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HomeMy WebLinkAbout04-11-26 Public Comment - K. Jennings - Transportation SafetyFrom:Karin Jennings To:Bozeman Public Comment Subject:[EXTERNAL]Transportation Safety Date:Saturday, April 11, 2026 9:37:07 AM Attachments:BozemanDailyChronicle_20260411_A06_0.pdf 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 take as many of Mark Egge's recommendations in his OpEd from today (attached) intoaccount during the upcoming safety work session - and beyond. I specifically support fully implementing (funding?) the SAFE Plan, and pushing the state legislature to loosen therestrictions on how transportation funds can be used (toward non-motorized safety). A couple of specific requests regarding needed transportation safety measures are: 1) a safe crossing of Bridger Drive (yes, it's a state highway) from Story Mill Park to GhostTown Coffee/Zeeks - before a child (or anyone) is killed there 2) fixing the alignment of the Story Mill Road bridge over Bridger Creek. It is narrow and thesight distance is terrible because it is askew and motorists come down the hill (from the N) too fast. With the creation of Bikefill I expect that there will be more bicycle travel to that park,who will be putting their lives in jeopardy. I feel the City has done a great job with its transportation plan over the years, particularly in providing car-mover thoroughfares like 19th, Oak, Kagy. (I moved here before 19th (north)existed...) I also recognize the investments in our bike lane and trail system that goes a long way toward moving non-vehicular movement safely. It is great to have bike lanes on these car-mover thoroughfares, but there remain pinch-points on Oak at 7th and west of 19th, with thrust bikes into the lanes with motorists who are not necessarily expecting bicyclists. More needs to be done to prevent needless deaths. Thank you. Bozeman Daily Chronicle - 04/11/2026 Page : A06 April 11, 2026 9:28 am (GMT -6:00) Powered by TECNAVIA Who would have thought dictator would rule U.S. on country’s 250th birthday? President Trump is asking for a record $1.5 trillion for the military and at the same time saying we do not have enough resources to support childcare. That statement alone says what kind of a per- son he is. His proposed budget targets pro- grams he considers as being woke, mean- ing being mindful of social discrimina- tion and injustice. He seeks to cut all pro- grams connected to diversity, equity and inclusion. He wants to eliminate federal initiatives that support disadvantaged groups and cut all funding for Equity Assistance Cen- ters at the Education Department, includ- ing training for schools to help address bullying and prejudice. He proposes cut- ting $395 million to the Senior Commu- nity Service Employment Program, whose goal is to help seniors in need. These are just a few of the cuts Trump intends to make to social programs. The Iran War is costing American tax- payers more than $1 billion a day. This money could be used to help fund child- care, health care, Medicare, Medicaid, Social Security, education, and scientific research, to name just a few. The $1.5 trillion he wants for the mil- itary should go to support everyday people instead of the military indus- trial complex and reducing taxes for the wealthy. Some of this money could also be used to reduce the national debt. Trump does not care about help- ing anyone except himself and his fam- ily. Republicans who capitulate to him are even worse in many respects. Trump is only one person, but the Republi- can Party, including Gianforte and his administration, is composed of partisans and politicians who curtsy to Trump’s every wish. Who would ever have imagined that America would be ruled by a billion- aire dictator at the 250th anniversary of what has been the greatest democracy the world has ever known? The November midterm elections will decide our fate. VOTE! Jack Davis Bozeman Stop with the gender obsession and focus on real problems I am writing in response to the March 30 article “What to know about Mon- tana’s new sex definition bill.” I appreci- ate the author breaking it down so clearly and taking the time, amidst the chaos, to remind us of the harmful agenda some of our state government is prioritizing. SB 437 applies a definition of sex that will apply to anywhere in Montana law that mentions “sex, gender, male, female, man, woman, father or mother.” All the way from legal paperwork down to who can sit on precinct committees. I am deeply curious about how the state will enforce this law. Do Montanans already have paperwork proving whether their bodies are set up to use an ova or sperm “for fertilization”? Are we all to get ultrasounds of our gonads and carry those ultrasound reports around in case someone questions our identity? Do we only get the ultrasounds if there’s a confrontation in a public bath- room? Or if someone questions your right to sit on a committee? Who pays for the ultrasounds (when our federal gov- ernment is reducing access to health- care)? Does the state intend to pay for us all to get hormone levels drawn? Do we check for just one hormone or all the sex hor- mones? Do we allow a one-time test or do the panel that shows hormone levels over time? Once again, who is paying for this? Maybe the government will accept an inspection of your outer genitals and make assumptions of what’s inside to enforce this law? Will people with penises be required to produce semen to show that they can produce sperm? Will the semen be analyzed for sperm? You know what sounds like a better idea? Let’s just trust people when they tell us who they are. And focus on real prob- lems. Katy Osterloth Bozeman SATURDAY, APRIL 11, 2026 OPINION LETTERS TO THE EDITOR: CITY DESK@DAILYCHRONICLE.COM BOZEMAN DAILY CHRONICLE LETTERS MARK EGGE Guest columnist On Feb. 26, Leslie Brown was killed in a marked crosswalk on Oak Street while out for a morn- ing run. She is the latest in a series of cyclists and pedestrians killed on Bozeman’s high-speed, multi- lane roads. In 2019, Alexa Dzintars was killed riding her bike home from work on 19th Avenue. In the fall of 2022, Richard Evers was killed on his bike crossing Huffine Lane, and weeks later Kelly Fulton — a Bozeman High math teacher bik- ing to work with a green light — was killed when a driver ran a red light on Oak Street. Now Leslie Brown, on the same street. After each death, the same cycle plays out. The commu- nity grieves. City leaders express concern. Residents urge the City Commission to act. And then nothing changes. And then some- one else dies. The question before the Com- mission now is whether this time will be different. There are reasons for cautious hope. The Commission has a road safety work session on