Montana Department of Transportation

Frequently Asked Questions

Is there anyway that this project can be designed to help school children get across 13th Street?
The use of bulb-outs at the intersection will help bring drivers’ attention to the pedestrians at the intersection as well as reduce the pedestrians’ crossing distances. The cross-walk striping will be updated to make them more apparent to motorists.

Will parking be affected in the vicinity of this intersection?
Parking will be eliminated at the four corners of the intersection. The limits of the no-parking areas will be determined once the final taper rates, bulb-out designs, and required sight triangles are established and discussed with the city of Billings.

Why isn’t this intersection being signalized?
The warrants for a Traffic signal are not currently met and it is not planned to include a traffic signal as part of this project. The improvements being made at this intersection are required with or without a traffic signal. This project is being designed to accommodate a future signal should warrants be met at a later date. The traffic volumes and crash history will be monitored once the proposed improvements are in place to determine if changes in traffic patterns occur, which may warrant a separate project for signalization of the intersection.

Has MDT considered a four-way stop at this intersection?
MDT explored the possibility of changing the intersection control at this location to a four-way stop, but chose not to implement this form of control. Four-way stop intersections typically function very well at locations with similar traffic volumes on each roadway. Unfortunately, at this location the 13th Street traffic is more than double that of the traffic on Parkhill. Given this traffic loading, a four-way stop at this intersection will not function efficiently. 13th Street would see significant delays and back-up traffic if the intersection was changed to a four-way stop. A poor functioning intersection at this location may also result in traffic, typically traveling on 13th, to use residential streets as a means to avoid this intersection. This could cause significant volume increases through residential areas not geometrically designed to accommodate such traffic loads.

Can through traffic on Parkhill and left turning movements on to and off of 13th be eliminated to reduce accidents?
One of the first options explored by MDT was the potential of eliminating through traffic movements on Parkhill and left turning movements on to and off of 13th to reduce potential traffic conflicts at this intersection. MDT chose not to implement this option for several reasons. Traffic data shows that 55% to 60% of the vehicles traveling on Parkhill make a through movement at this intersection. Eliminating this movement will result in through traffic relocating to a different intersection in order to get to their desired location and result in significant volume increases through residential areas that may not be capable of supporting the increased traffic loads. Additionally, alterations to this intersection may reduce the response time that emergency vehicles currently have in this neighborhood.

Can the speed limit on 13th Street be reduced as part of this project?
MDT has no jurisdiction over the speed limit on 13th Street. In order to have the speed limit adjusted on 13th Street, it is necessary to contact the City of Billings and request that the speed limit be evaluated. Residents should be aware that given the geometrics along 13th Street and apparent driver comfort levels, the speed limit may actually be increased if a speed study is completed.

Are there any means to get the travel speeds on 13th Street reduced other than the speed limit?
Yes, there are other means to reducing travel speeds; these are often referred to as traffic calming plans. There are several forms of traffic calming devices that can be incorporated into plans to help reduce driver travel speeds. A joint effort between the city of Billings and the local residents along 13th Street would be required to develop and put into affect a "traffic calming" plan. Development of a traffic calming plan is outside of the scope of the subject project, but below are some links to sites that provide general information concerning traffic calming information.
http://www.fhwa.dot.gov/environment/tcalm/ http://www.trafficcalming.org/ http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Traffic_calming http://www.ci.missoula.mt.us/publicworks/calming.htm