Walkability - Our Definition

Walkability, as defined by Steve Alley in his Walking Scoping Paper of February 2005, is “the extent to which the built environment is walking friendly.” -- A vague, yet obvious definition. What may be less obvious is the subject for whom the built environment is friendly or not friendly. Everyone has specific needs when it comes to mobility, and it is best to provide access for the lowest common denominator, and for those who require special consideration. This is why ADA-accessibility is so important for the design of walkable infrastructure – sidewalks and other pedestrian infrastructure that are designed to be easy to use for those with disabilities will be usable by all pedestrians.

In Oklahoma City there is a huge range of sidewalk quality, from wide sidewalks with sloped crosswalk cuts, all the way to streets with no sidewalks and little to no thought given to anyone other than motorists. For someone like me or my wife, getting around on foot is not very problematic, but can be inconvenient in areas that have poor pedestrian infrastructure. Our personal limitations for walking are not typical, but represent a high-end level of accessibility. Our comfortable range in terms of distance maxes out at 3.5 miles in one direction (basically a one-hour walk), making a single trip a 7-mile journey. This is by no means preferable and tends to be the limit of our physical exertion in a given day; perhaps a bit further if split into more than one trip over the course of the day.

We live in the Regency Tower on NW 5^th Street (marked by the red star on the maps), and the map below shows buffers of our comfortable range ranked on the familiar A to F scale. This is just a general categorization of areas we can walk to in terms of walkability, and many other factors come into play; such as the quality of the sidewalks, the intensity of car traffic, the safety of intersection crossings, land use, and more. The concentric circles are not an accurate measure of distance in any direction other than the cardinal directions, and this is because Oklahoma City's street grid has very view diagonal streets; so, something that is 3.5 miles away on foot to the northeast, may only be 2 miles away as the crow flies! 

Because we are on the high-end of walking ability, it should be reasonable that the majority of people’s comfortable treks will be encompassed by our range of travel. We hope that this will give insight as to what the potential for walkability can be, while giving those with lesser walking ability the same value by letting them choose their own comfort scale.

Introducing: The Carless Couple

You might be wondering: Who are you? Why are you Carless in OKC?

Don't worry, we have answers - and reasons. Allow us to introduce ourselves.

I'm Elizabeth, and my counterpart is John, my husband. We are newlyweds who are also newly-moved to OKC, all the way from Athens, Georgia.

John and I share similarly unwalkable origins. I grew up in the vast sprawl of metro Atlanta, Georgia, which is arguably the definitive car-centric suburban landscape. My house was a quarter-mile from my elementary school and yet my mom dropped my brother and me off and picked us up each day. In all fairness, this had a lot to do with my mother's overprotective nature; however, this short distance had no sidewalks, and the road was mostly flanked by steep hills or sloping embankments. Growing up, I never walked from place to place. I was barely aware of the concept; save for the small (less than 10) group of kids from the neighborhood that was immediately adjacent to the elementary school, I did not know a single person who walked as a form of transportation. It was the suburbs, of course; everyone drove a car.

John grew up in Macon, Georgia, in a turn-of-the-century neighborhood that at least had sidewalks. Those sidewalks, however, were merely the conduit between neighboring friends' houses rather than major or viable transportation thoroughfares. Macon, as a former urban hub, has more existing and potential walkability in places like the downtown area, but there is a prevailing present-day suburban mindset which of course equals cars... lots of cars.

John and I both eventually ended up in Athens, Georgia, which is a famous little college town where we met and fell in love. John was getting his master's degree in environmental planning and design from the University of Georgia; his education, combined with the fact that we became heavily involved with community activism around the development of our city, provided a constant background to our relationship which revolved around a shared interest in how cities are planned.

Fast forward to late summer 2013: John and I were about to be married, and he received a job offer to be a planner with the City of Oklahoma City. We were suddenly faced with not only the monumental event of surviving our imminent wedding, but also planning and executing a move to Oklahoma City within about two weeks after that wedding. After considering all of our options, we eventually decided to leave both of our (old and quickly failing) cars with our parents and fly to Oklahoma City to begin our new life together.

