Highway 9 - Norman

[gman11695]

From the quick search I did, I couldn't find another thread about Highway 9 in Norman. But are there any plans to do anything with Highway 9?? It is the worst part of my drive every day. Traffic has become so bad, the turn lanes are so short that often traffic backs up onto the highway, the traffic lights are so poorly timed that you can go the entire stretch of 9 from I-35 to 24th Ave SE and hit EVERY SINGLE stoplight. I know this is far-fetched, but Highway 9 really needs to be a proper highway with on and off ramps. In the shot term, they need to lengthen the left turn lanes, also so that way when you're going 55 MPH, you don't have to stomp on the brake to stop in the short turn lane. And something needs to be done about the traffic lights.

[HangryHippo]

They really screwed up when they didn't fix the interchange with 24th Ave SW when they just redid it.

[FighttheGoodFight]

Agree. Need double lanes at imhoff. It is a constant stopping point. Saw a 4 car wreck there a few days ago.

[pure]

I drive on Highway 9 everyday from I-35 to 24th SE. Going East is easy in the morning since I'm driving it at 6:30-7:00 AM and there's barely any traffic. Going West between 4:30 PM and 5:30 PM is terrible though. I open Google Maps before I leave work to check the traffic and if it's heavy, I cut through the neighborhood at Berry and come out at 24th SW. It usually saves a good 5-10 minutes.

[Scott5114]

Agreed that there needs to be something done here. As far as I know, there's no plans for anything having to do with Highway 9 except for gradually widening it to four lanes between 36th Avenue SE and the Pottawatomie County line—which won't do much for the congested section further west, of course.

I think the main issue here is that Highway 9 traffic counts are lower than the traditional threshold for a full freeway. ODOT probably looks at that and thinks there's nothing they need to do. Traffic to East Norman is only going to grow, of course, and it's a potentially unsafe situation as it is right now. But It might take a push from legislators or the general public to make a freeway happen.

Getting into fantasy land, if you build the freeway out to around Lake Thunderbird you could have it tie in to a future southern extension of the Eastern Oklahoma County turnpike, thereby essentially giving us an eastern bypass of the OKC metro.

[KenRagsdale]

I've driven OK Highway 9 for decades. The answer is simple. Monday-through-Friday, the NPD, Cleveland County Sheriff's Office and the OHP should contract with a salvage yard and towing service to deposit a junk vehicle somewhere on OK Highway 9. It should be sprayed with combustible fuel and ignited; monitored by law enforcement. It will not save commuting time, but will save lives and property damage.

[gman11695]

Something really needs to be done about the timing of the light at 24th. It took me 15 minutes today to get from Jenkins Jenkins to 35 because this light would stay green only long enough to let about 10 cars through. Traffic was backed up to Berry