I was reading in The Point (OKC Chamber's monthly magazine) that on the 2009 legislative agenda that quiet zones will be established along the BNSF route through downtown. I got onto flashearth.com and noticed that these will effect streets NE 7th through NE 16th.

Being that it is only January, I'm positive no work has even been started on this and just thought it'd be nice to get a thread started up so if anyone sees any progress or feels like they want to post some pics that this will be the place for it.

It's hard to imagine that in the near future the only train blowing its whistle in/thru downtown will be the Heartland Flyer.

Who will foot the bill for this? Taxpayers I am guessing.

Norman is doing the same thing. It involves either making crossings go above or below the tracks or for at-grade crossing installing new gates and concrete dividers. It also has a side effect of making crossing less "rough" on your car. 10th street crossing is a good example of a crossing that needs some work...

I know this thread is a bit old, but I want to chime in and say what a timely bit of legislation this is. I moved downtown about a year ago, and the train is really the only noise down here... they come at all hours and you would think it was right outside your window. With all the new housing going in down here, this will make downtown & bricktown much more livable...

I know this thread is a bit old, but I want to chime in and say what a timely bit of legislation this is. I moved downtown about a year ago, and the train is really the only noise down here... they come at all hours and you would think it was right outside your window. With all the new housing going in down here, this will make downtown & bricktown much more livable...

It's the same with downtown Norman, the train drives me crazy! Central Norman would be so much better with quiet crossings.....

I was reading in The Point (OKC Chamber's monthly magazine) that on the 2009 legislative agenda that quiet zones will be established along the BNSF route through downtown. I got onto flashearth.com and noticed that these will effect streets NE 7th through NE 16th.

Being that it is only January, I'm positive no work has even been started on this and just thought it'd be nice to get a thread started up so if anyone sees any progress or feels like they want to post some pics that this will be the place for it.

It's hard to imagine that in the near future the only train blowing its whistle in/thru downtown will be the Heartland Flyer.


Actually Urban Neighbors and other groups have been working on this issue for a long time now. I hope it is resolved this year as indicated in the Chambers 2009 legislative agenda.

Actually Urban Neighbors and other groups have been working on this issue for a long time now. I hope it is resolved this year as indicated in the Chambers 2009 legislative agenda.

I read in another thread that adding a stoplight to an intersection had an estimated cost of $95,000. At all of these crossings through downtown there are two gates on them and the obvious problem is that people swerve through the gates at the last moment. These new crossing gates would be a four gate system. I don't know whether that is a full replacement with four new swinging gates or they just add two but either way I think that the new system will be far more expensive than that one stoplight.

I don't know if KFOR is behind but they had a story about a study guide for this on their website today. So if that's just now getting started then who knows how long it will be before that is over and the money is put into place. I'd say somewhere in 2010 before it's all said and done.

I'm sorry for those of you that hate the constant whistling. I wouldn't mind it a bit. But then again, I'm a train buff...

You would if you were less than a block from the tracks and it blew in your windows several times in the middle of the night, 2am, 3am, 5am, etc. I live almost a mile from the tracks and have a foot thick concrete walls plus sheetrock and I can still hear it in my condo. It's annoying and needed. I know of at least one major downtown residential project that is ready to build as soon as this issue is resolved.

I go to a yoga studio in Edmond that served as a former lumber loading station for the tracks. It's actually kind of neat to hear the trains to by so close, and feel the rumble underneath. I'm not sure how I'd feel about living next to it, though.

Quiet zone or no quiet zone, I wish our city leaders would work with the RR folk to restrict the freight trains from coming through during RUSH HOUR.

There is nothing like turning off the B'way Extension after 30 minutes in gridlock, only to turn onto 10th street (or 6th for that matter) and have to wait for a train.

Other cities (Augusta, GA is one) restrict the freight trains from coming through during a.m. and p.m. rush hour.

I live a few blocks west of broadway in HH and the rr definitely needs to become a quite zone. You get used to the train, but when we have guest (especially overnight), or out on the front porch visiting it is really really annoying. You have to literally yell, or just stop your conversation when the train comes by. Some of the engineers try to take it easy, but others are a constanst horn.

Another advantage for the deaf people. :LolLolLol

The ones at 240 and Sooner drive me insane. They go at all hours and seem to whistle the entire time they are driving through the area. I swear there's a train every hour on that line. And it backs up traffic a mile in each direction during the day.

I would LOVE to see a quiet zone put in there as well as toss the at-grade crossing!!!!!

The City Council has it to discuss on their agenda today as item VI. J. . If any of you are able to make it, #1 please thank them for finally discussing it, and #2 please encourage them to pass it!!! I can't make it but hope maybe Doug, Steve or someone else will be there.

The ones at 240 and Sooner drive me insane. They go at all hours and seem to whistle the entire time they are driving through the area. I swear there's a train every hour on that line. And it backs up traffic a mile in each direction during the day.

