Last week, the Director of Montana Department of Transportation, Mike Tooley, came to Billings to ride the trails will Billings TrailNet. Seeking to gain familiarity with the bike/ped infrastructure in Montana communities, Director Tooley makes a point to get first-hand experience on the trails and bikeways.
The Spoke Shop provided Mike with a bike for our 24-mile trip around the city, and shuttled us to our starting point at Zimmerman Park. Luckily, Director Tooley is an experienced bicyclist and was prepared to ride Highway 3 to tour five of our beautiful trails, beginning with Swords Park Trail, Black Otter Trail, Alkali Creek Trail, and the Kiwanis Trail.
We stopped at the soon-to-open John H. Dover Park at the top of Mary St. in the Heights and were given a personal tour of the area by YRPA’s Roger Williams. Sarah Hudson of Big Sky EDA was also present to discuss the vision for the industrial park on the east side of the river, and the proposed Billings Bypass which will stretch over the river and go through the park to Mary St.
The ride resumed toward downtown Billings via the Kiwanis Trail and Jim Dutcher Trail; across Airport Road and down the new Swords Park bypass to 6th Avenue North. We toured Montana Avenue and headed back to The Spoke Shop via Lewis Avenue.
Mike was surprised by the extent of our trail system, and encouraged Billings TrailNet to make suggestions for improving MDT’s urban roads for safe bicycle use. If you are familiar with the the MDT system in Billings and have any suggestions for simple, relatively inexpensive improvements, please email kristi@billingstrailnet.org.
See the map below for a list of MDT routes in Billings. Roads marked in red indicate MDT routes.
MDT routes in Billings are:
- King Ave.- from the interchange to 24th St.
- King Ave.- from Shiloh to 80th
- 27th St.- from the airport to the Interstate
- Airport Road- from the roundabout to approximately the Swords Rimrock Park overlook
- all of Main Street
- 1st Ave. North
- 1st Ave. South
- Montana Ave.
- Laurel Road- 6th Ave. Underpass to the Interstate
- Division- 1st. Ave. North to Montana Ave.
- 4th Ave.- from 13th to Main St.