Just about any time you talk to somebody visiting from out-of-state, they complain about how bad the drivers are here. Of course, initially this is triggering and you get defensive cuz hey, how DARE you talk about Oklahomans like that?! We’re nice and hard-working people, and we drive just fine!
Deep down though, you’re like ‘Yeah we’re all dummies who deserve to have our licences revoked.’ How many times do you see someone going 50 mph in the left lane on the highway, sitting at the front of the line when the light turns green for what seems like eternity, or double parking their chrome testicled pick-up truck? All three of those on every commute you take every day, right?
Not that we’re worse than anywhere else in the country. Texans drive with such nihilistic intensity that every trek through Dallas or Houston feels like a real life Fury Road, only with more Home Depots and slightly less spray paint huffing. New Yorkers control their vehicles with such wild and unhinged movements that is seems like every driver is just two kids, one on the wheel and the other clunking the pedals.
The examples could go on and on, but today we are here to shame Oklahoma, and specifically OKC, for being poor motorists. With the new streetcar that is nearing the end of its construction phase, I’m incredibly fearful that drivers in Midtown and Downtown will not be smart or coordinated enough to avoid some kind of potentially deadly collision.
(If you’ve ever watched confused drivers attempting to navigate the roundabout at 10th and Walker, you know exactly what I’m talking about. The streetcar will be traveling right through this intersection. We are doomed.)
Even though the street car is still in construction, people are already losing their goddamn minds and doing things with their vehicles that could be described as inadvisable at best, and outright deranged at the worst. Let’s start with the worst. From KFOR:
OKLAHOMA CITY – Construction for the Oklahoma City Streetcar is still underway and, somehow, a car has made its way onto its tracks.
That was the situation on Sunday near 11th and Harvey, where the car was seen sitting on top of the tracks.
Uhhhh I don’t think that’s what they meant by “streetcar”. 🤨 pic.twitter.com/E6vUnIl3Og
— Jacquelyn Edwards (@jacquelynruth) June 10, 2018
There’s no word on just how the car got there or if it has damaged part of the tracks.
HOW? WHY? I’ll at least concede that alcohol was probably involved in this decision-making, but that doesn’t make the situation any better. Of course, the driver should have called a ride, but I’ve also taken rides with Uber and Lyft where it was an old lady with night blindness running red lights, not to mention the guy who brought along his common-law so she could blow into his Breathalyzer.
Maybe this was just an outlier, surely the rest of us are responsible enough to have nice things, right?
Wrong. And it’s not just the quality of driving that we need to worry about. People in Oklahoma City are so bad at parking that it could be disastrous.
Parking in between the white lines is still going amazing. pic.twitter.com/le20g4qk88
— CodyL (@codylusnia) May 29, 2018
Yep, this parking in between the lines is definitely going to work out. pic.twitter.com/PN1JKGe17C
— CodyL (@codylusnia) May 27, 2018
What is going to happen when a jackass is parked where they shouldn’t and the streetcar comes barreling through? If it didn’t mean damaging expensive city infrastructure, I’d say just hit the gas and roll right through whatever SUV is parked there. Obviously, that won’t be the case, so does that mean the entire thing just gets shut down while they wait for a tow truck to take care of things, making everyone else late for work?
The most bitter irony of all of this is that people in Oklahoma have such deep pro-car, fuck-public-transit attitudes, when clearly so many of us aren’t responsible enough to handle driving. If you’re reading this right now and thinking, ‘Yeah, everyone else is such a bad driver!,’ you are one of them too, I promise. Try riding the bus (or the streetcar, when that’s operational), and keep your reckless self off the road.
Growing up in rural NW Oklahoma, it was understood that farmers are the worst drivers ever. Slowly driving down the middle of the road, eyes trained on their land to survey for any rye growing in the wheat or heaven forbid, tweakers looking to steal some Annie. Honk or attempt to pass and you’ll get the worst stink eye a city slicker ever did see. Anyway, with the reduction in functioning family-owned farm land over the years all these folks and their brood have loaded up the truck and they moved to OKC… Edmond, that is. They’re still moving slowly and just as entitled to the left lane. God bless them, bring private farming back so they’ll leave!
In Oregon, the car gets impounded and the person who parked it picks up a misdemeanor for obstructing public transit, in addition to a parking ticket.
But I tell ya putting it through traffic circles is just courting disaster.
The roundabout at 10th and Walker is a perfect example; nobody there has ever heard of a roundabout and doesn’t know the rules of the road regarding their navigation. And this is WITHOUT an active streetcar throwing another parameter into the equation.
Lived in the UK for five years, and roundabouts are actually pretty brilliant designs. It’s educating drivers that’s the hard part…
1. Yield to drivers already in the roundabout, as they have right-of-way.
2. Follow traffic pattern.
3. When coming up to your exit, signal your intention with plenty of time and scoot over to that exit and exit in orderly fashion.
