By Allen Bjergo, President, Corvallis Civic Club
The Montana Department of Transportation has changed its consideration of the speed reduction to a hearing on March 14th. Letters can be sent to Lori Ryan, DOT, 2701 Prospect Ave, Helena MT 59601, or by email to: lryan@mt.gov, with concerns about the speed limit and listing the factors we have stated below. please send individual letters or emails and ask your neighbors to do the same. Even a short letter, hand-written or typed, needs to be added to the stack he could carry to Helena, people can recite some of reasons listed below, just add them in your own words. At the last hearing, folks were good at explaining why 45 MPH is better than a 5 MPH drop.
1. There are 26 approaches to the cut-off road, some with short sight distance, and ALL dangerous as a driver tries to get off, or get into the stream of 60 MPH traffic. The bike lane crosses at Old Corvallis Road, with no real warning in the middle of the high speed section.
2. The 60 MPH segment is only about half of the full distance, but encourages speeding up as drivers approach the Bitter Root river bridge and with wildlife crossings, creates only a short time to react.
3. A 45 MPH speed allows time to brake for pedestrians, wildlife, farm equipment and kids diving off the bridge, while at 60 MPH most drivers cannot react fast enough and could get rear-ended, since following traffic may not see or react in time.
4. The Corvallis Volunteer Fire Department personnel could document the numbers of accidents to which they have responded, probably more than other roads..
5. The connecting roads, Dutch Hill and Willow Creek, are all at 45 MPH, as are both ends of the cut-off road. The actual 60 MPH zone is a little over a mile in the center of the cut-off road.
6. Wildlife crosses the road day and night and most of us have experienced side-hits and near misses of deer, and even moose have been killed.
7. The Teller boat ramp access has heavy use, short sight distances and a steep approach which gives too little time to react for all drivers.
8. The bridge is the only place where pedestrians and bikes can cross, and the traffic lane is still a 60 Mph zone, allowing little time to stop if the lane is occupied.
9. People jump off the bridge in the summer, creating crowds on the bridge.
10. We recognize that some people want to travel fast, but the 45 mph speed is only 20 seconds more.
Speak up and avoid a tragedy.
john burke says
I am a resident of Corvallis, and travel this cut off many times a week. I am in TOTAL support in lowering the speed limit, If you are traveling east the speed changes from 60 to 45 to 25 in a span of less than a half mile, To me not enough time to really slow especially in winter months with snow and ice. The north side has a irrigation Canal with no barrier protecting the vehicles, Deer, Moose face a certain death, I saw a dead beaver on the bridge, how do u miss that, because you are going to damn fast. The past Chief of Police lives on the roadway and he comments on the driving. Another reason is that the kids going to school use this road, and they think its the start of the Indy 500, big trucks, little trucks, big cars, little cars, it doesn’t matter, they drive toooooooo fast. Please 45 is fast enough, lets get rid of 60 please.