Question: What are OKC drivers like compared to other cities?

[Roger S]

I was under the impression that turn signals were optional on late model cars.

By late model you mean 2015 or older right?

[rezman]

By late model you mean 2015 or older right?

That pretty much covers it... yes.

[Mel]

I do not understand the thinking of some people driving in neighborhoods. There will be cars parked on the side of the street. It happens. Seen it most of my life. But some idiots will swing so far away from a known hazard, the parked car, to almost have a head to head collision with a vehicle going the opposite way. Silver Street, one of the main drags into my neighbor, is wide enough to park 4 cars side by side.

[TheTravellers]

I do not understand the thinking of some people driving in neighborhoods. There will be cars parked on the side of the street. It happens. Seen it most of my life. But some idiots will swing so far away from a known hazard, the parked car, to almost have a head to head collision with a vehicle going the opposite way. Silver Street, one of the main drags into my neighbor, is wide enough to park 4 cars side by side.

See that all the time, and meanwhile I get by the cars with about a foot of clearance. They're probably the same idiots that swing out into the left lane while turning right, they have no idea where their vehicle's physical boundaries are and how to handle it. Saw some doofus in a huge-a** pickup truck waiting to turn right out of a car wash on Penn, he was waiting because cars were turning in and he couldn't figure out how to turn his steering wheel all the way to the right to actually not take up the whole entrance while turning out of the car wash.

As the race car driver said, figure out what your car's limits are, know your car. That's one of the first things I do when I get a new car - figure out how long it is, how wide it is, how fast it'll go around curves (my CJ-7 was kinda lacking in that respect, I found out pretty quickly), etc. But a ton of people can't figure out how to turn the dome light off and on, much less how their car actually operates.

[rezman]

As the race car driver said, figure out what your car's limits are, know your car.

Then figure out what your own limits are.

[Mel]

See that all the time, and meanwhile I get by the cars with about a foot of clearance. They're probably the same idiots that swing out into the left lane while turning right, they have no idea where their vehicle's physical boundaries are and how to handle it. Saw some doofus in a huge-a** pickup truck waiting to turn right out of a car wash on Penn, he was waiting because cars were turning in and he couldn't figure out how to turn his steering wheel all the way to the right to actually not take up the whole entrance while turning out of the car wash.

As the race car driver said, figure out what your car's limits are, know your car. That's one of the first things I do when I get a new car - figure out how long it is, how wide it is, how fast it'll go around curves (my CJ-7 was kinda lacking in that respect, I found out pretty quickly), etc. But a ton of people can't figure out how to turn the dome light off and on, much less how their car actually operates.

This will sound so cliché, but, exactly. I can pass by a parked car, always check for head shadows in the driver seat, close enough to make my wife say eek. Once you get dialed into your car's handling there is no excuse for the sloppy driving I see everywhere. Though, most times I wouldn't mind if they flared curbs a bit more at exits and entrances.

[TheTravellers]

Saw this yesterday, thought it appropriate for this thread...

[Mel]

I try very hard to keep my eyes on the road and check my 6 but when they have the Hot Rod show in town I'm a hopeless rubber necker. They like to come out to Mustang and get some pics at our retro gas station. I'm going to go cruise around tonight and probably go up 66 to Pop's.

[cbing04]

Having lived in 5 other states, I would have to say that the drivers in OK are by far the worst ever. Yield means just that and people do not know how to merge which makes driving here on the worst roads damn near a death sentence every time you get in your car.

[traxx]

Having lived in 5 other states, I would have to say that the drivers in OK are by far the worst ever. Yield means just that and people do not know how to merge which makes driving here on the worst roads damn near a death sentence every time you get in your car.

You're new to the board, you have two posts and both are negative toward Oklahoma and Oklahomans. You're gonna get labeled a troll if you're not careful. We understand we're not perfect as a city, state or people, but there are better ways to make a critical analysis.

[sooner88]

235 and 44 is the one of the best examples of people not paying attention to the yield sign. The oncoming traffic blows through the sign and traffic has to come to almost a standstill to allow for the cars to get over and exit.

[zookeeper]

235 and 44 is the one of the best examples of people not paying attention to the yield sign. The oncoming traffic blows through the sign and traffic has to come to almost a standstill to allow for the cars to get over and exit.

