Traffic in OKC

[Pete]

General thread for discussing traffic issues in OKC, current or future.

[stile99]

Thanks for removing the other posts Pete, but this thread isn't needed either. Not with multiple threads about OKC roads and OKC drivers already existing, that's the definition of traffic. Including one specifically about traffic, in case anyone disagrees that roads and drivers aren't sufficient.

https://www.okctalk.com/showthread.php?t=42512

https://www.okctalk.com/showthread.php?t=43335

https://www.okctalk.com/showthread.php?t=33409

https://www.okctalk.com/showthread.php?t=37254

https://www.okctalk.com/showthread.php?t=35613

A quick glance shows we've been in circles about this issue for some time, with the same players repeating the same positions, and as you noted sometimes threadcrapping on unrelated threads as well. While I understand the point of a dedicated thread, there's already dozens of them, and a small number of people have demonstrated they most certainly will not restrict their opinions to those threads. I'm not going to specifically call anyone out, but I think addressing that problem would be more effective than yet another thread.

That said, it's my opinion but it's your board, do as thou wilt.

[dcsooner]

Well, I'll start this one off with a comment I made under the streetcar thread. One thing that I am most confused about Oklahoma City transportation is: We seek density in the core to promote WALKABILITY and use of MASS TRANSIT, but we continue to build roads (East County connector, flyover ramps etc) and parking garages galore)! OKC traffic can hardly be considered congested by any measure (outside of a few windows of time). Seems the focus on building more highway lane miles encourages unnecessary sprawl, further excerbates poor maintenance and promotes driving. Why would anyone choose mass transit when driving is relatively congestion free almost anytime of any day of the week and there is more than sufficient parking downtown? Oklahoma city has 600 plus square miles of pavement that is not IMO maintained very well and it goes without saying that safety is impacted by streetlight outages. If OKC is going to remain a car dependent city, then why don't we focus more of an effort on vegetation on the sides and medians, proper lighting, bicycle lanes. Maybe someone out there can enlighten me.

[TheTravellers]

Well, I'll start this one off with a comment I made under the streetcar thread. One thing that I am most confused about Oklahoma City transportation is: We seek density in the core to promote WALKABILITY and use of MASS TRANSIT, but we continue to build roads (East County connector, flyover ramps etc) and parking garages galore)! OKC traffic can hardly be considered congested by any measure (outside of a few windows of time). Seems the focus on building more highway lane miles encourages unnecessary sprawl, further excerbates poor maintenance and promotes driving. Why would anyone choose mass transit when driving is relatively congestion free almost anytime of any day of the week and there is more than sufficient parking downtown? Oklahoma city has 600 plus square miles of pavement that is not IMO maintained very well and it goes without saying that safety is impacted by streetlight outages. If OKC is going to remain a car dependent city, then why don't we focus more of an effort on vegetation on the sides and medians, proper lighting, bicycle lanes. Maybe someone out there can enlighten me.

Some of it can be attributed to multiple agencies being in the OKC area - ODOT building highways (that's their thing and I doubt they're going to pivot to mass transit-friendly projects anytime soon, and not sure if they should/could), OTA building turnpike extensions (same concerns about them), and then OKC (grudgingly being slowly dragged out of their cars-all-the-time-screw-everybody-else attitude).

[OKCRT]

If they would fix the bottlenecks on the highways we would be in pretty good shape. Someone should be fired for what they created at I-40 & I-44

[HangryHippo]

If they would fix the bottlenecks on the highways we would be in pretty good shape. Someone should be fired for what they created at I-40 & I-44

THIS! Holy hell - it's a travesty that the bridges are still two lanes.

[SEMIweather]

THIS! Holy hell - it's a travesty that the bridges are still two lanes.

I can't believe there's no concrete plans to fix this interchange anytime soon. It's like a dumbed-down version of DFW's stack interchanges.

[OKCRT]

I can't believe there's no concrete plans to fix this interchange anytime soon. It's like a dumbed-down version of DFW's stack interchanges.

Surely they had to know what they were creating here. It's the biggest cluster in the city. Just a total mess during rush hour.

[TheTravellers]

Seems like ODOT has no capacity for future capacity planning - build it for (barely) what's needed now, and no thoughts for future expansion, just do it and move on to the next project to be done the same half-assed way.

[SEMIweather]

Surely they had to know what they were creating here. It's the biggest cluster in the city. Just a total mess during rush hour.

I'm sure it has to be at least a few decades old. It was probably fine when they built it, but it has clearly far outlived its use at this point.

[BoulderSooner]

I can't believe there's no concrete plans to fix this interchange anytime soon. It's like a dumbed-down version of DFW's stack interchanges.

