OKC Boulevard

[Bobby5280]

When the old I-40 elevated freeway was there not too many people were walking under I-40 East of Shields Blvd. There wasn't much reason to cross under the road. The new boulevard will have sidewalks on both sides of the road that tie into the Bricktown canal sidewalks. Unfortunately there isn't any pedestrian crossing across the new boulevard between the Bricktown canal and Shields. They probably need to build some kind of pedestrian bridge halfway between, in front of the Harkins movie theater.

Pedestrian access along the new boulevard will be much better between Shields and Classen.

[Plutonic Panda]

It seems the BLVD is a failure to me. It neither functions as good road for cars or pedestrians. Honestly, imo, the Friends for a Better BLVD. caused it. ODOT had originally planned to have much of it elevated with 3 lanes each which would have been the best alternative but it is the exact same width, nearly the same access, just with lower speed limits, more traffic signals, and less lanes. Essentially giving us a road designed to be a partially limited access facility that will now act like a road to please the urbanists.

This will still suck in terms of walkability and will give the city police(which OKC is already over policed as it is, imo), the incentive to create a speed trap as people will not follow the speed limit which I believe will be set to 25MPH in some portions on a road that really is designed to be 60-70. I usually hit the west end portion at around 65MPH and have no issues though I do slow to about 50MPH on the flyovers. Be very careful however as the police have enjoyed sitting where the extra lanes were going to to nab these horrible speeders.

The only route now is for the city to do a complete overhaul on it to make it more pedestrian friendly which I see costing north of 20 million for the entire stretch. I also see the city not doing that and going the cheap route by adding a painted bike lane and taking out the dead ends to allow for a right turn only access on some streets. Reno won't have left turns either.

Seeing as how the city completely fucked P180 up(there are still streets with no painted lane markers or crosswalks years after being completed) and having to remove over half of the original project plans, I just don't envision the city proactively doing anything about this stretch of road once its handed back to them.

Problem I see with OKC is a small town mentality and that really showed with the BLVD. I am very interested in seeing the final result in person and I am excited to have a downtown dispersal BLVD., which most cities, including Tulsa(though theirs sucks), have.

I suppose I'm being overly pessimistic because I believe even once this is finished, we won't have our real Boulevard until 2030 because it will take the city a decade to really build it right which ODOT didn't do.

[Plutonic Panda]

Couple of other notes, I am not fond of the left turn exit on I-35 though I am more understanding of that being that would appear that interchange is turning into more of a spaghetti junction than a polished interchange.

What are the signs on I-40 over each lane supposed to be? I have not ever seen those activated. Will they just have a red x and green arrow alerting motorists of lane closures?

[The Ghostbuster]

If any of you had your way, how would you have built the OKC Boulevard differently?

[NE2]

If any of you had your way, how would you have built the OKC Boulevard differently?

That's what people have just been saying. Learn to read.

[Plutonic Panda]

If any of you had your way, how would you have built the OKC Boulevard differently?

Have a look at this link. It includes renderings of possible use and is beautiful. It was done as a concept(as most great things now proposed in OKC are, just concepts) by a local architect who now moved to Seattle, but was very talented.

https://andrewkstewart.wordpress.com/category/ideas/urban-design/the-new-oklahoma-city-boulevard/

[bugo]

There isn't room to make I-244 12 lanes in downtown Tulsa.

Nexus 5X

[Bobby5280]

Oklahoma has one of the lowest gasoline taxes in the nation. On top of that the toll rates per mile charged on Oklahoma turnpikes are a bargain compared to other toll roads around the nation. Yet our state's residents firmly believe they're paying too much money for roads. They refuse to clue themselves in on how much this stuff costs anymore. And thanks to the new tariffs going into effect, which are greatly amplifying the cost of steel, the road building costs are going to soar as a result.

[bugo]

I saw the Smashing Pumpkins last night at the Chesapeake arena. It took about 30 minutes to make it from where I was parked to finally pull out onto the street. Once I got out it was fine. OKC needs to put a light on Reno for the parking lot on the west side of the arena. I drove the eastern section of OKC Blvd. It should help with traffic on concert nights and when the Thunder play home games.

Nexus 5X

[bugo]

What is Tulsa's downtown dispersal boulevard?

Nexus 5X

[Plutonic Panda]

What is Tulsa's downtown dispersal boulevard?

Nexus 5X

IDL? That literally surrounds the city? Though in this case, this is the rare case where I think a freeway should be removed. At least one leg of the IDL, could be removed, and I'm thinking the section that is between downtown T Town and TSU.

[bugo]

The IDL is a freeway, not a boulevard.

Nexus 5X

[Plutonic Panda]

The IDL is a freeway, not a boulevard.

Nexus 5X

Yeah but it's so close to their downtown and acts like a dispersal Boulevard in a way by having so many entrances and exits and that snake right into the core. OKC has a few like that in Deep Deuce, but to the extend of Tulsa's.

[Scott5114]

There were a few posts on OKCTalk recently where someone dug up some old news articles from 1998, when Kirk Humphreys was mayor. Humphreys was concerned that moving I-40 so far south would make getting into downtown difficult because people would have to drive "for blocks" to get to downtown. Thus the Boulevard.

Of course, there was no Thunder then, Bricktown was still a brand-new idea, the canal and the then-Ford Center were either under construction or just coming online. During Mick Cornett's time as mayor, the way we think of downtown OKC has radically changed. It seems as though the government of OKC has kept up with the changes but ODOT has not. Thus the Boulevard.