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Residents urge traffic study at Peppers Ferry; committee weighs enforcement, engineering and cost
Summary
Residents reported long delays and unsafe left turns at New Village/Peppers Ferry and asked the committee for a traffic study. Staff said enforcement and education are near-term tools; physical changes such as medians or protected turns would be costly and the intersection does not currently meet signal warrants.
Multiple public comments read into the record raised safety concerns at the New Village Drive/Peppers Ferry Road intersection and asked the committee to pursue a traffic study.
Committee member (S1), reading submitted comments, quoted a resident who said, "I am deeply concerned about the traffic and safety conditions along Peppers Ferry Road," and that turning left from New River Village and Bozeman Trail can take "2 to 4 minutes" during heavy traffic. The statements named several residents and requested a traffic study; S1 clarified prior work had been a signal-warrant study rather than a full traffic study.
Staff and committee members discussed options. One staff member (S7/S2 in the exchange) noted enforcement and education as near-term steps; staff counsel (S8) said a recent code change "allow[ed] stop sign tickets in school zones off of cameras, but not anywhere else," limiting automated enforcement options. Participants noted that constructing physical measures to prevent illegal left turns (for example, a median or protected-turn geometry) would be expensive; one committee estimate put such an improvement in the six-figure range. Staff also said New Village Drive does not currently meet the warrants for a traffic signal. The committee did not authorize a study or a capital project during the meeting but agreed to consider enforcement options and further assessment of engineering solutions and costs.
