Tulsa walkability

[dankrutka]

I went to Jeff Speck's presentation last night in Tulsa and he's hoping to do a walkability study there in the fall. That would be huge as Speck only does a couple a year in cities that he knows will implement his plans. That's how Project 180 changes in OKC started. He also provided some good analysis of Tulsa as he pointed out that downtown blocks are only 300 feet, which is really good. Of course, he also highlighted many of the mistakes that have been made and need fixing. Anyway, if the two big mixed-used developments that have been proposed come to fruition then Tulsa's downtown could really be heading in the right direction...

http://www.tulsaworld.com/news/gover...573a9a897.html

[Pete]

Jeff is the man!

I'm sure one of his first recommendations will be to eliminate all the one-way streets and put some of them on a road diet.

Their downtown streets are very similar to OKC before P180.

[bchris02]

Jeff is the man!

I'm sure one of his first recommendations will be to eliminate all the one-way streets and put some of them on a road diet.

Their downtown streets are very similar to OKC before P180.

Downtown Tulsa's streets are some of the worst I've ever seen. Hopefully they do a P180 type plan there.

[dankrutka]

Jeff is the man!

I'm sure one of his first recommendations will be to eliminate all the one-way streets and put some of them on a road diet.

Their downtown streets are very similar to OKC before P180.

Oh yeah, it goes without saying, right? Speck spent a lot of time talking about street width. Tulsa actually has a lot of skinny streets, but also some bad ones. Speck was very balanced in his criticism, but Tulsa definitely has some good things going for it with small block sizes and some skinny streets already. In fact, if you've ever driven south on Peoria from downtown towards Brookside, you'd know that Tulsa has had skinny streets (but not enough sidewalks) for a while.

[dankrutka]

Downtown Tulsa's streets are some of the worst I've ever seen.

I think this is quite an overstatement. Tulsa's streets need to be transformed from one way to two way, but as I pointed out above, there are some good bones in place. In fact, there are several areas of downtown that are almost ideal -- street parking, skinny streets, trees, good sidewalks. Some of Tulsa's fixes just require paint and signs. Of course, there are bigger problems, but I've seen far, far worse situations then Tulsa. Tulsa's number one core problem is a lack of housing and too much surface parking. Luckily, a lot of people and projects are already pushing in the right direction.

[Mississippi Blues]

This would be nothing but good for Tulsa. With a number of progressive developments in the downtown area (Santa Fe Square in particular), this could really boost all the good things already taking place.

[Eric]

I think this is quite an overstatement. Tulsa's streets need to be transformed from one way to two way, but as I pointed out above, there are some good bones in place. In fact, there are several areas of downtown that are almost ideal -- street parking, skinny streets, trees, good sidewalks. Some of Tulsa's fixes just require paint and signs. Of course, there are bigger problems, but I've seen far, far worse situations then Tulsa. Tulsa's number one core problem is a lack of housing and too much surface parking. Luckily, a lot of people and projects are already pushing in the right direction.

I agree. Tulsa has already been working on converting to two way. 5th street is awesome. Most all of the numbered east/west streets are two way except 1st/2nd & 7ty/8th which all feed to the highways. Boston just had the lines changed, no narrowing, but I still think it made a huge difference. Main Street was formerly a failed pedestrian only area but converted back into a road, that would look like any main street (brick even). But there are still some "speedways" left, like Detroit, Cincinnati, Boulder & Cheyenne. There's only 60 feet of right of way in most areas so it's not like there could really ever be any huge streets (just really small sidewalks apparently). Most of the desirable locales are on about as much of a road diet as you could have. There has been some pressure to make 11th street (Route 66) go on a road diet as well. So this is an area that I think Tulsa has been doing pretty well with over the last decade.

5th Street
https://www.google.com/maps/@36.1519...8i6656!6m1!1e1

Boston Ave (just new striping)
https://www.google.com/maps/@36.1519...8i6656!6m1!1e1

Main Street
https://www.google.com/maps/@36.1507...7i13312!8i6656

Brady
https://www.google.com/maps/@36.1586...7i13312!8i6656

Hodges Bend
https://www.google.com/maps/@36.1567...7i13312!8i6656

Pearl District
https://www.google.com/maps/@36.1521...7i13312!8i6656

Cherry Street
https://www.google.com/maps/@36.1406...7i13312!8i6656

Brookside
https://www.google.com/maps/@36.1140...7i13312!8i6656