It was like that at one time, but isn't that fixed now? I remember the famous yields into traffic - no entry lane at all. Kind of like NW Expressway and May, coming off NW Expressway and doing the circle thing up to southbound May Avenue (northbound not much better, but you can at least see the sign coming up). People from out of town would never expect a yield sign (or a stop sign) on an on/off ramp like that. That is a major disaster waiting to happen. They already have years ago, some really sad stories there. But it's been awhile and someone will be asking how it was allowed to stay that way for so long.

Thinking again about what you wrote, coming off 235 southbound to take the Northwest Expressway westbound is crazy. And then NW Expressway and Bell Isle Station. It all makes for what I believe was rated the number one intersection for accidents last year.

[Laramie]

Visited Bricktown this past Saturday; this was my observation of OKC drivers:

5:35 p.m. Arrived at Bass Pro to pick up a few items before the baseball game.

There was a huge outdoor street concert in Bricktown (dominated by women in shorts wearing cowboy boots) where it was difficult to keep my eyes focused or listen to my 2 grandsons' ooh & aah as they made their crack of dawn remarks... ; it was the worst I've seen with traffic congestion in OKC central yet.

The OKC drivers continued to be courteous despite the traffic wrap-around jams that took us from the parking lot of the Bass Pro Shop (true nightmare) to the Bricktown Ballpark. Had to park as far away as the Downtown YMCA parking lot, walk to the Walnut Street Bridge to get to the ballpark.

Chevy Events Center lot (half full) wanted $30 to park (Hell No!). Arrived for the start of the 3rd inning for a 7:05 p.m. start.

[ljbab728]

Visited Bricktown this past Saturday; this was my observation of OKC drivers:

5:35 p.m. Arrived at Bass Pro to pick up a few items before the baseball game.

There was a huge outdoor street concert in Bricktown (dominated by women in shorts wearing cowboy boots) where it was difficult to keep my eyes focused or listen to my 2 grandsons' ooh & aah as they made their crack of dawn remarks... ; it was the worst I've seen with traffic congestion in OKC central yet.

The OKC drivers continued to be courteous despite the traffic wrap-around jams that took us from the parking lot of the Bass Pro Shop (true nightmare) to the Bricktown Ballpark. Had to park as far away as the Downtown YMCA parking lot, walk to the Walnut Street Bridge to get to the ballpark.

Chevy Events Center lot (half full) wanted $30 to park (Hell No!). Arrived for the start of the 3rd inning for a 7:05 p.m. start.

I'm not sure I understand why you did that. The Bass Pro parking lot is easy walking distance to the ballpark.

[fromdust]

After spending time in Rome, Madrid and Athens the drivers of Okc are saints compared to those lunatics.

[TheTravellers]

Ten States With the Worst Drivers

#9, gosh, I'm shocked.

[rezman]

"Worst offenders in failure to obey" ... Why am I not surprised?.

[TheTravellers]

If anybody here does these things below, *please* tell me why, as I can't find any of these actions justifiable....

When someone behind you floats a stop sign (one of many in our subdivision that are improperly and inconsistently placed for speed control, which is a no-no, not safety), and you come to a complete stop at future stop signs for 30 seconds (in order to make the person behind you "behave"? Newsflash - doesn't work, just p*sses the driver behind you off and they'll most likely pass you the first chance they get).

When you're squatting in the left lane of a highway and not passing anybody and somebody behind you flashes their lights at you (meaning "move over, you're not passing anybody and it's illegal (and rude) to sit in the left lane like that), and you decide to not only *not* move over, but to slow down and keep them from passing you.

When you're driving down the highway and someone passes you, you decide to follow them and get in front of them and slam on your brakes (to theoretically slow them down? Newsflash - doesn't work, just p*sses off the driver behind you and they'll most likely pass you the first chance they get).

When you're driving down the highway and someone is trying to get past you, you slow down to match traffic so they can't get by.

When you're on the highway and somebody is coming up behind you in your lane, then passes you on the left and then changes lanes back in front of you (about 4-5 car lengths ahead of you, not dangerously close to you) to get off at an exit (because you were going slower than the speed limit), you get off at their exit, tailgate them, and try to intimidate them.

When you're driving in a neighborhood with a 25 MPH limit and you're going 10 MPH and somebody comes up behind you and passes you because you're going so slow and *then* you decide to go faster and you follow them and try to intimidate them.

