The Tulsa Forum by TulsaNow

 They came out with the new Walk Score rankings.  My house got a 74, not too shabby for Tulsa.

I know the Walk Score does not accurately reflect how truly "pedestrian friendly" an area is, in other words how easy/enjoyable it is to actually walk in your area, but it can be seen as one measure of an areas potential.  I live near 41st and Yale, with the right infill and a little tweaking here and there, that area could evolve into a great little, urban, pedestrian friendly/transit friendly node for the city.

In my "dream scenario" for what I would like to see happen at 41st and Yale would be...

1. Continued infill on the OU Tulsa campus, with perhaps some apartments/student housing behind it.  
2. Shops/businesses in front of the mall and shopping center, positioned up to the sidewalk and lining 41st.  This would also turn the drive in front of the Reasors to the Barns n Noble into a side street.  The shops lining the street would create a lively streetscape on 41st when the weather is decent enough, and you could still venture into the mall otherwise. Would be a great, year round work/shop node for people using transit.
3.  Apartments where the homes are right behind the fence north of the AMC 20, and taking down most of the fence or adding gateways so that people can more easily walk to the movies, grocery, shopping, etc.
4.  A sidewalk down Darlington.
 


Whats your score and what could be done to improve your area?


http://www.walkscore.com/rankings/

I got a whopping "40"....    Which when compared to my parents "15" is great.

Holy Cow ! No wonder my kids dont go anywhere. My house got a 15. That sucks.

71.

17. Wow, that sucks.

46 near 111th & Memorial.

My dacha here in People's Republic of Owasso scored a 60!  That's mainly because we're no more than half a mile from a slew of restaurants in the Smith Farm area....on the other side of US169.  Sure, you could walk there if you didn't mind dodging 70mph traffic.  Otherwise, it's about a mile and a half around. 

I'm surprised we have a 54 around here.  Only place I see anyone ever walking is from the apartment complex to Quicktrip, a whole block and a half.

So 6th and Manhattan should be a 100.

60

I'm curious how these things are compiled.  There's a BOK at City Plaza on 31st which is about three tenths of a mile, yet it lists the closest bank as Arvest at 36th & Yale.

Closest restaurant is Celebrity club at .36 mile, closest bar is listed as Ritz Cabaret at .94, when if they actually count strip clubs, Cloud 9 as catty-corner from Celebrity Club. I think there's also a bar or two closer on 31st near Sheridan.  All that said, within the Lortondale/Hoover neighborhood it's very walkable for taking the dog or kids on a stroll, but walking to the grocery store closest is a Wal-Mart Market at 21st & Yale or a Save-A-Lot at 21st & Sheridan.  I wish there were more of a sidewalk system along Yale, but there's not.  If you are going to walk to the commercial corridor just north of 21st, your best option is Darlington and then cut over.

Let's face it, 1950's developments like Lortondale were symbolic of us becoming more of a car-oriented society.

Rob, I do miss Renaissance/Flo-Pa for it's great walkability.

Got a 37.  Right around the Traffic Circle.

I find it funny that they list "Dreamland LLC" as a place for books.  Sure, they're books, but....

i got a 62.  i think a small grocery store or market around 18th / Boston would help mine out.  i don't see that happening anytime soon, though.

I noticed a few minor errors, like Aldi's being shown as downtown Bixby with an address that matches its actual location on E 103rd St east of Memorial.

Me too. I got a 74 and it shows a grocery store
Hutchinson Discount Foods Inc
1524 South Denver Avenue
Tulsa, OK
(918) 352-3456

This place does not exist. They also have Noni's 601 S Boulder listed as a grocery but this is the office for the biscotti business.

I was thinking Hutchinson foods might have been where QT is now, but that would be a 1400 block address to start with.  That number is a Drumright exchange, IIRC.

Would be better if all the sidewalks were still there. :P

63, BTW. It should be slightly higher thanks to the new lunch place on 15th whose name I can't recall.

I got a 72.  I'm on 45th pl between peoria and riverside.  It is pretty walkable.  Most times it's not even worth the gas for me to just walk to QT if I need beer. 

