Whiner (weiner) about traffic lights

[RecycleMichael]

This letter to the editor appeared in Today's Tulsa World...

http://www.tulsaworld.com/opinion/article.aspx?subjectID=62&articleID=071222_7_G2_spanc65213

I want to applaud the mayor for her timely decision to deploy the city workers immediately in time of the recent disaster. I am proud to see them working hard and clearing tree limbs and streets.

However, I am astounded by her lack of management skill to do something about the street lights. It takes two hours to get to work and return by her oversight to power the street lights with generators or have police officers directing traffic. If Cox Communications and AT&T can dispatch their employees to place generators to keep service working, why can't we have a mayor competent enough to make the correct decision to keep traffic flowing?

Tulsa citizens are stressed enough because of the lack of management skills by PSO, they don't need to fight the horrible traffic conditions caused by the four-way stop signs. Generators and/or police officers are the answer. Please, it is not too late to function and do what is right for Tulsa.

Richard Hicks, Tulsa

What a whiner. So it took him a few more minutes to get around town.

We have way more important things to do with generators than run street lights during an emergency. Heating shelters, keeping people warm and running emergency command centers comes to mind.

How many officers would it take to do traffic control 24 hours a day for a week at the 450 plus major intersections? Again, we have way more important things for our police officers to do in an emergency.

I don't know who Richard Hicks is (maybe a relative of the creationist at the zoo guy Dan Hicks), but they both have the right last name.

[Double A]

You are such a hypocrite.

[rwarn17588]

I agree with the letter-writer.

Police officers had better things to do during the outage than be arm-wavers at intersections where it's already clear that four-way stops are in place.

[guido911]

quote:Originally posted by rwarn17588


Police officers had better things to do during the outage than be arm-wavers at intersections where it's already clear that four-way stops are in place.

Yeah. Like randomly breaking laws and abusing citizens.  -CF[]

[waterboy]

hush, AA, though you're quite accomplished at hypocrisy, you are not the ultimate judge of its manifestation.

I happen to agree strongly with RM. Can you imagine the hundreds of generators necessary to operate street lights all over town? Not to mention keeping them from being stolen. And have you not noticed that the 4 ways move traffic as fast or faster than street lights? I know, I spent all of last week on the roads from 21st & Utica to Bixby. People handled it real well. Had more trouble getting into and out of neighborhoods blocked by fallen trees.

The letter writer was quite naive, myopic and a bonafide whiner. If the lights were working he would have compained about the duration of left turn signals. Oh, the humanity! He has no idea what taking officers off the streets to direct traffic would do to their overall mission. But you didn't even respond to that because you're so laid up with personal issues with RM. Straighten up man.

[Double A]

quote:Originally posted by waterboy

hush, AA, though you're quite accomplished at hypocrisy, you are not the ultimate judge of its manifestation.

I happen to agree strongly with RM. Can you imagine the hundreds of generators necessary to operate street lights all over town? Not to mention keeping them from being stolen. And have you not noticed that the 4 ways move traffic as fast or faster than street lights? I know, I spent all of last week on the roads from 21st & Utica to Bixby. People handled it real well. Had more trouble getting into and out of neighborhoods blocked by fallen trees.

The letter writer was quite naive, myopic and a bonafide whiner. If the lights were working he would have compained about the duration of left turn signals. Oh, the humanity! He has no idea what taking officers off the streets to direct traffic would do to their overall mission. But you didn't even respond to that because you're so laid up with personal issues with RM. Straighten up man.

My point is that spincycle cries personal attack   to the moderator every chance he gets, yet he has no qualms about engaging in it himself. Mr. "lets be positive and refrain from personally attacking those we disagree with" is a fraud, just pointing out the obvious.

One more thing waterbuoy, if you think I'll ever take marching orders from you or anyone else here, you are sorely mistaken. Smarten up.

[RecycleMichael]

I know that doubleA has it in for me...please don't respond to his attacks. It won't change him.

Back to the thread...

Traffic did seem to be slower with four way stops than with regularly-functioning traffic lights, but if it took the guy two hours to go to work and back, he probably lives too far from his employment.

Ponder said that she just went through neighborhoods and avoided the four way stops. That was probably a good temporary solution.

[waterboy]

quote:Originally posted by Double A

quote:Originally posted by waterboy

hush, AA, though you're quite accomplished at hypocrisy, you are not the ultimate judge of its manifestation.

I happen to agree strongly with RM. Can you imagine the hundreds of generators necessary to operate street lights all over town? Not to mention keeping them from being stolen. And have you not noticed that the 4 ways move traffic as fast or faster than street lights? I know, I spent all of last week on the roads from 21st & Utica to Bixby. People handled it real well. Had more trouble getting into and out of neighborhoods blocked by fallen trees.

The letter writer was quite naive, myopic and a bonafide whiner. If the lights were working he would have compained about the duration of left turn signals. Oh, the humanity! He has no idea what taking officers off the streets to direct traffic would do to their overall mission. But you didn't even respond to that because you're so laid up with personal issues with RM. Straighten up man.

My point is that Spincycle cries personal attack   to the moderator every chance he gets, yet he has no qualms about engaging in it himself. Mr. "lets be positive and refrain from personally attacking those we disagree with" is a fraud, just pointing out the obvious.

