The Montana Department of Transportation has installed new signs along U.S. 191 near the mouth of Gallatin Canyon warning drivers of elk crossings. The signs feature a picture of an elk. As if we didn’t know what an elk looked like.

I have driven 191 since before they widened it, and in that time I have encountered elk on the road, elk beside the road, elk standing in the middle of the road staring at me with an expression that can only be described as bureaucratic indifference. Not once did I require a sign to inform me of what was happening.

The elk don’t read signs. The elk have been crossing that stretch of highway since before the highway existed. If anything, the highway is crossing the elk.

What we need is not more signage. What we need is for people to drive like they might encounter a 700-pound animal at any moment, which in the Gallatin Valley is not a hypothetical. It is a Tuesday.

I counted fourteen new signs between Four Corners and the canyon. That’s roughly one sign every half mile. I’d like to know what each one cost. I’d like to know who approved the design. And I’d like to know whether anyone consulted the elk, who have been managing their own crossings with zero fatalities on their end for thousands of years.

Gerald Fencepost has lived in Belgrade since 1991 and has strong feelings about most intersections.