Mass Transit Options for Tulsa

[perspicuity85]

First off, shadows, you need to learn how to spell real estate.  And your comments are all way off base.  High rise buildings will never go out of vogue because of 9/11.  You're forgetting the Pentagon was also hit by a highjacked airplane.  The Pentagon is definitely not a high-rise building.  I encourage you to make an intellegent argument that shows Tulsa's high rise downtown buildings to be of importance to a worldwide terrorist organization.  I find it ironic that you used the phrase "intellegent planning."

Second, I agree with the streetcar idea in the downtown and midtown districts.  Many Tulsa-sized cities are either implementing or considering streetcars.  As for the suburban areas of the city, I think the long range plan should have light rail considerations.  In the short term, we should use the rubber-tire trolleys to bring people in from the suburban areas.  I grew up in South Tulsa, and no one I knew there would ever consider riding a regular city bus.  Maybe they were snobby, but from a marketing perspective, these suburbanites need a new form of public transportation.  The bus trolleys could be used to travel on routes that are infeasible for trolley track, such as 71st and Memorial.  They could bring passengers into the urban core areas, where the real sreetcars run.

[amimi]

I also think that a light rail would really do Tulsa well.  I have really enjoyed the one in Denver a lot more then buses.  Light rail systems are a little more sophisticated.

[shadows]

The way to know if a post is being read is misspell a word or two,

I have rode the trolleys and buses in Tulsa and the Sand Spring line in emergencies.   My experience has been they were both failures as they mostly came to a dead end.  

Compare the high rise casualties to those of the pentagon.  The suburbs are outpacing the city per capital in expanding.  Intelligent design refers to accepting the present to recognize our failures to accept the future.  Time is now to place the dead horse in the hole we are going to dig the buried auto up from.  

We could extend the sky ride the county is buying and grid the city with it.  Or we could become a trade city like we once were and plan to make a productive city in the world trade market.  Heaven forbid as our chief product is taxes and more taxes.

We see a lot of buses that are empty but making good rolling sign boards.  Some citizens think they are on display when they are riding next to these sign boards.   Intelligent Design?

[RecycleMichael]

I love the idea of a sky ride around the city.

Think how cool it would be to travel along brookside or cherry street or even cross the river.

It would probably be cheaper to build islands in the river though.

[inteller]

they could start by offering a non stop route from deep south tulsa to downtown.  route 251 makes a stop...wrong!

[TheArtist]

quote:Originally posted by inteller

they could start by offering a non stop route from deep south tulsa to downtown.  route 251 makes a stop...wrong!

They moved out there they deserve what they get. I say, let em rot in traffic.

[cannon_fodder]

Double edge sword really:  no one rides Tulsa transit because it is currently impractical and underfunded, it is impractical and underfunded because no one rides it.

When a city grows up with freeways and everyone has a car its hard to get people to leave them at home and hop a rail.  That only really happens when the situation is insanely hopeless and the city has no other option (Ie. Denver, no room to widen the freeways and the city is growing denser).  

While I like the idea of better transit it is unlikely that I would easily give up the convenience of a my car. [V]

[mspivey]

Sky Ride. I love it. Can they make it so the windows open and I can lean out an take pictures?

[shadows]

As long it is the cost of providing transportation cost is an insignificant part of the overall picture.  The Japanese elevated monorail system, like the sky ride, could be an attraction as well as a transportation system.  The cost of this is to get the people back to the dying downtown.  

The only thing that the citizen can think of when someone suggest a bond issue is where is the pencil to mark yes.  Possibly few persons or those who will profit from the Arena has noticed that the cost of revenue bonds that have been sold.   The name of the Arena was sold for some 11 million dollars but the interest rate on the bond may run more than 500 million dollars as such rate is more than the rate of sales taxes.  The working poor will be paying millions of dollars for a bank to put their name on the new Arena.

All this increase in jobs and the economy is based  on the premises that the working poor with their families will live in cold houses and go to bed hungry in order to pay the sales taxes on their substandard incomes.   They should note who is getting the wage increase they are going hungry to pay for.

I always thought "Real-Estate" was spelled like this.  

[cannon_fodder]

I dont remember the last time I actually met someone that lives in a  cold house and goes hundry all the time (other than the bums on the street ,many of whom choose to live that way in one way or another).  Try to remember that when people talk about "poor" they are talking abuot people that have a roof over their head, food in the mouths, cable TV and a car.  In most countries, that would be the rich.  In America, you can have all of those things and still be getting a check from the government, free housing, free daycare, free emdical care, and charity from private institutions and STILL be considered poor.

Anyway, the first thing I thought of when I read shadows post was "monorail, monorail, monorail, monorail... I sold monorails to shelbyville, new ogdenville and fanstasticville!"  Seattle actually did build a monorail system and now its mostly a joke.

[perspicuity85]

Shadows, are you trying to suggest that high-rise buildings are just going to fade out?  High-rise buildings in downtown areas are the only structures that provide the required amounts of square footage needed for large companies.  I don't think we're going to see a bunch of super wal-mart-designed office buildings being built in the downtowns of our major cities.  Currently, downtown Tulsa's office occupancy is actually increasing.  Encouraging that increase is one factor of downtown's revitalization.  By your logic, we should all stop riding on airplanes for fear of getting highjacked.  It doesn't pay to live in fear.  We can't hide in the "shadows" forever...

[MH2010]

"Anyway, the first thing I thought of when I read shadows post was "monorail, monorail, monorail, monorail... I sold monorails to shelbyville, new ogdenville and fanstasticville!" Seattle actually did build a monorail system and now its mostly a joke."

- That is awsome!  I love that episode!

[OKC_Shane]

Las Vegas is building a really awesome monorail transit system connecting downtown and the Strip. I rode it while I was there a couple of years ago- it was awesome. Very expensive though. There is a big movement in Austin to build monorail. I've even heard that OKC was originally planning to build a larger monorail system when it installed the monorail at State Fair Park.

I think monorail works for a place like Vegas- where money flows pretty nicely and the monorail is yet another gimmick- but for real, practical transit, light rail is a lot cheaper.

[citizen72]

quote:Originally posted by recyclemichael

I love the idea of a sky ride around the city.

Think how cool it would be to travel along brookside or cherry street or even cross the river.

It would probably be cheaper to build islands in the river though.

Right OKC, Vegas found they needed to decentralize their tourist population and decided on the monorail concept. Their goal of decentralizing the tourist population through the use of the monorail has in effect happened and it has made is very easy to move around town. This new system augments other transit systems that are already in place in Vegas such as buses, taxis, and the like.

Tulsa might be a perfect fit if the passenger load per mile proved to be an acceptable number.

[si_uk_lon_ok]

quote:Originally posted by OKC_Shane

Las Vegas is building a really awesome monorail transit system connecting downtown and the Strip. I rode it while I was there a couple of years ago- it was awesome. Very expensive though. There is a big movement in Austin to build monorail. I've even heard that OKC was originally planning to build a larger monorail system when it installed the monorail at State Fair Park.

I think monorail works for a place like Vegas- where money flows pretty nicely and the monorail is yet another gimmick- but for real, practical transit, light rail is a lot cheaper.

It's true, do people want a public transport system that will carry the most people or a gimmick for tourists and something to showcase their city? I think the safest bet would still be have guided buses and if the demand shows it self upgrade to LRT or trams.