The Tulsa Forum by TulsaNow

Scary, but the new All State study again lists Tulsa as having drivers within the statistical margin of average for the nation and in the top 35% of drivers in the nation:

http://assets.bizjournals.com/cms_media/atlanta/pdf/2009_Drivers_Report.pdf

Tulsans are 2.5% more likely than average to get in a collision.  But because the bad areas are SO bad, that puts us at #66 out of 193 municipalities listed.   And that, my friends, is a scary thought.

My parents always used to say something about how bad NJ drivers are.

Looking at the list, I guess they were right.  My hometown is one of the worst.

That's me minding my own business and driving like a NYC cab driver.

If the TPD could ticket every Tulsa driver that doesn't use their turn signals when turning or changing lanes, we could abolish property taxes.
I think that 85% of Tulsa drivers aren't even aware that their cars have that nifty little invention called a turn signal.

Nah, they're just aggressive. They know that if you give a signal, the guy in the lane next to you will speed up. Easier to just whip over without any warning. You learn to read their head movements, the traffic and where the next popular left turn is going to be.

For instance, as you head west on 15th nearing Utica, the right lane becomes parking spaces west of Utica and Panera is a left turn just west of Utica. Lots of people turn left at the intersection to go to the hospital and clinics so you have to stay in the right lane. Even when the "no left turn" sign is on, people ignore it and back traffic up, so you have to get in the right lane for at least a couple of blocks. As soon as you pass Panera you have to get back into the left lane or drive into parked cars. If you guess badly and no one is turning into Panera, you have to merge back into the left lane or drive into parked cars. Regulars know all this.

If you give a signal, no one lets you in. Thus, no signal.

editted for directional confusion related to heat and dehydration......

Agreed. On the rare occasion when people do use them, lots of times it's a split second before they start turning, thus negating the turn signal's ability to give me some advance warning of their intentions.

TPD should really consider enforcing traffic laws. Like the violations I see daily: wrong-way drivers on downtown one-ways. People turning out of or into the wrong lane. Not stopping before proceeding through a right on red.

But, as noted previously, that's the whole purpose of not using your turn signal.  If you use your turn/lane-change signal all the time it will just break and be expensive to fix.  Then you would have defective equipment in addition to not using your signal, a double ticket.

And the amount of turn signal usage seems to be inverse to the purchase price of the vehicle.

TPD issues approximately 9,000 traffic citations each month.

Yeah, but that's not traffic enforcement, that's just fund-raising.  ;)

And how many of them are for offenses other than speeding?

I know there are plenty for something other then speeding, but I don't have any statistics.  I'm sure they can be found.

But, since speeding leads to the majority of wrecks in one way or another, it would be no surprise that speeding would be near the top of the list.

Correlation is not causation. Moderate speeding does not "lead to the majority of wrecks." It is associated with the majority of wrecks because most people do it. That's like saying "daily food consumption leads to the majority of wrecks."

I dare say the proximate cause of almost all vehicular crashes is inattentive driving.

All that said, if the TPD really is going after the red light runners and the folks who have a seeming allergy to directional indicators, I'm pleased. Most departments don't, as best I can tell.

I'm going to have to agree with nathanm on speeding vs cause of wrecks.  There was a campaign in the past that "Speed Kills".  Perhaps originally referring to the drug, it was hijacked by the so-called traffic safety people.  We know that speeds of up to 25000 mph do not kill. (Escape velocity from earth for the moon trips of the late 60s.)  Sudden deceleration (negative acceleration) is what kills.  Collision with another object causes the deceleration.

I would like to know how much pokie okie drivers contribute to wrecks.  They can try the patience of even the calmest of drivers. 

Road rage has two parts.  The most obvious target is the enraged driver.  The less obvious are the dufus drivers that cause others to get enraged. Since one dufus can enrage many others, it seems it would be more productive to target the dufuses.

Also would anyone like to touch again on how the left lane IS NOT the cruising LANE!! If your going the speed limit in the left lane your a moron in my book..get over!

Also the TPD is too busy manning their speed traps to care about real violators..they would rather cite people who are going downhill in a 25 MPH area of Tulsa where there is nothing but a bridge and wait under that bride to ticket people..normally there are 2-3 officers waiting to line people up with tickets....I have never been stopped but it pisses me off because if your really not careful you can not even have your foot on the gas and going down the hill you reach 30-35 without knowing it...