On September 25, 2013, we stepped off the plane in OKC with three large suitcases and two very annoyed cats. We had a rental car for a few days while we got settled in, and we had every intention of purchasing a car as soon as we could. Buying a car, however, is tedious and overwhelming business, and as we became more comfortable navigating our surrounding area on foot, the idea of buying an automobile became less and less appealing.

Our apartment, as we've said before, is very close to downtown Oklahoma City and is located within what we consider walking distance to quite a few amenities like restaurants, specialty retail, museums, pubs/bars, and parks, to name a few. On the other hand, some amenities, like grocery shopping and general retail, did not seem to be immediately accessible to us, so it became a bit of a challenge for us to figure out how to comfortably and efficiently run necessary errands such as bi-weekly grocery trips. We liked the idea of rising to that challenge because living without a car fits with our ideals of a sustainable, healthy lifestyle - not only for us, but for the earth and future generations.

One major purpose of this blog is to tell the story of our adventures and misadventures with living a carless lifestyle in OKC. As we navigate the city around us on foot (and by public transit), we are not only negotiating a way of living that is new to us, but we are also discovering the joys, pains, quirks, and nuances of our new home. We hope that you'll enjoy sharing the journey with us.

Be Prepared - Carless Rating #1: John's Walk to Work

Be prepared. Being carless means you’ll need to have everything you need for your trip on your person, since you won’t be able to stash things in your car when you go somewhere. But being prepared isn’t just about what you carry with you; it’s also about how you dress. I’ve only lived in OKC for a little over a month, and I’ve experienced the full range of weather – this city goes from hot, to cold, to hot and cold at the same time (hot sun and freezing wind), dry, to humid, all in the matter of a week. Dressing in layers is fine if you have a destination where you can shed your outer layers, but carrying excess clothing around on a long walk can be a hassle. Then what about shoes? You need to know where you’ll be walking, and if you’re unsure of the terrain, it’s best to put on running shoes just in case the pedestrian infrastructure isn’t very good. Are you going to take public transit somewhere? Better have cash on hand or a bus pass. Taxi? Cash. Bicycle? Lock. Always be prepared, or you’re going to have a bad time.

JOHN's WALK to WORK: 21/25 

From The Regency (Red Star) to 420 W. Main St. (Green Star)                                  

 
                 The Walk

 

                     The Regency                                      420 W. Main St.

The first walk I’m going to score is my walk to work. I walk to work every day. ½-mile to work in the morning, ½-mile back for lunch, ½-mile back to work, and then ½-mile back home at 5:00pm. At this distance I don’t have to worry too much about what shoes I’m wearing. I carry a bag with me that has what I need for work, as well as a hat, gloves, and an umbrella just in case the weather turns on me during the day. Downtown OKC is a great place to live if you’re a city government worker because everything is centrally located. The majority of my co-workers have more than 30-minute commutes, and often it takes more time for them to find a parking spot and walk to the office than it does for me to just walk from my front door. The sidewalks are good, and traffic is only really bad right before 8:00am and right after 5:00pm. Each of these ratings will have scores in 5 categories: Distance, pedestrian access, atmosphere, transportation options, and land use. (These may change in future ratings). The scores will be added up to give a total out of a possible 25 points (5 As would be 25 points; 5 Fs would be 5 points)

The distance falls within the A grade of my distance score.

     The pedestrian infrastructure is well-maintained and has great access for the disabled. An A.

     The atmosphere is so-so due to some rough characters around the bus station across the street from my building, but mostly people are well-behaved. Something unique to this walk in the mornings is the giant swarms of Grackle birds. I’m not exaggerating when I say there are thousands of them roosting and flying around, which can make the walk somewhat perilous. It’s really something the city should take care of.  All things considered, I’ll give it a C.

     There are plenty of transportation options – People walk, ride bikes, drive their cars and take public transit. Definitely an A.

     There are several restaurants and convenient stores along the way, but there are also many surface parking lots and vacant buildings. C.

