The case for prioritising High-Speed Rail in Oklahoma

so hear me out on this one Oklahoma City and Tulsa to not very dense cities and are not very populated state is on precisely nobody's list of City pairs that would be great for faster frequent Intercity passenger rail but I think that throws up a topic like isn't frequently discussed how cities can evolve to match modes of transport and how real can be a catalyst for better cities rather than the other way around which city pair modeling saw frequently assumes I'm looking at Oklahoma City and Tulsa because in many ways they are typical Continental American cities if Intercity passenger L is to work on a national scale again it is important to look at our city like Oklahoma City Works today and how it could evolve around high speed Braille I'm going to work backwards through this idea showing what this line could look like until the cities would evolve to match the opportunities of the line the Oklahoma City station will be a brand new building right here where this Bricktown parking lot is today this location is some walking distance of the rest of the Bricktown District a very pretty Urban environment home to a triple air Ballpark and for high rises of downtown Oklahoma City itself as a completely new station the potential to regular station and mixed-use development is attempting on going east the tracks will follow lisper currently used for tours by the Oklahoma Railway Museum at around where the current track ends next to the Oklahoma City Zoo it rides on a flyover to the I-44 where service will get up to speed and follow the highways right of where all the way to Tulsa over there the line will join the Cherokee subdivision and go into downtown where it will stop at new platforms adjacent to the historic Union Station taking a track separated from the freight it will continue along until North Sheridan roads where it will go via fly all that tools that International Airport on lands currently served by this gigantic car rental facility it's bigger than the airport terminal built in itself Tulsa International is of course not Oklahoma's busiest airports that would be Will Rogers I think for practicality an airport express from lat to the Amtrak station makes for more sense with existed infrastructure with Lee's airport connections I think it would also make sense to add Civic amenities to real service such as the ability to check in luggage Obsession so you don't need to carry them on the trans as far as initial construction goals that's it almost entirely on existing right-of-ways going straight from downtown to downtown and to the airport always over miles terrain from an engineering perspective it's easy I think it is reasonable to go for a single track route at first as it is unlikely you will need frequent departures on day one but the ability to easily add double tracks later should of course be prepared it is what the Venta de Banos to Burgos line in Spain is doing it can work here I think it is also possible to prepare for info stations but this should be on the condition that the local stops are allowed to encourage new development and then stay around them density is often the big barrier to really gain the most out of Transit I'm going to focus on Oklahoma City with lesbit since it's a very polarized City on this map of the city by property value we can see how downtown is a highly valuable location but it drops off very suddenly outside of it from a Transit perspective density is good for two reasons more people with inconvenient travel distance stops and more attractive destinations within convenient travel distance from stops both of which are essential for driving ridership the city will open a brt line the Rapids northwest later this year connecting downtown to Saint Anthony Hospital Oklahoma City University and Integris Baptist Medical Center if you notice listline basically connects for two most valuable parts of the city together proving the attraction of transit in action for inter-city travel the good part is that you're usually connecting City Center to city center the most attractive participity to visit the bad part is that cities obviously aren't just fair City centers and that there are plenty of Great Destinations and residential areas outside of it this is the big barrier to expanding into City passenger rail where density is law if it takes you a while to get to the city center Station then you may not bother lies why local transport to complement Intercity transport is so important and it is another area where many U.S cities are lacking Oklahoma City of course has its streetcar which isn't rare to see my Kansas City View for an example of a good one but a new major downtown station certainly won't hurt it as mentioned the city is also inaugurate in a brt line soon frequency is yet to be determined but they do promise signal priority which is hopefully a good sign for service quality two more lights is south and Northeast are in the planning stages over in Tulsa they have a brt line the error which runs along Peoria Avenue with an aim of adding a second line along Route 66 to upgrade the 140 bus this system warns when brt Awards with not great frequency and poor density around stops but in the case of why wasn't this built first the Route 66 line will hit the University of toolsa Peoria Avenue just has to sell for Oral Roberts also the error already has a stop outside Union Depot which is a big plus so laws are the challenges to High-Speed Rail faces across the United States in general not just in Oklahoma but the good news is that density and Transit isn't static there's perhaps even an argument that lower density cities have the opportunity to be more flexible in how how they respond to an influx of capacity and demand let's say la Oklahoma City Tulsa line has orphans how should we measure its success and how should this evolve ridership doesn't need to be massive on day one the system just needs to demonstrate that is drawing Riders away from car travel and encouraging people to make previously unfeasible Leisure and business trips therefore proving that the line is something for cities and developers should invest in with trying to oriented development more on latinous seconds brightline West's seven-car Siemens villaro novor with a capacity of 400 passengers seems proportionate for day one service for a bit perspective brightline Florida currently offers around 18 departures per day roughly hourly with some Rush Hour services at depart around half hourly assuming an equal number of arrivals and departures that's more than enough to serve everyone who uses Tulsa International Airport at their 3955 departures a day versus for 7 200 Siemens folaro Noble daily capacity with a mix of airport passengers and City Trippers I think it's plausible to Envision how the service has some built-in demand already and has space to grow and expand in the future with its being easily possible to expand capacity by simply elongating Trends and double tracking to improve frequency for surfaces success depends on people being able to get from the stations to valuable destinations elsewhere in the city the law density and poor public transport networks of many U.S cities make this difficult but high speed rails should be seen as a catalyst for drawing Riders into local public transport and in turn making it easier and more beneficial for those agencies to upgrades and expands their service these cities already have the bones of a useful brt system it just needs to link into an internship more things and an entity rail station could very well be that thing to draw Riders Transit needs to be within walking distance of places people live work and enjoy their Leisure Time the sprawling law density of use S cities makes this difficult but transits has more than proven itself as a vehicle to encourage densification and both physically and economically healthier cities within the downtowns and along the pacifier rapid transit services there are plenty of opportunities to build up and densify the ultimate aim should be to create a virtuous cycle of improving the cities the rails rideship encourages local transport improvements which encourages great identity which builds more ridership for future extensions Tulsa Eastward gives several options but that's a lot of distance to cover Oklahoma City to Fort Worth via Denton is probably the best next step and the one that serves for most existing Travelers at present 295 000 annual trips somewhere between Will Rogers and Dallas Fort Worth that number should be 2.95 ultimately the message of this video is less there are a lot more Oklahoma cities and tulses in the United States but New York cities and Philadelphia's if High-Speed Rail is to work in the United States on a national level it needs to prove that is a force for encouraging density and good transport planning on a local level it does still have the luxury of simply waiting for those things to be in place Oklahoma City and Tulsa will not be on a list of Ideal places to build high-speed braille as they exist right now but to examine how your average U.S city will respond to implementing reliable rail travel how it should identify and reconfigure its Local transportation networks service through opportunity Oklahoma City and Tulsa is about perfect of a test beds as they call if high speed rail can be made to work there it can be made to work everywhere

Channel: Skyward LP

Views: 1,855

Keywords: US, United States, USA, United States of America, Rail, Transit, Transport, I-44, Interstate, Intercity, Intercity Rail, Passenger Rail, High Speed Rail, High-Speed Rail, HSR, Oklahoma, Oklahoma City, Tulsa, Local, Local Transport, Bus, BRT, Streetcar, Oklahoma City Streetcar, OKC, OKC Streetcar, Infrastructure

Id: f_AhaP9dlPw

Length: 11min 9sec (669 seconds)

Published: Wed Aug 09 2023