BOZEMAN — Driving in Bozeman, you may frequently come across uncontrolled intersections. Well, soon, that will be no more, as stop signs are coming to all uncontrolled neighborhood intersections in the city.
“We don’t park at a certain place anymore, just because there’ve been so many accidents,” said Caroline Bark, a lifelong Bozeman resident.
“We’ve been living on the corner of 5th and Dickerson for, like, 20+ years,” said Bark.
Bark – and other neighbors MTN’s Esha Walia spoke with – say their neighborhood is especially accident-prone because of the lack of stop signs. Bark says her family’s had their parked cars hit multiple times.
WATCH: Look for new stop signs across Bozeman
“I think adding the stop signs is really essential,” said Bark. “Not only have there been multiple accidents, but it’s just a lot safer, especially driving with children now.”
Olivia Cannocci, a resident who lives near Cooper Park, shares the same sentiment.
“I think it’s great; I think people definitely go really fast here, and having off-leash dog parks, there’s been some incidents,” said Cannocci.
Another resident, Sawyer Henry, said his friend got into an accident at an uncontrolled intersection on Story Street. He expressed some concern about the project.
“It seems like a lot of effort for, maybe, minimal payoff,” said Henry.
But as City of Bozeman engineer Danae Giannetti explains, the project is in response to what she says is concerning crash data and the lack of knowledge about how to use uncontrolled intersections, which don’t have a clear indication of who has the right of way.
“Really, we’re encouraging folks to take the streets that are designed for more traffic volumes, such as Main Street,” said Giannetti.
Giannetti says there are more than 300 uncontrolled intersections within city limits. The goal is to add two-way stop signs to all of them by 2030, alternating between east to west and north to south. The total cost of the project is $40,000 spread out over multiple years.
“We don’t want more than two blocks in any direction of through movement allowed,” she said.
Their first priority: streets like Story, Dickerson, and Alderson, near MSU.
“Certainly, around the university, we see a higher population of new-to-town drivers and newer drivers, so that’s why we decided to start in this area and then work our way out,” said Giannetti.
It’s a project residents like Bark are grateful for.
“Thank you, the City of Bozeman, for funding that project,” said Bark.