     So that’s 3 As and 2 Cs. If an A = 5 points and C = 3, then that gives this walk a score of 21 out of a possible 25. It’s a very manageable trek, and I’m fortunate to have such good access to my place of business!

Carless Interviewing - Carless Rating #2: Elizabeth Goes To The Capitol

Yesterday, John talked about his walk to work and gave an introduction to being prepared for pedestrian excursions. Considerations like sensible footwear and proper layering are all well and good for normal walks, but most of that goes out the window when you face another monster: job interviews... carless job interviews, that is.

Currently, John is our breadwinner and I am the stay-at-home house- and cat-keeper. Because of this, I do most of the errands during the day, which I love, because it gives me many opportunities do some solo exploring of our new city. I usually explore on foot, but many times, my errands require that I take public transit. I've become fairly comfortable with the bus system here in Oklahoma City. I've heard a lot of nay-saying about its reliability, but in my experience, buses have generally arrived on-time and on-schedule. As someone who has never used much public transit, I've been pleased to find that the bus routes are fairly easy to navigate, which is great because I was pretty intimidated at first. Now I feel like an old pro! It also helps that the OKC Metro Transit Center is literally our next door neighbor.

This is the OKC Metro Transit Center. You see that white building in the top right corner? That's our apartment building. Convenient, right?

That's not to say that there aren't some considerable negatives to bus transit. 99% of the other bus patrons are kind, polite, and generally agreeable people with whom I feel very comfortable sharing my travels. The other 1% tend to be... well, crazy people. The ones who have really loud conversations with other bus riders about their crack-smoking habit. The ones who have no sense of personal boundaries, and insist on talking to you until you take your headphones out of your ears to ask, "what?" Because, you know, I didn't have my headphones in for a reason; namely, as a body language cue to keep from having to talk to strangers. There was the time a guy vomited on the bus. To be fair, he threw up in the little trash can and then immediately got off the bus, but no matter what, that is a germophobe's worst nightmare. I immediately wanted to smear hand sanitizer all over my body, which I guess would have put me right into that 1% bus rider category of "crazy people" as well.

So, to get back to my carless rating, yesterday I had a job interview. My interview took place very near the Oklahoma State Capitol, which is about 3 miles away from our apartment. Under normal circumstances, this could potentially be an on-foot trip, but seeing as it was for an interview, I decided to take the bus. No problem there; I found the best route to take (bus 18), figured out what time I would need to catch the bus in order to make it to the interview on time, and checked the map so I'd know which way to walk toward my destination once I got off the bus.

The difficult part had to do with my actual person. Since I was headed to a job interview, I needed to wear a professional outfit, so for me, that meant a dress and these shoes:

They're not 4-inch stilettos by a long shot, but considering that I was going to need to do some walking between the bus and my destination during this trip, they were an inconvenience. Under normal (i.e. "having a car") circumstances, I would have worn flats for the drive and then just put on my heels for the walk from the parking lot, but that was, of course, not an option here.

The weather was also pretty chilly yesterday, so I had to wear my big puffy coat so I wouldn't freeze while waiting for or walking to the bus. This is another item that I would usually have stashed in my car in the parking lot while interviewing, but I had to take it in with me, which felt a little awkward. It's all okay, though, because I found the building pretty easily - it wasn't very far from the bus stop, only a couple of blocks - and my interview went very well, despite having my puffy coat in tow.

After the interview, my difficulties began. According to my route schedule, I was supposed to only have to wait about 10 minutes for the next scheduled bus to come through, which turned into about 45-50 minutes. I think that a bus was missing from the route on this particular day, which usually wouldn't have bothered me, but since I was interviewing, I took my "sensible, business-like purse" instead of my usual "huge tote bag" and therefore had to forgo taking a book with me. Wah, wah, I know, but I'm a big reader, and when I have to wait around, I like reading.