I would LOVE to see a quiet zone put in there as well as toss the at-grade crossing!!!!!

Huh? That's a dead end line--the spur out to the old GM plant. Being that that plant has been empty for some time now, I can't imagine there being much traffic on that line as I also imagine Tinker hasn't reconfigured the plant to their specifications to have that much shipping already. The only thing I can figure is they're stripping all the excess GM equipment out and they're hauling it by load after load of trains. Load after load of trains though really only involves coal...

It's far from a dead line. Like I said, it blocks traffic every day, and there's a train at least every hour for 24 hours a day. It may not really GO anywhere, but there are trains parked up and down that stretch all the time. They have to cross Sooner to get there, which is why the crossing is annoying!!!!! UGH!

I heard the council was warm to the idea yesterday and passed the motion to "explore the matter further." From what I understand, this is basically a formality even though they already have all the information they need to make a qualified decision. Hopefully we'll see some RFP's go out later this year.

I heard the council was warm to the idea yesterday and passed the motion to "explore the matter further." From what I understand, this is basically a formality even though they already have all the information they need to make a qualified decision. Hopefully we'll see some RFP's go out later this year.

That is frickin fantastic...SERIOUSLY!

You would if you were less than a block from the tracks and it blew in your windows several times in the middle of the night, 2am, 3am, 5am, etc. I live almost a mile from the tracks and have a foot thick concrete walls plus sheetrock and I can still hear it in my condo. It's annoying and needed.

It is needed? That's strange just because people such as yourself CHOSE to live close to the tracks the city needs to spend tax dollars? I for one would rather see the money spent elsewhere like fixing some the streets in need of repair rather than changing something that people were aware of before they moved in. Noise at all hours is part of urban living...

It is needed? That's strange just because people such as yourself CHOSE to live close to the tracks the city needs to spend tax dollars? I for one would rather see the money spent elsewhere like fixing some the streets in need of repair rather than changing something that people were aware of before they moved in. Noise at all hours is part of urban living...

However, what if it's keeping people from moving into the area and reclaiming unused, untaxed property in the area? If we can get a higher, more intense use for the open property, we could then increase the tax role and receipts, which would more than make up for the money spent to create the quiet zone.

I guess by this logic, dalelakin, that the area around NW 164th and Western should be left as old two-lane roads without traffic lights. After all, should we be spending tax dollars improving streets where they were already bad when people moved in?

Why should the standards for urban dwellers be any different than those for suburban dwellers? If anything, the area where Metro chose to live requires less public investment because police and fire protection are already established, where as along the suburban fringe (where I live, by the way), the city has to do far more than just street improvements.

Something to think about...


It is needed? That's strange just because people such as yourself CHOSE to live close to the tracks the city needs to spend tax dollars? I for one would rather see the money spent elsewhere like fixing some the streets in need of repair rather than changing something that people were aware of before they moved in. Noise at all hours is part of urban living...

I said this way back in 2005, in a piece about the new rules for subdivisions in OKC:


Were I a New Urbanist, I suppose I would be appalled that folks are moving way out to the fringes of the city. But I take comfort in the fact that they're still in the city, no matter what their return address may say: we're all in this together, whether we live on 9th Street, 99th Street, or 199th Street.

I've seen nothing to change my mind on this topic. (I live between 9th and 99th, though closer to the former.)

dustbury.com: New rules for new developments (http://www.dustbury.com/archives/003878.html)

Granted, Windowphobe (how many aliases do you have anyway?), but the basis of my question doesn't change. If one were to say a downtown resident can't expect money to be spent on a quiet zone because the train noise was there when they moved in, then wouldn't the same argument apply to widening Western Avenue and adding traffic lights north of NW 150 to accomodate increased traffic from increased residential population there because, after all, those obsolete two-lane country roads were there when they moved in...

This is a little off topic for a thread that I started but imagine how the folks in and around Mustang feel. All those OKC streets surrounding their city, I've heard, are horrible. At least the residences on the north side of OKC (SW Edmond) are getting street upgrades--and trust me, it's needed!

Don't really have sympathy for Mustang residents complaining about OKC roads. That's sort of their problem for being a suburb in the middle of a vast swath of less-populated OKC.

Steve interesting point but I think that would fall into the point that cafeboeuf is making and considering both which should be addressed first? I would think there is a greater potential for larger tax increases from the development of the suburbs than the inner city. However suburban living is not near as chic and should take a back seat to the urban dwellers right?:poke:

The last I checked, dalelakin, only the county's operations budget, not the city's, benefits from the property taxes that new suburban housing generates.

Steve interesting point but I think that would fall into the point that cafeboeuf is making and considering both which should be addressed first? I would think there is a greater potential for larger tax increases from the development of the suburbs than the inner city. However suburban living is not near as chic and should take a back seat to the urban dwellers right?:poke:

Actually, my point is that it's easier to generate new tax growth in areas where infrastructure already exists, i.e, urban areas, than it is in the outlying areas. Why would you want to promote growth where it costs the City an large amount of money to sustain the growth, than in the in area where the costs have already been expended? The cost to expand in suburban areas outweighs the sales tax generated by incoming residents in outlying areas.