2024 in the ODOT 8year plan is 40.5 mil to rebuilt the I40 bridges over I44

[SEMIweather]

2024 in the ODOT 8year plan is 40.5 mil to rebuilt the I40 bridges over I44

I will retract my earlier post, then. Thanks for the info!

[HangryHippo]

2024 in the ODOT 8year plan is 40.5 mil to rebuilt the I40 bridges over I44

Great. Only 5 more years for them to start and 15 until they finish!

[HOT ROD]

good ness. well, at least OKC now has some big city traffic on it's freeways. ....

[hoya]

Seems like ODOT has no capacity for future capacity planning - build it for (barely) what's needed now, and no thoughts for future expansion, just do it and move on to the next project to be done the same half-assed way.

We need to inject like 1% of Plupan into ODOT's veins.

[rte66man]

I'm sure it has to be at least a few decades old. It was probably fine when they built it, but it has clearly far outlived its use at this point.

It was planned in the early 60's and completed over 40 years ago. At the time it was built, they didn't know any better.

[stile99]

I'm really entertained by all the talk of this interchange being built for what was needed at the time, not built for what would be needed in the future. In the past when the idea of building for 20 years from now instead of 20 years ago has been floated on this very site, the response has usually been "You don't really need that, in fact, you don't even really need the road you have now. Roads're bad, mmmmkay?".

The really funny part is this is usually from someone who does not drive that road daily, and possibly has never driven the road at all. Sometimes it's from someone out of state who hasn't even bothered to look at the area on Google Maps.

[Of Sound Mind]

i'm really entertained by all the talk of this interchange being built for what was needed at the time, not built for what would be needed in the future. In the past when the idea of building for 20 years from now instead of 20 years ago has been floated on this very site, the response has usually been "you don't really need that, in fact, you don't even really need the road you have now. Roads're bad, mmmmkay?".

The really funny part is this is usually from someone who does not drive that road daily, and possibly has never driven the road at all. Sometimes it's from someone out of state who hasn't even bothered to look at the area on google maps.

bingo!

[no1cub17]

We need to inject like 1% of Plupan into ODOT's veins.

Even 1% of pulplan is too much.

[Uptowner]

This thread is irrelevant. You want to live in a big city? This is nothing. I recently realized the reason why I HATE LA. It’s OKC on steroids. Wake up, grow up, get your streetcar going in lines not loops and give up a few f’ing lanes for bikes and pedestrians. I hate all these opinions from people who’ve never travel...and no less than by car!

[no1cub17]

This thread is irrelevant. You want to live in a big city? This is nothing. I recently realized the reason why I HATE LA. It’s OKC on steroids. Wake up, grow up, get your streetcar going in lines not loops and give up a few f’ing lanes for bikes and pedestrians. I hate all these opinions from people who’ve never travel...and no less than by car!

Haha right? What's with the bottleneck traffic people are talking about? For 1-2 hours per day, tops?

And at the same time it floors me that on 16th St in the Plaza how there isn't one single traffic light or crosswalk. It should not be a life threatening experience to walk around my neighborhood, but it is.

[Plutonic Panda]

Hey, Travellers, where are you? You have some posters to bitch at!

[TheTravellers]

Hey, Travellers, where are you? You have some posters to bitch at!

They're not as condescending as you, so I wasn't gonna bother. But yeah, since you called... It's all relevant - the people in Weatherford probably bitch about their traffic too and people in OKC laugh at them, most likely. Then someone from LA will bitch about their traffic and someone from Mexico City will laugh at them and say "You wanna see *real* traffic, come here!". And there are places in OKC where the traffic can get miserable, but no, it's not as miserable for as long or in as many places as it is in bigger cities. Still, something's f-ed up when you have to sit through 5 or 6 cycles of lights at Memorial and May, it's either bad programming/design or too much traffic. I've lived in and driven in Chicago and suburban Chicago traffic as well as Seattle and South Sound traffic, so I have experience outside of OKC and it's worse there than it is here, but that doesn't mean traffic is just peachy keen here.

[Plutonic Panda]

Well sorry I was Condescending. That was not my intention.

[jompster]

I quite enjoyed driving in LA. There was a lot of traffic, but everybody seemed much more pleasant to drive with, and they were very accommodating to motorbike riding the dashes. Here, somebody would have swerved over to knock them off the motorbike. Our traffic here gets annoying sometimes at the rushes, but it's nothing by which to get terribly bothered.

Ho Chi Minh City... now THAT was some bad traffic. Crosswalks and stoplights both are just weak suggestions.

I do agree with stile99 on this one. It's baffling why they didn't design all this for future growth, but what's done is done and all we can hope is the re-build will do exactly that.