Also @theartist, your idea about the parking lots out in front of reasors and the like: I have expressed that exact sentiment before.  I don't know how one could go about convincing the owners to do that, but it would be FANTASTIC.  Considering the fact that those lots are never full (at least the reasors one isn't), i'd say there is room for them.  I fee the same way about the parking lots in front of the target and reasors at 21st and yale.  Now f only I or anyone I knew had money....stupid grad school.....:(

  If I remember correctly, the 41st and Yale area is to be a "town center" or the like, in the new comprehensive plan.  It should eventually have a "small area plan" created for it.  Once you do that and have the visuals, zoning, etc. for the area, I think that will be a good start.  Unfortunately they are only doing 2 small area plans right now and the 41st and Yale area wasn't chosen as one of them.

8

Anyone beat "8"?

Southie got an 8 with his new crib.

Will we ever see you in midtown or downtown ever again?

You guys get some parking in there somewhere and maybe.


Oh, and traffic barrels scare the bejesus out of me so we'll need to over come that.

Maybe get some sort of entertainment venue with some shows.   A baseball park would be nice.  I'd like some BBQ options and maybe some bowling.  Might want to go ahead and form some districts where I could meet some people for fun.

I'll check in periodically to see how we're doing with all that.

http://shine.yahoo.com/healthy-living/8-most-artery-clogging-cities-america-172200587.html

#7:  Tulsa

One thing that probably contributes to Tulsans' high risk of heart disease is the city's low "walkability." According to Walk Score, an organization which promotes pedestrian-friendly communities, only 6% of Tulsa residents live in a neighborhood with a walk score of 70 or above (100 being best) and 57% live in entirely car-dependent locales.

Is there a side-by-side comparison of walkability and the results of the high risk of heart disease.  I don't doubt the correlation but am curioius how well the two track.  What other factors may be players?  Diet?

In the mean time, when driving, drive to the health club and work out a while.  When the weather isn't too awful, I go on a lunch time walk of about 2 miles each weekday.

That plus high percentage of smokers, lots of fast food, and little understanding of how to prepare fresh veg/fruit.

I live in a "8" neighborhood.  I also have machinery in my workout room that I take for a spin every morning.  I guess if I decided to walk/jog/limp to the Lowes and future Reasors at 111th and Memorial I could skip my morning treadmill routine.

You like Frogger so much you want to be Frogger?

It'd be a different story if there were sidewalks.  Sidewalks would be a great thing for Tulsa to think about.

Southwest corner of 111th & Memorial is Bixby.  There are sidewalks on both sides of Memorial (Tulsa/West, Bixby/East) north of 111th.  I've even seen a half dozen people using them in the last year or so.  I wonder what the cost per pedestrian mile has been.   I would like my own exclusive traffic lane between 111th and the turnpike.

Not south of there, unfortunately. God help you if you want to go grab some lunch while you get tires put on your car. Hope you have good ankles, I guess?

Sad you make fun of it.  Must be enough of you and your like-minded to allow contractors to skip that step.

I'd imagine the sidewalk the city just completed on the East side of Utica by CH and Utica square would've been much less expensive if a certain developer had been forced to put his sidewalk in like he was supposed to.

You may have noticed the paving behind the tire store (since you had to use it to get to the tire store unless you ignored the exit only arrows on the pavement  between the bank and Robertson Tire connecting directly Memorial) extending all the way from the bank to 111th.  Out here in the boonies, we know to avoid people walking along the side of auxiliary paving.  I wouldn't walk on the paving on Memorial though.  

What's next?  Sidewalks there can be like a bridge to nowhere.  Sure, a few people may use them now and then but it's hardly worth the investment.

Every sidewalk starts as a sidewalk "to nowhere".  Eventually they'd connect.

My homes back East were all connected to the rest of the area by sidewalks.  Sidewalks on both sides of the street.

So we should keep spending money on street widening and repaving instead of making the area more walkable?

Our places back East were also connected with sidewalks.  Where my several of my cousins lived were not.  I don't see the potential for significant foot traffic in the 111th & Memorial area regardless of the presence of sidewalks. 

That's a long way to go just to get next door. Would it have blown the budget to put 10 square feet of hard surface between each of the front parking lots there? It's just dumb how 100% car-oriented it is when one of the businesses is a place where you might drop off your car.

And that is where Tulsa drops the ball.  Our short sightedness says exactly what you just said.  That means no sidewalks are built thus no significant foot traffic.

