Streets meeting on Monday

[Ed W]

Does anyone plan to attend the Citizen Town Meeting on Monday, Oct. 29?  It will be held at the Central Center at Centennial Park, 1028 E. Sixth St. (Sixth Street and Peoria Avenue)from 5PM to 630PM.

Originally I planned to attend, but my son's last JV football game is Monday evening, and family comes first.

I received the following from someone who cannot post here:

"The panel invites Tulsans to share their comments by either speaking to the group or submitting written comments. Those who want to speak will be asked to sign in before the meeting begins."

"The Complete Our Streets panel is taking a comprehensive look at Tulsa's streets. This includes information gathering, questioning of information, and decision making for recommendations to be submitted by December 4 to the Mayor and City Council."

"The panel will focus on three aspects of Tulsa's streets: contracting, smart urban design and financing. A committee has been assigned to study each of these three areas. For further information, you may contact the City of Tulsa Mayor's Action Center at 596-2100."

Thanks, Paul!

   

[YoungTulsan]

So I guess Santa will be there advocating smoother bicycle rides?

Anyone who goes needs to really push the idea of this proposal:

http://www.zwire.com/site/news.cfm?newsid=18947509&BRD=2754&PAG=461&dept_id=574067&rfi=6

To get 0.5% state sales tax allocated back to the city for street repairs.  That, in addition to whatever mechanism they identify for short-term catch up projects (I'm assuming a 300-600million bond issue is already under plans since it has been mentioned before) could really pull Tulsa up out of the crapper when it comes to road infrastructure.

[Ed W]

Santa may indeed be there.  I really don't know.  And I expect that cycling interests will be only a tiny portion of the committee's work.  Then again, smooth roads and signals that operate correctly benefit all of us regardless of our mode of transportation.

If anyone from the forum attends, please take some notes and share with the rest of us!

[Conan71]

Thanks for posting, I will try to attend.

[Double A]

quote:Originally posted by Conan71

Thanks for posting, I will try to attend.

I can't make it. If they really wanted people to show up and speak they should have started it later, like 6 or 6:30. Most people can't or won't take off work early to attend something like this.

[booWorld]

I attended, and I found it worthwhile.

Bicyclists were well represented.  I hope the Complete Our Streets plan addresses the ideas for bicycles which were presented at the meeting.

[inteller]

quote:Originally posted by Double A

quote:Originally posted by Conan71

Thanks for posting, I will try to attend.

I can't make it. If they really wanted people to show up and speak they should have started it later, like 6 or 6:30. Most people can't or won't take off work early to attend something like this.

thats exactly what they want.  The working stiff that actually DRIVES on these roads can't make it.  this meeting is obviously for all the old retiree buddies of King Davis.

[RecycleMichael]

No matter what continual naysayers Inteller and doubleA try to sell us, I believe they are once again wrong. The committee went out of their way tonight to say how they wanted more input.

Many people attended, over 150 from all parts of Tulsa, proves them wrong. All income groups and any other demographic group you could name  were there.

To those who couldn't make it, send a letter to the Mayor's Action Center...attention "Complete Our Streets".

[Kenosha]

quote:Originally posted by booWorld

I attended, and I found it worthwhile.

Bicyclists were well represented.  I hope the Complete Our Streets plan addresses the ideas for bicycles which were presented at the meeting.

I actually thought bicyclists and broader bicycle interests were poorly represented at this meeting.

About five cyclists them showed up, including Adam, owner of Lee's, (plus Paul Tay). They seemed to be fairly coordinated in their message. Besides saying they wanted smooth streets, and traffic signals that recognize bicycles (seems like a good idea), they spent 80 to 90 percent of their time saying what they didn't want: Bike Lanes.

What a waste of an opportunity.

[TulsaSooner]

I hope some of those that were there had better input than those interviewed for this KOTV article.  

The City of Tulsa takes a step toward getting better streets in Tulsa. It's called "Complete Our Streets" and the city sees it as a way to decide how to address a backlog of street repairs. The News On 6's Emory Bryan reports a panel has been commissioned by the mayor's office and Monday evening, members heard from the public to get ideas on how improvements should be handled and paid for.

Anywhere there is a street in Tulsa, there is a driver willing to complain about the condition of the street.

"I don't know how to fix them, but they need to fix them. That's for dadgum sure," said one man interviewed by The News On 6.

Tulsa has almost 100 street projects underway, many of them downtown, but the public demands more. Polling data from the failed river development tax showed many voters wanted the city to fix the streets first. Separating the process from politics was one of the reasons Tulsa Mayor Kathy Taylor said she wanted an independent panel to decide what to do about the streets.

"We want to see are we really doing a good job of contracting our services to construct our streets and maintain them, are we doing a good job of planning for the future, with bike trails and things like that and most importantly, can we pay for it?" said Dewey Bartlett with Save Our Streets.

The 15 person panel is supposed to gather information from city workers and the public, review the contracts, design and financing of street repairs, and then make a recommendation on how to do it by December 4th.

The current estimate is that the city needs $1 billion and ten years to fix the streets.