Oklahoma City is the only place I've driven where I see this kind of crap (along with lots of other stupid stuff that happens that I didn't list and yes, other drivers in other cities do bad/stupid things, but I see these specific things very, very frequently here) consistently, pretty much daily, and often. Why? Does the conservative, sheeple, groupthink mind here extend to driving and traffic so much that nobody driving out of the ordinary can be tolerated and must be subjected to vigilantism?

If somebody wants to float poorly placed stop signs and drive faster than the other drivers, YOU ARE NOT A COP - just let them go and forget about it or call 911 if you're that concerned about their driving being unsafe, but don't be a d*** and turn into a vigilante.

[Snowman]

...

Oklahoma City is the only place I've driven where I see this kind of crap (along with lots of other stupid stuff that happens that I didn't list and yes, other drivers in other cities do bad/stupid things, but I see these specific things very, very frequently here) consistently, pretty much daily, and often. Why? Does the conservative, sheeple, groupthink mind here extend to driving and traffic so much that nobody driving out of the ordinary can be tolerated and must be subjected to vigilantism? ...

Every place the other drivers are likely to have some annoying habits. While a lot of what you mention seem related in they are obviously frustrating in people wasting capacity being too cautions, we also have people who do aggressive maneuvers for pointless reasons too.

Some of that may be related that we are a small large city with decent capacity for our size, much larger population with our network and it would be to the point that most of the time the congestion would be more of a limit than whatever the other drivers did (other than flat out crashing), much smaller and we probably would have fewer freeways/highways. Eastern and older cities tend not to have as clean a grid of distributor streets where non highway traffic can even make decent speeds.

Some of those situations probably have to do with taking drivers actions personally, if someone is riding your tail or acting like an ass to you in some other way (not all of what you are sympathetic to is legal either), many people's reaction is not to be nice back, sure objectively it would be better to just get out of the way or not been there in the first place. Add to that it can be easy to see other cars on the road as objects verses as something with people in them, where as they probably would be nicer if was a similar situation on a sidewalk.

[ljbab728]

That reminds me of a situation I recently had on the Hefner Parkway. I was driving north in fairly light traffic and was going the speed limit in the right hand lane. A car came up behind me and was driving dangerously close to the rear of my car. I started to slow down to get them to pass and had to get down to about 45 before they gave up and went around me.

[jompster]

I noticed today that people around here seem to have lost their common sense a bit. I was traveling south on I-35 in the center lane, and was moving at 70 like everyone else around me, when a little car came screaming past everyone going at least 100-110 mph. Stupid. Then, not even 2 hours later, I was coming back north on 35 in the left lane when some jackass was right on my bumper. I moved one lane to the right and he darted right across all lanes to try to pass me on the right side, and he side-swiped another car and rammed it right off the road. He tried to keep going with a blown tire and I tailed him (on the phone with Moore police) to the Starbucks at N 27th. Watched as a friend pulled up and tried to help him change the tire when the police showed up. Be careful out there. After watching this, it makes me nervous as hell driving around some of these psychos.

[Uptowner]

I spend a lot of time driving on 23rd. I can't stand people "acting casual" to avoid attention from police by doing 5 under the already low and mostly unenforced/disregarded limit of 30. **NEWS FLASH** you're doing 25 on a 4-6 lane avenue in a hoopty with rusted off mufflers, 3 missing hub caps, and threads of weathered duct tape holding bits of smashed car parts onto the chassis. If a cop wants to shake you down for the substance you might be carrying: he's just going to point out that you've hot glued a maybelline compact in the gaping hole where side mirror used to be. OR just say you were swerving.

The other, and slightly annoying more alternative, is to drive E-W on 24th and 22nd streets. I call this "ridin dirty" as 50 cent put it. It's a shame because those rusted off mufflers can put off just the right frequencies to rattle my windows at all hours of night.

I miss the inspection stickers in OK, there's just too many cars on the road that have no business there. It's a safety issue for everyone. I saw some teenagers in a mid nineties geo with alignment so out of order it was crab walking at about 10 degrees while the wheel balance had tires Independently hopping off the ground looking like it was about to shake the car into pieces. All this while doing 90 up I-35 near sw29th st.

[Plutonic Panda]

^^^ This.. so much this,

[baralheia]

Yeah, as much of a pain as it can be, I would be totally in favor of bringing vehicle inspections back to OK... it's absolutely a public safety issue.

[Plutonic Panda]

More revenue for the state(would this go to roads, highways, and bridges?) and would bring drivers more safety. Oklahoma is one of the only states where I've literally had to dodge pieces of others cars while driving on the highway.