Good evening and welcome everyone to the transportation advisory board um before officially unofficially call the meeting to order.

Um we don't have a quorum tonight, so there won't be any official actions taken this evening.

Um but I just wanted to remind anyone who is listening that they can participate by um uh going to the meetings link at Bozeman.net, looking at upcoming meetings.

Um you'll find instructions on a stream the meeting live, listen on the phone or cable TV Channel 190.

Um we will give uh an option for public comment this evening.

Um we'll do that very shortly.

Um let's see.

You can always submit public uh comment in advance of a meeting by going to the commission page on Bozeman.net and emailing comments at Bozeman.net.

And if the subject is for the transportation board, they will be forwarded to us.

Uh any comment we see before noon today was distributed to read by the board.

So with that, I would like to uh formally call this meeting of March 25th, 2026 of the transportation board to order and first things first.

Uh are there any disclosures running on the board?

No.

Okay.

Uh changes to the agenda.

We have uh two absences that we do we need to like uh Mike Veslic is not able to make it and Bryce uh his Gordon is also not able to make it this evening.

Um we also have a new board member who will be starting uh next month, so that's exciting.

Um now I've forgotten her name as well.

Uh Grace.

Yes, Grace will be joining us next.

So that would be exciting.

We'll have uh a very active full meeting in April.

Um and so with that um let's open it up to uh public comment if you would like to see as you don't have a quorum and you seem to have a little extra time tonight.

Could I have five minutes instead of three minutes?

I think you'll find I have some interesting stories for you.

Sure.

Thank you.

Um my name is Ron Adlington.

Uh I live at 1808 Marias Lane.

I've lived in Bozeman as a retired person for the last 15 years, being a grandparent.

Um I have lived up and down the Rocky Mountains since I was 19 years old in ski resorts as a ski bum and outdoor jock since I was three.

I'm going to address um uh distracted driving uh and how to protect yourself from it from the point of view of the responsibility of an individual to take care of themselves rather than laws, rules, enforcement, uh, roads and that kind of thing.

Um I lived in Aspen for six years, Grant Target one year, uh Banff 17 years, Whitefish 10 years, Calgary 10 years, and now here 15 years.

I've been uh an outdoor jock since I was three.

I've never been hit by a car, and I'm still alive.

Um thing that I'd like to suggest is that you create a uh think tank that meets once a year of individuals, eclectric individuals that are outside of the normal thinking area of how to protect pedestrians.

And not somebody that's on a commission already, but uh my my key persons would be grant writers from the university, from uh uh uh major uh um uh uh fundraising uh groups, uh an orthopedic surgeon, uh a insurance person, uh two very very successful business people from the community, and that they address issues that are in uh in the public eye and on public safety and um where they can get unusual funding.

There are huge uh um what's the word I'm looking for?

Uh um foundations that that do grants, and maybe somebody who's not used to exploring that money that's available so that we can educate the public better and provide funds for uh uh clubs like Kwanas or Lions Club or that kind of thing to provide supplies to individuals who can't get them so that they can be safe when they go out on the roads.

So as a runner triathlete 32 uh marathons uh five Ironmans uh three Iron Man Hawaiis I used to train hard after I was 30 and was getting out of shape for skiing and um uh you've got to do things to protect yourself from the distracted drivers I used to run uh 50 miles a week uh ride a bike uh 140 miles a week uh and I trained year round outside in four season communities um so you as a as an athlete have to protect yourself and when you get up in the morning you get up 20 minutes early and then you go and you arrive at everything you're gonna go to 15 minutes early you're not dealing with other drivers that are in a hurry to get to where they're going uh and you're not dealing with the mentality that you're late um you wear colorful clothing I wore this hat today on purpose you can see me better than theoretically anybody else in a room this is a jacket that I carry in my pocket in a baggie gets cold out I got this on I have another one for a little colder and I have another one that's waterproof.

I obey the traffic laws um and um so when you come out the door no headphones no earbuds phone goes in your pocket on vibrate the only time you talk on the phone or listen uh is you stop and you gotta be an example for the other people um you run facing traffic you ride single file but the biggest thing is you're colorful and you gotta force that distracted driver to look at you.

So we got to get all those high school runners, university runners that you see at four o'clock every day ride running in the busiest time period I saw them driving down here tonight those kids got to wear neon and somebody's got to buy it for them.

They need to wear flashers on their waist every bicycle that's in town has to have a flasher on the back and a flasher on the front is that my five minutes okay um you've got to think safety your head's on a swim and uh somebody's got to teach this to kids.

Somebody's got to teach this uh to the track clubs and so to get the money for that you go back to your foundations and you hire somebody from the Bozeman um Bridger Ski Foundation that's a ski coach and they got a half year job well the other half of the year they're developing a website things that um I don't know about I mean cell phones weren't invented when I uh started running and uh uh you know there wasn't even a mountain bike and there were no snowboards and uh so I'm I'm not a good one to suggest on these things but I have experience and uh I just think that we can do a better job of educating the pedestrians or the pedestrian public to think of how can I avoid that myriad of distracted drivers thank you.

Yeah thank you Ron for starting the discussion with the board on this uh this really important issue and raising I went through that intersection this morning where that girl got killed a couple weeks ago on oak and I just cannot see how anybody to hit somebody there and just it's just scary.

Yeah.

Okay thanks.

Yeah thank you very much.

Would you also like to actually comment good evening I am Gracie Ann Caldwell, a student of Dr.

Paul LaChappel's politics of climate change course at the Montana State University campus.

I was assigned to give public comment at a local governing body but I was unable to access the state body I preferred.

However I believe my comment is applicable to both the City of Bozeman and the Montana Department of Transportation and I hope it spurs collaboration and action when you guys actually have quorum around the world fossil fuel dependence is linked to instability and risk.

And Montana that risk appears as barriers to resilience which we all know is important to Montana.

As you already know electric vehicles are more affordable, accessible and sustainable than ever before something reflected in the Montana Department of Transportation June 2022 prioritization study and by many sustainability minded Bozeman residents.

Yet many Montanans who could afford to switch to electric vehicles have not done so.

One of the largest reasons is a range anxiety, the fear that an unexpected or long trip will leave a driver stranded.

This concern is especially strong in rural areas where research shows people associate fossil fuel vehicles with safety because they have learned how to respond to breakdowns and empty tanks.

Electric vehicles, by contrast, feel unfamiliar, and unfamiliarity breeds fear.

If we want Bozeman families to make safe and sustainable private transportation decisions, we must address this fear directly.

Primarily, we need clear and accessible maps.

While there are available private maps of electric charging stations in Bozeman and across the state, they are known to be incomplete, unupdated, and sometimes entirely unreliable.

Making official an official city-sanctioned map makes these charging ports visible, reduces uncertainty, and displays a strong alignment with sustainability goals.

We have the technology, we have the resources.

Updating our information is a practical, low-cost step towards safer transportation, reduced fossil fuel resilience, and a more resilient Montana.

Thank you.

Thank you, Gracie.

All right.

Seeing no one else in the room and not being on Zoom, I think our comments are done.

Thank you both very much for your uh input tonight.

Um, and I would like to officially call this unofficial meeting to uh to its conclusion tonight.

Thank you, everyone.