April 14, and a new transportation mas- ter plan is in development — moments where priorities get locked in for years. But Boze- man has had moments like these before, and the pattern has held. In 2023, the Commission adopted its Streets Are For Every- one (SAFE) Plan. It is a good plan. Its full implementation could have saved Leslie Brown’s life. A safer crossing. A road diet. A lower speed limit. Consistent traffic enforcement. Credit where it’s due — the direction is improving. The city has programmed $2.7 million for shared-use path construction starting next year, and some proj- ects like South 3rd Avenue do appear genuinely driven by mul- timodal needs. But the city’s bud- get for safety features like flashing beacons on existing streets is still just $150,000 per year — roughly half of 1% of the city’s transporta- tion budget. The pace is not commensu- rate with the problem. People are dying now, on streets the city con- trols now. The bigger picture remains lop- sided. The Kagy Boulevard recon- struction carries a total budget of $31.7 million. It includes shared- use paths and pedestrian tun- nels, and those are welcome. But the project exists because of a per- ceived need to widen from two to four lanes. The pattern persists: Active transportation improvements most often get funded when they hitch a ride on a road-widening project. City staff say they don’t have the money for standalone safety proj- ects, pointing to restrictions on how transportation revenue can be spent. Even if that’s correct, it is not the end of the conversation — it is the beginning of one. The city could lobby the legisla- ture to loosen those restrictions. It could put a dedicated safety levy before voters. Bozeman residents consistently say they want safer streets for walking and biking. Has anyone actually asked them to fund it? We know what works. Swe- den adopted Vision Zero in 1997 and has since cut its road fatality rate by more than 70% — not by demanding perfection from driv- ers, but by designing streets where human error doesn’t equal death. Bozeman has a plan built on this principle. Implementation has been tepid and slow. The upcoming transportation master plan will shape Bozeman’s streets for a generation. If it ranks projects the way the current capi- tal program has historically — by vehicle throughput, with safety as a secondary consideration — we’ll fail to improve the safety of our streets and people will keep dying on them. April 14 is the next chance to break the cycle. The Commis- sion’s work session is open to the public, and commissioners read every message sent to com- ments@bozeman.net. If you have ever worried about crossing a busy five-lane road, try- ing to bike downtown, or walk- ing your kids to school, this is the moment to say so. Show up. Send a comment. Tell the Commission what kind of streets you want to live on. Mark Egge, AICP, is a Bozeman resident and transportation safety advocate. SARAH ANDERSON Guest columnist For over 250 years, Americans have relied on the United States Postal Service for timely process- ing of their mail, no matter the conditions. After we dropped it in a box or gave it to a letter carrier, we could count on our mail being post- marked on that date so that our bills and tax returns aren’t late and our election ballots are counted. Unfortunately, this trust is now increasingly risky — since we can no longer rely on USPS to post- mark mail on the day it’s collected. As part of former Postmaster General Louis DeJoy’s broader cost-cutting and restructur- ing plan, the Postal Service has stopped its practice of picking up mail at the end of every day from all post offices. This means your ballot or bill payment could sit there until the following morning or even longer before being post- marked at a huge processing cen- ter. This gap between mail collec- tion and postmarking is partic- ularly concerning for rural resi- dents, for two main reasons. First, the decision to eliminate evening collections applies only to post offices located more than 50 miles from a regional pro- cessing center. This raises strong concerns about whether a fed- eral agency with an obligation to provide universal service to all Americans is actively discrimi- nating against rural communi- ties. Second, rural residents rely especially heavily on our public Postal Service for voting and pay- ing bills. During the 2024 general election, USPS delivered more than 99 million ballots to and from voters. The mail-in option makes voting much easier for rural residents who live long dis- tances from their polling place. Half of rural county polling sites serve an area larger than 62 square miles, while half of urban polling sites serve an area of less than two square miles. Vote by mail is particularly important for seniors, who are more likely to have mobility issues that make it difficult to cast their ballots in per- son. Americans age 65 or older make up about 20% of all rural residents, compared to just 16% of urban residents. Older Americans are also more likely to drop a check in the mail rather than paying bills online. According to a USPS survey, 18% of households headed by some- one 55 or older paid their bills by mail, compared to just 7% of those aged 18 to 34. A key reason many rural res- idents use USPS for bill-pay- ing: The digital divide. An Insti- tute for Policy Studies analysis of the 15 most rural states found that only one (North Dakota) had a broadband access rate higher than the national average in 2024. More than 20% of the popu- lation lacked broadband access in seven of these states (Alaska, West Virginia, Montana, Ala- bama, Mississippi, Wyoming and Iowa). The decision to downgrade postal service standards and eliminate evening collections increases the risk of disenfran- chising voters and raising costs for families already struggling to pay their bills. These problems are particu- larly serious as the nation heads into a tense election season. To maintain public trust, USPS should restore same-day post- marking and do whatever it takes to protect voting rights for all Americans, whether they live in the most remote mountain village or the largest city. Our democracy depends on a strong public Postal Service. Sarah Anderson directs the Global Econ- omy Project at the Institute for Policy Stud- ies. This op-ed was distributed by Other- Words.org. EDITORIAL BOARD Sam Worthington, publisher Jeff Welsch, managing editor Kallie Kujawa, community member Charles Rinker, community member Shelby Bouma, community member Daniel Bierschwale, community member Mike Hope, community member Will we finally focus on safer streets for cyclists, runners? Montana’s rural residents face big risks from postal delays bdc_20260411_a_06.crop.pdf 1 09-Apr-26 21:05:44