Pedestrians as second class citizens

[TheTed]

The treatment of pedestrians in this town has been irking me for some time.

I walk down sidewalks downtown only to find some delivery van completely blocking the sidewalk. I'd get a ticket if I stood in the middle of the road, but it's OK for sidewalks to be blocked?

It's the same thing with several downtown surface lots. Gargantuan SUVs are parked in tiny spaces at the edge of the lot, and half the vehicle is on the sidewalk.

On the same note, someone mentioned closing some downtown streets during arena events.

I've got a better idea. Let's take away a lane on some of the four lane one ways downtown.

Imagine big sidewalk dining areas on Cheyenne outside SoChey and Casa Laredo, and Coney Island.

Big patios outside McNellie's would be nice too. The traffic would be calmed and the areas would be pedestrian friendly.

Those big one ways downtown are never even 50% full. Maybe if it wasn't so easy to escape downtown after Saturday night's concert on a comically wide Cheyenne Avenue, more people would've stuck around.

[carltonplace]

They did float this on the Boston Avenue redo but the business owners balked. It's crazy that they don't realize that in downtown their best bet for traffic in their business is foot traffic, not actual traffic.

[patric]

The photo shows a good choice of light fixtures, too, but they probably dont waste enough taxpayer-funded electricity to satisfy DTU's arrangements.

[PonderInc]

Nice!

Lately, I've been looking at Tulsa from the perspective of pedestrians and people with disabilities.  (I am amazed by how often I see people having to walk or operate wheelchairs in the street! ...I've seen 4 different examples of wheelchairs in streets in the past week!)

But it takes more than just sidewalks. It's not pedestrian-friendly if you can't walk to the front door without crossing traffic or surface parking lots.  And it's not pedestrian-friendly if there aren't a variety of interesting things to look at as you walk.  That's why it's fun to walk down Brookside or Boston Ave, but not fun to walk by the vast, windowless, concrete surfaces of most modern commercial developments.

[TheTed]

Bumping my own thread because there were SEVEN, yes SEVEN, vehicles in the Civic Center plaza or on a sidewalk near the civic center plaza this afternoon.

Some of them were moving. The everpresent delivery truck was on the sidewalk.

God forbid drivers on a 20% full Denver Avenue have to change lanes for a truck parked in a traffic lane, so we'll just allow them to completely block the sidewalk. Some handicapped person should rightfully sue the city when they're injured trying to maneuver around the cars on the sidewalk.

Why should I have to dodge vehicles, moving and parked, in a FREAKING PEDESTRIAN PLAZA???

Parking lot operators are constantly blocking the sidewalk with ropes or movable signs. Since they can do that, can I rope off an area of Denver Avenue for a barbeque/kegger? That'd be fun.

I've already complained to the mayor's action line and the police. It's not doing any good.

Any thoughts on what to do about this?

Mods: Can this be moved to a more appropriate forum?

[brianh]

I think this could be solved by a few free trolleys that would drive around downtown.  I work at 3rd and boulder and with the exception of going to Quiznos and some other fast food places, there is no restaurant near here within walking distance to make my hour long lunch on time. Surely a lot of people drive into downtown, but once your here you pretty much have to get in your own car and drive again to get to the Brady district restaurants or something on Elgin.  There is a really nice tram in downtown salt lake city that comes every 5 minutes.  I have to drive to lunch everyday even though I am just driving somewhere downtown because the walk takes up sometimes 30 minutes or more of my hour lunch.  So I need to park two places(at least) in downtown each day.

[patric]

I think this could be solved by a few free trolleys that would drive around downtown.  I work at 3rd and boulder and with the exception of going to Quiznos and some other fast food places, there is no restaurant near here within walking distance to make my hour long lunch on time. Surely a lot of people drive into downtown, but once your here you pretty much have to get in your own car and drive again to get to the Brady district restaurants or something on Elgin.  There is a really nice tram in downtown salt lake city that comes every 5 minutes.  I have to drive to lunch everyday even though I am just driving somewhere downtown because the walk takes up sometimes 30 minutes or more of my hour lunch.  So I need to park two places(at least) in downtown each day.

You're describing Tulsa a very, very long time ago before the auto giants put them out of business.
A rail trolley downtown (and beyond) is just not enough of a vision to get funding, even though it would get a lot more use than the big-ticket items we are building now.

And yes, can this be moved from "politics" to "development" pretty please?

[brianh]

How did the T-Town trolley thing get funded?  If we just had like 5 or so of those working downtown all day or at least 11-3pm.