If you live in a neighborhood located just south of Main Street in Bozeman and you park on the street, listen up: pretty soon, every Tuesday of the month, you’ll have to move your car to a specific side of the street for the city’s new Odd-Even Parking Program.
“We’d have cleaner, wider streets for sure,” Pat Hill tells me as he reflects on this new program.
Hill has lived on the corner of Wilson and Curtis for 22 years and has always parked on the street. But he tells me in recent years?
“It's just gotten a little more competitive. It’s a lot more crowded in the neighborhood with the bed and breakfast and the tourists and stuff."
Which is why the city is implementing an odd-even parking pilot program for snow plowing. The basic idea? On the first and third Tuesdays of the month, cars have to be parked on the side of the street with odd house numbers. On the second and fourth Tuesdays, even house numbers.
The program goes into effect next Tuesday, Feb. 4. But for now it will only apply to folks like Pat, who live south of Main Street on Bozeman's Tuesday schedule for snow plowing.
“That would be a good idea if people would participate. Because clean streets make for easier parking and easier traveling,” says Pat.
But Pat has his doubts: “I think it’s a good idea. I don’t think everyone’s going to participate, though."
So how has the city been getting the word out, other than a brief presentation scheduled for Tuesday's City Commission meeting?
“We’ll then start sending out direct mailers to everybody in the affected area. Then we’ll put up door hangers,” Nick Ross, the director of transportation and engineering for the City of Bozeman tells me.
If you live in the area you can expect to see those soon. Ross tells me this Odd-Even Parking Program has been in the works since the major snowstorm hit earlier in January, causing a backup for plows. Ross tells me the goal of the new program?
“If we have no cars parked in the way we can usually run our motor graters at about 4 miles per hour. We measured service throughout the last period, and we were below 1 mile per hour in a lot of locations,” Ross tells me.
So will there be any penalty if someone doesn't move their car?
“For this trial period, we’re not going to be fining people in enforcement. So, it’s just going to be warnings in hope of educating folks and maybe next Tuesday getting better compliance as we inch along," Ross says.
If this pilot program goes well, the odd-even system will be effective citywide next winter.
“Success of the program will be fully reliant on folks following directions, moving cars, and helping us get that work done,” says Ross.
Something Pat hopes to see.
“I think the whole city needs it for sure, not just here. We’ll see how it goes. There's a lot of cars here," he says.