Sidewalks could equal shops nearer the street and smaller parking lots needed.  Less automotive traffic, less fuel cost, less street repair, less high blood pressure, less heart ailments, lower medical costs, lower insurance premiums.

Everyone whines about car people needing to park next the front door and how they should be willing to walk a few blocks.  If you are afraid to walk across a few feet of grass from one parking lot to another you need to walk the walk.

It's not about being afraid, it's about it being inconvenient (or very difficult, if you're wheelchair bound, say) for no particular reason. Making it difficult to walk means that fewer people will walk.

What don't you understand about having sidewalks in that area not promoting foot traffic of any significance?  I am not going to walk to WalMart and buy a week's worth of groceries.  Shops nearer to the street along that area of Memorial... NO THANKS.  It's not downtown, I don't want it to be downtown.  That's why my parents bought the house they did 40 years ago.  They were tired of living in that crowded environment.  

Sounds like you need to stay downtown.  Next you will be asking for sidewalks on both sides of US 64 all the way to Fort Smith.

That would be silly. Wouldn't mind a trail along the old railroad ROW, though. ;)

Dry toast and plain oatmeal it is then.

Silly, yes.  That is my opinion for the requirement of sidewalks around 111th & Memorial.  You could require them and put them in but very few people would probably use them.  

Shortly after the 86 flood, there was some talk about starting an excursion train between Bixby and Muskogee.  That obviously never happened.  There are significant portions of that ROW that have been returned to other use.  The only way to make a trail would involve getting permission from private land owners.  It might not be impossible.  A lot of the Appalachian Trail is on private property.

Learn to plan ahead.  Get your milk, raisins, and honey (for the oatmeal) before you need it.  I assume you are not living in a 300 sq ft apartment if you are close enough to 111th and Memorial to walk there so a little extra storage space should not be a problem.

It's part of living "out in the country".

So people who need or want to be pedestrians should just use the overgrown/under cared for grassy areas to get around?

No bike lanes in your world either?

Other than your corner, I dare say that 111th and Memorial is no longer out in the country. Even as recently as when I moved here it still mostly was, but no longer.

Whatever.  Maybe you should petition the businesses there to put in sidewalks.  Who knows, you might get them.
http://g.co/maps/j2jmn

The developers were supposed to put them in when they were building.  We tended to let those things slide though.

Maybe not in Bixby.  I don't feel like researching the issue because I don't mind walking in the parking lot or stepping over 2 feet of grass.

I find the entrance to the shopping center between the bank (I think, it's been a while since I've been down that way) and whatever is next door to be far more pedestrian unfriendly than the small strips of grass. It's fantastic fun when it's wet.

There are actually two banks.  The bank at the south end (Citizens Security) was the first of the lot there so they have an entrance and exit. Robertsons Tire has a cut through to what is now only an exit from Citizens Security.  It is not a direct shot to the Lowes (and soon to be Reasors).  The entrance opposite 112th is what I would call the main entrance to the Lowes lot from Memorial.  It's between BTC (formerly Bixby Telephone Co) and the car wash.  Using that, you take the access driving area (I hesitate to call it a road.) to any of the stores.  The reason there is no curb cut between Robertson's and Chile's is because Chile's didn't want it, presumably to not lose a parking space.  I stopped at Robertson on the way home and asked the store manager.  He appeared to have the same opinion as I do that sidewalks along Memorial there were not needed.  He said at least one Jaguar (thinking it was a Hummer) tried to cross the curb to get to Chile's, made a bunch of sparks and succeeded in adding an opening to the engine oil pan.  There is another entrance between the Mid First Bank and Walgreens but I don't think I have ever used it.

With the exception of not wanting to wait in the tire shop, I don't really see any reason to want to park in the front of one of those stores and walk somewhere else.  Two banks, Walgreens, Chile's, a tire store, BTC, a carwash, and a car parts store just don't seem like park and shop to me.  When I leave my car at Robertson, I just walk home. Crossing Memorial is the only risky part.

The stores north of 111th might be more conducive to wanting to park and shop but I hardly ever go to any of them.  I've been to the UPS store a couple of times.  There's mostly nothing I am interested in there.   There are sidewalks there but even before the sidewalks, the parking lots were pretty much connected.

http://g.co/maps/p9qc3