BOZEMAN — The other day, I received an email from a man who said he had seen my recent story on traffic safety. He wanted to tell me about the institute where he works — an organization dedicated to researching transportation issues. Given the challenges faced here in Bozeman, it seemed worth a conversation.
“My name is David Kack, and my title is program manager for mobility and public transportation at the Western Transportation Institute,” Kack said.
Meet David. He has lived in Bozeman most of his life and says the city has changed drastically since the 1970s.
“People get frustrated,” he said. “‘They think, 'I used to be able to get across town in 10 minutes, and now it takes 15 or 20. So I get frustrated and maybe do things I shouldn’t be doing.’ And that all can decrease safety.”
WATCH: Bozeman is growing — and so are its traffic problems. Here's what's being done. 🚦
Kack now works for the Western Transportation Institute, or WTI, at Montana State University. The country’s largest university-based research center focused on rural transportation issues.
“The Western Transportation Institute addresses a wide range of transportation issues. We look at animal-vehicle collisions, we look at winter maintenance, and a lot of our focus lately has been on safety,” Kack said.
According to Kack, more than 40,000 people are killed every year on the nation’s roadways. Montana is no exception, including the death of 39-year-old Leslie Brown, who was struck and killed while crossing Oak Street.
RELATED: Online fundraiser for Bozeman woman struck and killed
When asked about Bozeman’s top three traffic issues, Kack pointed to speed, driver attentiveness, and rule compliance.
“Speed and really the energy that speed creates — we need people to pay attention when they’re driving, and the other thing is we need other road users, bicyclists and others, to also follow the rules of the road,” he said.
So what has WTI done in town to help make roads safer?
“The pop-up traffic calming is one of the things we’ve done to make the roads safer,” Kack said.
Pop-up traffic calming involves testing measures in rural areas.
“Someone might say people are speeding through my neighborhood. So we put up a radar unit, and we say, ‘Yup, it’s posted at 25, and we see most people are going 35,’ so we know there’s an issue,” Kack said.
The institute also experiments with what Kack calls “side friction,” which means designing the road to feel narrower to encourage slower driving speeds.
“And then you say this might be something we want to do on a more permanent basis. Most of the materials we use are pretty temporary, so you say to the city, ‘Hey, this might be something you want to make a change with the road in the future,’” Kack said.
When asked why he felt compelled to reach out in the first place, Kack said it’s about raising awareness.
“I think we just sometimes get numb to the numbers. So it’s important when we have these incidents that do get publicized to say it’s a big issue. We need to take this seriously and do more to improve safety,” he said.
WTI recently received a grant from the national Safe Streets and Roads for All program to continue its safety research.
You can read WTI's in-depth research here: https://westerntransportationinstitute.org
RELATED
Bozeman Police and nearby residents react to fatal pedestrian Oak Street accident
