Oklahoma

[Great Lakes Roads]

Had a good chuckle on this vertical clearance sign in Tulsa...

30'11" (30 feet, 11 inches)

https://www.google.com/maps/@36.1658569,-95.8601413,3a,37.5y,245.39h,105.73t/am=t/data=!3m7!1e1!3m5!1sTcxbJAuqpmE3wD08aTOttA!2e0!6shttps:%2F%2Fstreetviewpixels-pa.googleapis.com%2Fv1%2Fthumbnail%3Fcb_client%3Dmaps_sv.tactile%26w%3D900%26h%3D600%26pitch%3D-15.731679121946357%26panoid%3DTcxbJAuqpmE3wD08aTOttA%26yaw%3D245.39002122090346!7i16384!8i8192?entry=ttu&g_ep=EgoyMDI0MTExMy4xIKXMDSoASAFQAw%3D%3D

[The Ghostbuster]

I don't think I've ever seen clearance height signs on any overpasses other than ones over surface streets. Has anyone else seen one like this?

[CoreySamson]

Texas does it on non-surface streets a lot:

https://maps.app.goo.gl/3Q9JeA8K7sFZx9dK9
https://maps.app.goo.gl/HMoQ5zhgMTqN4haL7
https://maps.app.goo.gl/GqYGrrJdggnwuTtn8

I've seen some pretty tall marked ones too (up over 20 feet). Oklahoma also does it frequently.

[Scott5114]

Oklahoma marks the height of every overpass, presumably because if they didn't, they might end up not marking one that they needed to.

[Plutonic Panda]

I've never heard of this term used before, but apparently they are going to perform a "walk audit" to determine how well the walk ability is along US-259 in Hochatown which just recently voted to become incorporated.

https://oklahoma.gov/odot/about-us/public-meetings/2024/20241126.html

[Rothman]

Heh.  Haven't heard that term since I was a paralegal.  Our firm represented BNSF and we'd hire a consultant to do a "walk audit" of a segment of track.

Of course, individuals who were in that business were a bit eccentric.  One CV of "Harold Smith" read:

1995: I left Nicholas, Harding and Hathaway Associates to start Harold Smith and Associates.

1996: I returned to Nicholas, Harding and Hathaway Associates.

[Scott5114]

Given that Hochatown consists of random businesses quickly thrown up along the side of a two-lane state highway with nearly zero planning, I imagine they'll find a lot of things to take issue with.

I also don't expect ODOT to care.

[rte66man]

Given that Hochatown consists of random businesses quickly thrown up along the side of a two-lane state highway with nearly zero planning, I imagine they'll find a lot of things to take issue with.

I also don't expect ODOT to care.

Au contraire...
https://clients.freese.com/US259HochatownUpdate/

[Bobby5280]

It's interesting they're proposing that kind of work on such an out of the way location. I wonder if it's really meant to improve access in and out of the new Choctaw Landing Casino. Also, is any of this funding coming from stuff like federal grants?

In the big picture view, Oklahoma does seem to be getting a little more serious about improving walk-ability in various cities and towns. Lawton has a lot of catch-up work to do in regard to building sidewalks along major arterials. The city has one on-going project in multiple locations along Cache Road. They've added sidewalks in some other locations around town. And they're finally getting close to finishing a new pedestrian bridge next to Gore Blvd going over I-44. That has been very long overdue. There was finally enough public outcry over people getting hit while trying to jay-walk across I-44.

[Plutonic Panda]

I did something really really stupid one time on I-5 near Atwater Village and Griffith Park. So I was working as a scare actor for the haunted hayride. We got off around two or three in the morning and the Uber couldn't get past the gates cause they close down Griffith Park Drive. So I had this genius idea of having an Uber driver go to the other side of five and cross the river. I walked across the 5 and successfully made it to the median. Once I got to the median, I realized what I just did was extremely fucking stupid. I froze up and got scared as I looked at both side sides of me five lanes of traffic each way with cars going 80 mph. I did successfully make it to the other side, but not without almost getting hit. Never again while I try to cross the freeway on foot.

That is just about one of the dumbest things anyone can do and yet I see people do it all the fucking time, especially in Oklahoma. But man when I got to the median and hopped over the concrete divider, I froze for a good five minutes thinking I just made myself a Darwin award candidate. It would've been much more worthwhile for me just spending the extra time walking down Griffith Park Drive to the gates close to Los Feliz Blvd.

[Bobby5280]

That sounds pretty terrifying. It's risky enough as it is just walking across a median-divided freeway with 2 lanes in each direction. I couldn't imagine trying to get across 10 solid lanes with only a concrete Jersey barrier going down the middle.

Of course the situation can be funny as hell, as demonstrated in this movie scene:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aZSIwR1qA1c

I couldn't believe all the assholes in Lawton complaining about "wasteful spending" for a pedestrian bridge next to Gore Blvd. The jerks would complain the street already had sidewalks when in fact those "sidewalks" were nothing more than street curbs next to the bridge railings. Gore Blvd is THE main arterial street connection between the East and West sides of Lawton, with I-44 being the divider for the two sides of town. There absolutely has to be pedestrian access there. Anything less is just hateful negligence. My only complaint about the new pedestrian bridge is it uses a pretty ugly looking box-truss structure. But it's better than nothing.

Speaking of not great, but better than nothing, that's how those sidewalk designs along US-259 in Hochatown look. The renderings have the sidewalks positioned right along the edge of the highway without any green space between.

[Plutonic Panda]

It was one of the dumbest things that I've ever done and I'll never do something like that again.