4. Be courteous!
Nah, what was I thinking…
Funny you should mention that particular intersection. I was riding my bike through the roundabout yesterday morning on my way to work when an SUV creamed me. The great thing was they slowed down and looked right at me before entering the traffic circle, then proceeded to accelerate to catch me from behind.
Anybody riding a bicycle in OKC traffic has a death wish. Used to live in Mustang and work on NW 63rd. I tried every possible way to get home in the 5:00 pm traffic and it never failed some biker was peddling along in rush hour traffic no matter which way I went home (except on the Kilpatrick). Often wondered how many of them got killed.
Worked in Downtown Dallas back in the 1970s and one of the guys I knew rode his bike to work from Richardson. Talk about a death wish. Me – I just take my chances in a car.
Just put the phones away please. That’s the worst of it really.
Did anyone find out how that car got there?
Yes, it got put there by a stupid idiot
Dummies for allowing the project period.
Oklahoma official’s should have been ran out of town for even developing an unneeded trolley. State leaders have destroyed Ok., and continue to make stupid choices making sure no one wants to hang out here.
The millions could have been used on more important issues like schools.
But of course that would have made it harder to dip in the cookie jar.
For the millionth time:
-education is funded by state money
-public transit is funded by city money
-we can need both better education AND transit infrastructure at the same time
We need Federal Money Funded there somewhere, then they would all have a Say in this project
Okies are some of the fattest people on earth. Giving them more public transit options is not a good idea.
I’ve never walked more than I did when I was in a city with a street car system. Public transport improves walkability more than having a million parking lots everywhere.
You can get to anywhere you want to go in downtown OKC by foot as things stands now (construction zones notwithstanding of course).
Please don’t make excuses for the lazy. It only hurts them.
“Stupid choices making sure no one wants to hang out here”
The city is booming right now and is on many top 10 lists for best cities in the US. I for one never thought I would like OKC before I moved here. It’s things like this that make me love this city and want to spend many more years here.
You’ve lived a very, very sheltered life if you think that OK is a “destroyed” state. Please go and visit American cities like Detroit, Los Angeles, Baltimore.
The middle class is fleeing California in droves.
Easier yet, go and ask the many residents of OKC’s very own Asian District how they feel about Oklahoma.
This was funded by MAPS, a voter-approved sales tax in Oklahoma City. Projects are not paid for until the money is in the bank to pay for them. Oklahoma City residents got to vote on this specific project, along with other capital improvement projects. The monies cannot be legally transferred to any other initiative since they were voted on BY THE PEOPLE.
Please repeat the following:
This has nothing to do with education.
REPEAT
This has nothing to do with education.
REPEAT
This has nothing to do with education,
REPEAT
This has nothing to do with education, nor how education is funded, which is through the state, who also administers school curriculum.
Oklahoma City, or at least the government of Oklahoma City, has nothing to do with OKC Schools, or any of the school districts which are located in the OKC metro area. (There are loads of them).
So again:
This has nothing to do with education.
REPEAT
This has nothing to do with education.
REPEAT
This has nothing to do with education,
REPEAT
This has nothing to do with education, nor how education is funded, which is through the state.
Please check your own spelling and grammar (your verb tense is off in the first sentence, for one). It’s obvious you need an education on how things work.
Oklahoma has the least educated people on this continent, that includes Mexico and El savador
, Of course, you’ve traveled that part of the world extensively and know firsthand of course.
I say, if they are dumb enough to get hit, let em. We need to thin out the herd around here. Also, as a life long Oklahoman, I can say hurricane Katrina brought so many bad drivers that I would take hour long traffic jams in L.A. over some of y’all who don’t understand what a turn signal or passing lane is for. I always here from out of town era that they enjoy the traffic here because there isn’t as much and I always reply, “sure there isn’t as much, but the drivers are much much worse.” I think the state should implement a 5 or 10 year retake of the driving test. You have to pass on years 5 or 10 to get your license renewed. This would also make the public transportation valid. Because, let’s be honest, it will be novel for 6 months and then it will die from lack of use.
They can’t even figure out how to navigate double doors at a convenience store.
OMG, so true – stop going out through the in door! You drive on the right side of the road, you (should) walk on the right side of the sidewalk (if one exists), why can’t you go out through the right side of the doors?
Thank you for backing me up on this. Even worse than the backwardness is when someone insists on holding the wrong (I think) door and just grins at you. Please pretend like you’re driving and use the right hand side, doing the opposite is counterintuitive and confusing.
Same people who are being “friendly” stopped at a 4-way stop sign and wave you to go because they don’t fully grasp how a 4-way stop intersection works. Hope they never have to navigate a traffic circle.