s not perceivedin that manner. I fully respect the fear and concern I feel from you and others and don’t wish tonegate that, but offer another perspective. -Nick Nicholas Ross, P.E. Director | Transportation and Engineering City of Bozeman From: Zehra Osman <zosman534@gmail.com> Sent: Tuesday, August 19, 2025 4:36 PM To: Nicholas Ross <nross@BOZEMAN.NET>; Bozeman Public Comment <comments@BOZEMAN.NET> Subject: [EXTERNAL]Shared-Use Paths, Fowler Place Subdivision, and Other Minor Arterials CAUTION: This email originated from outside of the organization. Do not click links or open attachments unless you recognize the sender and know the content is safe. (Please add this to the public record folder for the Fowler Avenue Connection project) Hi Nick, You gave a good presentation last week. I appreciated how you’ve already incorporated some public comments from the July 2025 walk-through and am grateful for this! It is evident that the City is proud of this project. Thank you for your work to make this a collaborative effort. The issue of the shared-use path along the east side of the Fowler Avenue Connection (FAC) along the front yards of 17 residences in Fowler Place Subdivision section continues to be a concern. It gnaws at the brain. Back during the 30% design 2024 walkthrough when we were standing at this location, we understood that the FAC would not change the existing Fowler Avenue zone of impact in front of these homes. We believed the shared-use-path would be along one side and a sidewalk along the other side. Did we misunderstand this? Also during the summer 2024, when the Transportation Advisory Board (TAB) recommended a continuous shared-use-path along BOTH sides of FAC, we were all surprised and concerned about whether it could all fit without impacting the riparian corridor. We decided to wait and see how this would play out in the 60% design process. Now that we see the 60% design, we are grateful that this added facility did not impact the riparian corridor, however we were dismayed to see how it affected these 17 homes at Fowler Place Subdivision. There just isn’t enough room to accommodate what the TAB recommended. Those Fowler Place Subdivision neighbors who purchased their home via For Sale By Owner and were never told about the FAC plan. Also, they need that parking space because some of them have to have housemates to be able to pay their mortgages. The shared use path will cause them to “run the gauntlet” of e-bikes and fast moving cyclists while accessing that parking space from their front porches. There is no greenspace at the backs of these units and kids play in the front yards. It seems that other Minor Arterials in Bozeman do not have shared-use paths within a parking-space length (20-feet) of front porches. Take for instance Willson Avenue (see photo below). Bozemanites cherish the old large trees along the boulevard of historic Willson Avenue. I hope we would never take these trees out to install a 10-foot shared use path on each side of Willson. The question is, should we ask cyclists to bike on the west side of the FAC along the stretch between Babcock and Durston? Switching from the east side path over to the west side path (and vice versa) could happen safely at the controlled intersections on Babcock and Durston. Is that too much to ask of cyclists to do this when we just don’t have the space to accommodate everything? Of course cyclists want to go as fast as possible, but the FAC can’t do it all. As a bonus, this may give you more room to design the intersection at Babcock without taking out as many trees. Thank you for your time and energy on this issue. We’ve come a long way since 2022 and we trust we can continue to collaborate as the plans are refined. See photos below. Zehra Osman Resident 59718 FOWLER AVENUE ALONG FOWLER PLACE SUBDIVISION JUST SOUTH OF DURSTON EXISTING WILLSON AVENUE, WHICH IS ALSO A MINOR ARTERIAL City of Bozeman emails are subject to the Right to Know provisions of Montana’s Constitution (Art. II, Sect. 9) and may be considered a “public record” pursuant to Title 2, Chpt. 6, Montana Code Annotated. As such, this email, its sender and receiver, and the contents may be available for public disclosure and will be retained pursuant to the City’s record retention policies. Emails that contain confidential information such as information related to individual privacy may be protected from disclosure under law.