Suburban growth would only be relatively sustainable if the new residents were not already from OKC, or, if they were moving within OKC, their original homes would be filled by outsiders. Therefore, we can only support suburban growth if we could find a way to support a much higher infill growth rate.

Okay, so I finally got an update from reputable people on the inside of the "Quiet Zone" issue yesterday. Looks like the City Council and persons who need to be involved are finally on board and realize this is a needed project and is one of several top priorities on the list for future improvements. Realistically we're probably looking at 2012 before it's complete I'm told, but people are pushing to get it done sooner. We're looking at about $4 million dollars but that will create a quiet zone all the way past NW 23rd street. Right now the City is trying to figure out creative ways to find the funding, perhaps even seeing if there is federal money that could help out. Dang train woke me up about 3 times last night at all hours of the night, the last one being around 6:45am.

This is a waste of taxpayer money to create "quiet zones". If you don't like the sound of trains, don't move close to where the tracks are...

So we should just avoid ALL of downtown? Do you realize 50,000 plus people work downtown (the largest concentration of workers in the state), and then another 3,000 or more people live in the area, and this isn't even counting the Health Sciences Center, the State Capitol complex and nearby neighborhoods, if you add in those, we're talking well over 100,000 people, by far the most densely populated section of the state.

Where I grew up, I was at least half a mile from the tracks that divided our little town in half. I could hear the trains at 3am even that far away! It's almost impossible to "avoid" them, as a poster has suggested.

This is a waste of taxpayer money to create "quiet zones". If you don't like the sound of trains, don't move close to where the tracks are...

A quiet zone in this region will probably give the city a big return on their investment. If you look at the area in question now, and then calculate what kind of property tax return the city will get with new development in this area if a quiet zone in created, it's probably a no brainer to spend a few million dollars.

God, Imagine Chicago. It's a railroad hub! What do all those poor people do?!
Regardless, I think the quiet zones will be nice. As a train enthusiast, I wouldn't mind it. It's not like you still won't be able to hear the rumble of the diesel engines from far away.

OKC, you might mind it if you live a mile away from the area in question (with 8 inch thick concrete walls) and you can still hear it several times a night, after midnight, on in until sunrise everyday........

Comes with the territory.

use to live in lincoln terrace and the train was louder over there then it is now on the eastern edge of heritage hills were I live now.

I wonder if the train conductors know about this quiet zone issue and have been blowing the whistles more frequently, especially at night.

I have noticed it more as of late, but that may be because now I am in tune with the whistles.

My sister stayed at the Renaissance a few years back when she was in town to get a good night sleep away from her two toddler boys. Her plans were dashed when the train kept her awake all night. So, don't forget the impact on the tourism dollars here. I am sure we would not want visitors to our city to just stay somewhere away from the tracks.

OKC, you might mind it if you live a mile away from the area in question (with 8 inch thick concrete walls) and you can still hear it several times a night, after midnight, on in until sunrise everyday........

That was the point of what I posted. On any given windless, crisp, fall night you can hear the whistles of an engine on one of those trains from as far as 10 miles away. So I'm not disagreeing with you and whether you have two feet of concrete between you and the engine--I'm betting you'd still hear it!

That was the point of what I posted. On any given windless, crisp, fall night you can hear the whistles of an engine on one of those trains from as far as 10 miles away. So I'm not disagreeing with you and whether you have two feet of concrete between you and the engine--I'm betting you'd still hear it!

I agree, one can hear train whistles from quite a ways away. I used to hear them well when I lived about a mile away from the closest grade level crossing.

However, sound intensity (energy quantity) decreases with 1/r², so people living a mile away hear train noise with far less intensity than if you're living a half a block from the track. The air horns can be quite loud. There's quite a bit of variability in how different engineers lay on the horn, but it's all loud if you're up close. The brain does learn to shut off sound, which is why one can learn to sleep through train whistles, but if you're already awake, it can be quite impressive.

Okay, so I finally got an update from reputable people on the inside of the "Quiet Zone" issue yesterday. Looks like the City Council and persons who need to be involved are finally on board and realize this is a needed project and is one of several top priorities on the list for future improvements. Realistically we're probably looking at 2012 before it's complete I'm told, but people are pushing to get it done sooner. We're looking at about $4 million dollars but that will create a quiet zone all the way past NW 23rd street. Right now the City is trying to figure out creative ways to find the funding, perhaps even seeing if there is federal money that could help out. Dang train woke me up about 3 times last night at all hours of the night, the last one being around 6:45am.

Did you get your update from the Planning Dept., the Finance Dept., or the Public Works Dept.? Just curious...