Nor do you. He called someone a whiner. You called him a hypocrit. Both personal but on a thin line by definition. He could have characterized the opinion itself as being "whiney" and you could have characterized his response as being "hypocritical". Neither of which seems to be personally offensive but merely descriptive. Is there any level of description at which a criticism is not personal?

Meanwhile the letter writer described the mayor as "incompetent" and "unskilled in management" which seemed pretty personal to me.

[Double A]

quote:Originally posted by recyclemichael

I know that doubleA has it in for me...please don't respond to his attacks. It won't change him.

But it's cool for you to start an unwarranted personal attack thread on someone you disagree with, right? If you're gonna talk that talk don't you think you should walk that walk? My criticism is just holding you accountable to your own so-called "standards", how is that a personal attack? The perpetrator who plays the victim, what a sorry excuse for community leadership.

[waterboy]

quote:Originally posted by Double A

quote:Originally posted by waterboy

hush, AA, though you're quite accomplished at hypocrisy, you are not the ultimate judge of its manifestation.

I happen to agree strongly with RM. Can you imagine the hundreds of generators necessary to operate street lights all over town? Not to mention keeping them from being stolen. And have you not noticed that the 4 ways move traffic as fast or faster than street lights? I know, I spent all of last week on the roads from 21st & Utica to Bixby. People handled it real well. Had more trouble getting into and out of neighborhoods blocked by fallen trees.

The letter writer was quite naive, myopic and a bonafide whiner. If the lights were working he would have compained about the duration of left turn signals. Oh, the humanity! He has no idea what taking officers off the streets to direct traffic would do to their overall mission. But you didn't even respond to that because you're so laid up with personal issues with RM. Straighten up man.

My point is that spincycle cries personal attack   to the moderator every chance he gets, yet he has no qualms about engaging in it himself. Mr. "lets be positive and refrain from personally attacking those we disagree with" is a fraud, just pointing out the obvious.

One more thing waterbuoy, if you think I'll ever take marching orders from you or anyone else here, you are sorely mistaken. Smarten up.

I suppose we have to endure your personal dislike of RM interfering with, de-railing actually, any thread he starts or participates in. Wow, what a rebel. I was giving some general advice to you but you act like you're a teenager or something. Whatever. However, I do intend to smarten up about you. Thanks for the (hypocritical) advice.

Here's the thing about 4 ways and traffic circles. They are more efficient than a light that arbitrarily runs for a predetermined length of time regardless of the traffic load. So eight lanes of traffic sit and watch at 117th & Memorial as the left turn light stays on for 17 seconds even though only one car was in line. The East/West lane green light lasts 22 seconds regardless of the number of cars in line. Usually a dozen cars make it through. Meanwhile had a four way been in play many more cars would have passed thru the intersection from all directions. Like most heavy users of the roads, I found other ways around the most obnoxious tie ups (21st and Lewis was awful).

Obviously most drivers are not experienced enough, knowledgeable enough or patient enough to make use of them. When they work though, they work better than lights.

[Double A]

The teenagers on this board are the folks who dish it out, but can't take it. I've been called just about every name in the book on this board, but I've never ran crying to the mods. I can defend myself, I don't need to mommy and daddy to fight my battles for me.

[RecycleMichael]

I drive through the Mingo traffic circle almost everyday. There are occassions when people seem lost and dangerous, but 19 days out of 20 traffic flows much faster than any traffic light.

I think traffic is one of my least concerns about Tulsa. I have never lived more than a fifteen minute drive from my work and can probably get to anywhere in Tulsa in 20 minutes.

I know that south Tulsa and the area around Woodland Hills mall are much worse during the shopping season, but I have been able to avoid it most of my time.

[sgrizzle]

quote:Originally posted by recyclemichael

I drive through the Mingo traffic circle almost everyday. There are occassions when people seem lost and dangerous, but 19 days out of 20 traffic flows much faster than any traffic light.

I think traffic is one of my least concerns about Tulsa. I have never lived more than a fifteen minute drive from my work and can probably get to anywhere in Tulsa in 20 minutes.

I know that south Tulsa and the area around Woodland Hills mall are much worse during the shopping season, but I have been able to avoid it most of my time.

My mother got lost in the mingo traffic circle.

True story.

[Ed W]

Some communities are installing traffic circles as both a calming measure and as a means of increasing throughput at an intersection.  I think most people can handle a small one like Mingo, but a larger one would be intimidating.  I watched an old movie last that showed at least 6 lanes of traffic circling the Arc d'Triomphe, and found myself wondering how the tourists got from the sidewalk to the monument.  (And then there was the  traffic circle I went around the wrong way in Ireland - let's not think about that.)

I think traffic circles would work well in most of Tulsa.  The problem would be in getting sufficient right-of-way to build them.

[waterboy]

quote:Originally posted by Ed W

Some communities are installing traffic circles as both a calming measure and as a means of increasing throughput at an intersection.  I think most people can handle a small one like Mingo, but a larger one would be intimidating.  I watched an old movie last that showed at least 6 lanes of traffic circling the Arc d'Triomphe, and found myself wondering how the tourists got from the sidewalk to the monument.  (And then there was the  traffic circle I went around the wrong way in Ireland - let's not think about that.)

I think traffic circles would work well in most of Tulsa.  The problem would be in getting sufficient right-of-way to build them.

The little one at 36th and Hudson works well also and uses very little row. I wonder why we don't adopt a practice that Norman used during football games when I attended. One of the main drags, Lindsey, was one way in before the game, and one way out after the game. Worked well.