Bozeman drivers face busier summer roads as city works on safety

Traffic education teacher Steve McCormick said in recent years he has seen driving get more intense across the city. 

“There's a lot more traffic. People go a lot faster. There's a lot more aggressiveness,” he said. 

McCormick, who has taught traffic education in Bozeman for seven years, explained one of the intersection questions that kept coming up onlineregarding two-way stops. Who actually has the right- of-way? 

“Basically, straight goes first, then right, then left. The two-way intersections you think would be ‘who gets there first,’ but it's really not,” said McCormick. “I always tell the kids left goes last.” 

He also pointed to problems with drivers changing lanes in intersections while turning left and right, especially at Main Street and Seventh Avenue. 

“They take the left lane and then cut into the gas station in front of somebody turning left. And it'skind of the same role as two-lane roundabouts,”McCormick said. “You just pick your lane. You don't change it while you're in the roundabout.” 

The city said a series of crashes involving vehicles, pedestrians and cyclists has pushed safety concerns further as officials work on projects across Bozeman. Transportation and Engineering Director Nick Ross said many of the city’s planned safety projects were underway well before the recent crashes, with the city commission actually expanding the budget for small project safety money for 2027. 

This will allow the city to install radar speed limit signs throughout school zones to remind drivers the speed limit is 15 miles per hour. 

“Holistically, what that really means is we were just doubling down on our efforts to provide those broad-based solutions in hopes of preventing that next crash, instead of reacting to the ones that have,” said Transportation and Engineering Director Nick Ross 

There are a number of safety projects happening across the city, including installing more pedestrian flashing beacons at crosswalks, making McIlhattan road more bike-friendly and turning uncontrolled intersections into two-way stops. 

Ross said the city plans to install protected left-turn lanes next month at Oak Street and Ferguson Avenue, an intersection that has seen more use since Gallatin High School opened. This will hopefully reduce traffic conflicts, Ross said. 

“Both the left turn lanes and the signal improvements, the phasing improvements, will be able to remove those conflicts so that the turning movements can happen much easier.” 

Ross said it will take a combination of road engineering and driving practices to make the roads safer for all users. McCormick’s advice is to be courteous to other drivers, use your turn signal and stay in your lane in intersections. 

“It's going to take a community effort, along with the actual physical projects we do,” Ross said. “It's going to take a little bit of that grassroots effort to maybe hold each other accountable, hold ourselves accountable, and really bring these behavioral issues to light.”