[Rothman]

I ran across the George Washington Parkway in Virginia once.  Got halfway, sat on the stone wall median barrier and then ran across the other lanes.

Wouldn't do it again, but it was worth it the one time to learn I'd never to do it again.

[Scott5114]

Given that Hochatown consists of random businesses quickly thrown up along the side of a two-lane state highway with nearly zero planning, I imagine they'll find a lot of things to take issue with.

I also don't expect ODOT to care.

Oh contraire...
https://clients.freese.com/US259HochatownUpdate/

When Oklahoma City had walkability concerns about what is now Oklahoma City Boulevard, ODOT told them to pound sand and if they wanted to do anything about it they could fix it themselves after it got transferred to them. I don't really think Hochatown has more sway than OKC in terms of actually getting anything done, but I guess there's enough rich Texans in Hochatown that they have to at least pretend to care before laughing in their face.

[LilianaUwU]

Oh contraire...
https://clients.freese.com/US259HochatownUpdate/

Being a native French speaker, I feel the need to mention that it should be "au contraire".

[SoonerCowboy]

I made the dumbass decision to cross I-44 at the "dead man's curve" as a kid on a bicycle to go to the pond that used to be behind the old drive-in movie theater that used to be there. That was my first and last time to do that. Those cars seemed like they were moving 100 mph LOL.

[Bobby5280]

A vehicle traveling at 70mph is covering 102.66 feet per second. That's a lotta ground. In more relatable terms it means a 120 yard (or 360') long football field will be crossed at that speed in about 3.5 seconds. When a vehicle is moving at 70mph or faster it's harder to judge if it's safe to cross ahead of it before the vehicle reaches that crossing point. And that's during daylight hours. If it's after dusk and the jaywalker/pedestrian is looking at headlights in the distance it's even more difficult to make a safe judgment. It's just better to not even try to jaywalk across the freeway at all.

Meanwhile, here in Lawton various assholes are still bitching online about the "wasted money" for the pedestrian bridge over I-44. Their common refrain is the "socialist" government people are making it easier for the "loser" pedestrians to walk over I-44 to the casinos to gamble away their money. The jerks don't bother to think of all the service industry workers who have jobs in that areas who are having to hoof-it from home to work. I'll see people in motorized wheelchairs trying to cross the Gore Blvd bridge over I-44.

We just really have some completely hateful assholes in Lawton. The splinters festering in their infected colons must really hurt bad. Maybe they could pull the stick out already.

[Plutonic Panda]

I'm surprised at the amount of people that I see walking on the shoulders of freeways in Oklahoma. I mean, I witnessed it multiple times a day. It seems like they're pretty strict about that in California for CHP officer. See someone doing that they will stop them. I'm assuming they just put them in the back of their car and take them off the highway, but I don't know if they get ticketed or not.

[Great Lakes Roads]

Sign replacement coming to the I-35/44 overlap in OKC! On the January 2025 letting from ODOT (January 16th)...

Edit: Yes, the new signs will include the I-344 designation on the JKT.

[Bobby5280]

A sign commemorating the 100th anniversary of US-66 was installed in Oklahoma City:
https://www.koco.com/article/oklahoma-city-route-66-sign-centennial/63026112

The sign was designed by the same guy who designed the Skydance pedestrian bridge over I-40 near Bricktown. The sign looks okay, but Arial? Really? Why the ugly default font?

I can understand a choice of not using the standard Series Gothic typeface due to the limitations in those fonts. Anyone with an Adobe Creative Cloud account can sync the entire Interstate type family. I would say the sculptor should stick to what he's good at doing and leave sign design to the people who do that for a living. But then so many people doing sign design work don't give a damn at all either. Hence the squeezed and stretched default Arial we see all over the place in things like tenant signs, banners, etc.

[swake]

A sign commemorating the 100th anniversary of US-66 was installed in Oklahoma City:
https://www.koco.com/article/oklahoma-city-route-66-sign-centennial/63026112

The sign was designed by the same guy who designed the Skydance pedestrian bridge over I-40 near Bricktown. The sign looks okay, but Arial? Really? Why the ugly default font?

I can understand a choice of not using the standard Series Gothic typeface due to the limitations in those fonts. Anyone with an Adobe Creative Cloud account can sync the entire Interstate type family. I would say the sculptor should stick to what he's good at doing and leave sign design to the people who do that for a living. But then so many people doing sign design work don't give a damn at all either. Hence the squeezed and stretched default Arial we see all over the place in things like tenant signs, banners, etc.

US-66 1926 to 2026? The highway was decommissioned in 1985.

[Bobby5280]

The route was decommissioned as a US Highway in 1985. But portions of it remained signed as state highways and, at least in Oklahoma's case, as "Historic US Highway 66".

I think it was stupid for them to decommission the US Highway. I can understand the feds taking some US Highways off the books. But the historical significance of US-66 made it worth preserving.

[MikieTimT]

I'm just shocked that people believe Oklahoma has a sign standard.

[jdingus]

Sign replacement coming to the I-35/44 overlap in OKC! On the January 2025 letting from ODOT (January 16th)...

Edit: Yes, the new signs will include the I-344 designation on the JKT.

Where did you see this?

[Great Lakes Roads]

Sign replacement coming to the I-35/44 overlap in OKC! On the January 2025 letting from ODOT (January 16th)...

Edit: Yes, the new signs will include the I-344 designation on the JKT.

Where did you see this?

https://www.odot.org/contracts/2025/25011601/plans_prelim/245_2501_STP-252F%28109%29PM_3386005.pdf

Here you go!