"I think a lot of them need to be repaired and they need a lot of attention," said one woman interviewed by The News On 6.

The wildcard for the city is how to convince the public to pay for it.

"We have the highest sales tax in the country, it's almost 10 cents on the dollar and they can't fix the streets for ten cents on the dollar?" added another man interviewed by The News On 6.

Dewey Bartlett appeared on Six In The Morning Monday to talk about the panel's meeting. Click here to watch the video.

Watch the video: Ideas Sought On Street Repair Projects

For more information on downtown street repairs, click here.  The City of Tulsa takes a step toward getting better streets in Tulsa. It's called "Complete Our Streets" and the city sees it as a way to decide how to address a backlog of street repairs. The News On 6's Emory Bryan reports a panel has been commissioned by the mayor's office and Monday evening, members heard from the public to get ideas on how improvements should be handled and paid for.

http://www.kotv.com/news/local/story/?id=138772

[Breadburner]

Two words...Street Commissioner.....And not some friend of Kathy's that has nary a clue...

[Ed W]

quote:Originally posted by Kenosha


I actually thought bicyclists and broader bicycle interests were poorly represented at this meeting.
...they spent 80 to 90 percent of their time saying what they didn't want: Bike Lanes.

What a waste of an opportunity.

It may seem counter-intuitive, but knowledgeable, experienced cyclists are aware of the myriad deficiencies of bike lanes.  I won't go into all of it, but I'll mention two major problems.  First, they complicate intersections and intersections are where the crashes occur.  Second, they're usually poorly designed and receive little or no maintenance.  Go look at Archer or Mohawk Boulevard for a primer on the effects of bad design and zero maintenance.

[booWorld]

Given the relatively small number of bicyclists in Tulsa (and the relatively large number of drivers), I thought bicyclists were well represented.

I became annoyed by a few (including at least two elected officials) who found it necessary to conduct their own meetings and loud conversations at the east end of the room while others were trying to speak at the microphone.  This was extremely rude behavior, and it was disrespectful toward the speakers who had been recognized by Sharon King Davis and who supposedly had the floor.

[Kenosha]

Like every good idea, the devil is in the details.

I gotta be honest. I think they were/are wrong on at least two fronts: their strategy and in calling themselves bike advocates in the first place.

First, you take a historic opportunity to tell people who may be making once in a lifetime decisions about money to be spent on transportation and streets, and you WASTE it by telling them, "Don't do anything special for us", we don't want it.

Second, I understand they want to be treated as vehicles and respected by cars. Fair enough. I agree with that. I understand they want the Police to understand and enforce laws which protect cyclists. Fine. They want access to the whole right lane. OK. They want to increase bike education for riders and drivers. Great idea.

But that's where it ends. Anyone who doesn't ride the way they do; with confidence, in traffic, on EVERY road; shouldn't be riding a bike. If you've ever ridden on a sidewalk, you are out. If you are too scared to ride in the street, you are not one of them. If you think trails, like the Creek Turnpike Trail are a good idea, you're out.

How can they, with a straight face, call themselves bicyclist advocates? Simply put, they are not. They are a special interest group. They care little about increasing bicycle ridership. They only care about advancing their misguided cause.

Now nobody stood up to say they did want bike lanes, mostly because it is not in the forefront of peoples minds who were there, and probably because they were intimidated by the spandex, but rest assured they, they are out there. I have tried to have a conversation with a couple of the anti bike lane guys, but they are not interested in hearing alternative points of view, because they own all of the 'facts'.

But the facts that they use are dated, and skewed, in my opinion.

Don't misunderstand me, I don't think bike lanes belong on every, or even necessarily most, roads.  But I believe each road should be evaluated contextually, based on a variety of criteria and that our city transportation network should accommodate all users; transit riders, pedestrians, and all cyclists, regardless of their tolerance for traffic.

I am in favor of education and encouragement to increase ridership; of increased maintenance for multi-modal facilities; of properly designed intersections with advanced queuing, proper signage, visual detection, signal preference and markings to discourage "the pass and turn" and to give preference to cyclists.  The laws ought to be properly explicit to favor cyclist in a lane or out of a lane.  We should slow traffic down using a variety of traffic calming devices, including reducing (and thus widening) number of lanes on some of our urban arterials.  We should provide facilities for cycling.  We should fund bike ed programs to teach bike safety and proper riding techniques.  We should require bike laws to be questions on driver licensing exams.

By the way, I ride my bike to work.  They don't represent my perspective. And they don't want mine.

FYI, I did not comment because I arrived late and didn't get to sign in, but I do plan on writing the committee a letter expressing my alternate point of view.

[booWorld]

I seldomly ride my bike to work because I'm too afraid to get out on the streets with the motorized vehicles.  When I do bike to work, I'm very cautious of the traffic, and I take my my bike indoors with me so I don't have to worry about someone stealing it.

Most of the time, I walk to work, which is dangerous enough with Tulsa's many inconsiderate drivers.  

I had a difficult time hearing the comments from the bicyclists and most of the other speakers this evening because a few people in the back of the room did not have the courtesy to shut their mouths for 90 minutes.