Quiet Zones

[OKCisOK4me]

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.

[Nermel]

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

[BG918]

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...

[plaidpixel]

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...

[Superhyper]

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.....

[metro]

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.

[OKCisOK4me]

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...

[metro]

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.

[FritterGirl]

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.

[mcgrawsdad]

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.

[Thunder]

Another advantage for the deaf people.

[bombermwc]

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!!!!!

[metro]

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.

[OKCisOK4me]

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...

[bombermwc]

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!

[metro]

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.

[OKCisOK4me]

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!

[dalelakin]

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...

[LakeEffect]

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.

[Steve]

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...

[windowphobe]

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

[Steve]

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...

[OKCisOK4me]

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!

[bombermwc]

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.

[dalelakin]

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?