While I was sitting at the bus stop waiting, my biggest problem with this excursion began: good old-fashioned street harassment! During my 45-minute wait, I was repeatedly catcalled and honked at by men in cars that were driving by. This isn't usually as much of an issue when I'm out, because on normal daily errands I'm wearing comfortable clothes like jeans and sweaters - not that that's a total deterrent, because street harassers aren't ultimately concerned with what you're wearing, they just feel the need to objectify a woman. I always experience some form of street harassment when I travel alone; that is just the sad reality of women's lives. However, there is an undeniable correlation between the amount and frequency of street harassment that happens when I'm wearing clothing that's more revealing, like a dress, which I was yesterday because of my interview; therefore, the harassment was increased from its usual level.

By the time the bus arrived, I was pretty grumpy from being hollered at by men for 45 minutes. I was happy just to sit in the warmth for the long ride back to the transit center, so imagine my confusion and disdain when, about 20 minutes later, I was told by the bus driver that I would need to "scan my pass again" for "the ride back." Um, what? For one thing, I didn't have a pass, but I was too confused to argue, so I just got out more money for another bus fare and made my way to the machine. The driver looked at my fare money questioningly, and I told him that I didn't have a pass, but I would pay again if that was what I needed to do. He then explained that I probably didn't know this, but since there were "outbound" and "inbound" routes, I was supposed to pay again to come back in. This made no sense because I thought the bus route was one big loop, and I had paid to get back on it when I got on the bus after the interview. I also didn't think I was the only person who had been on the bus since I had gotten on, so I wasn't sure why I was being (seemingly) arbitrarily chosen to pay again. Ultimately, he told me he would let me go this time without paying, but it didn't ease my confusion at all. I scoured the OKC Metro website last night for some information about this mysterious inbound fare, but I found nothing to explain it. I've never had another bus driver try to do that, so I'm chalking it up to a weird misunderstanding.

Finally, I was home, and I was able to kick off those high heels and eat a grilled cheese sandwich. It was a really, really delicious grilled cheese sandwich.

Now for the rating of this excursion:

The distance on this trip is a little convoluted because of the public transit aspect of it; the distance from our home is 3 miles (a D grade), but I didn't have to walk 3 miles. I walked more like a mile to a mile and a half once the trip was all done, which would be a B rating. I think I'll split the difference, and give it a C rating for distance.

The pedestrian infrastructure on this trip is, again, not a straightforward rating. However, the transit center and the bus itself are both very ADA-friendly; in addition, the main road on which the bus stop was located for my destination has very nice, well-maintained sidewalks. The road I had to walk on to get to my interview had no sidewalks whatsoever, and I had to walk on the side of the road. In heels. Overall grade: C.

Transportation options: Hey, that's the one place where this trip did well. This area is accessible by car, by bus, and less easily but still possible, by walking. There aren't any bike lanes in the area of the interview, so I'll give it a B.

The land use of the area in question also scores decently. The area around the state capitol is beautiful (I mean, the state capitol building is right there), well-maintained, and feels very safe. However, the area is not very densely developed, so it's a bit sprawly. I'll give it a B.

The atmosphere of this trip FAILS because I have no patience for street harassment. That would have in itself been a fatal blow to the atmosphere rating, but the misunderstanding with the bus driver regarding my fare didn't help either. F for atmosphere.

The overall grade for this trip is a 15 out of a possible 25. It was definitely do-able, and if I were in a situation where I needed to make the trip regularly (as in, I got a job in that area), I'm fairly confident that the kinks would be worked out to make it a convenient trip.

Transit Meltdown- Carless Rating #3: 63rd and May Avenue

The last 5 days have been full of trials for Beth and me; mostly stemming from not having an automobile. All were met with success, but that’s not to say having a car wouldn’t have made our weekend much more convenient. What is becoming abundantly clear in this experiment is the need for improved access to amenities in our daily lives, as well as improved infrastructure for accessing said amenities.

Sometimes you can prepare for a carless trip across town and have all the details ironed out; but the chaotic entropy of the universe oozes all over your plans and forces you to be able to change plans at a moment’s notice. One thing we needed desperately to make our apartment feel more like a home was a good mattress. Up until now we’ve been using a very nice air mattress I borrowed from one of my very gracious co-workers that replaced our camping mattress we were able to fit in our luggage that we brought from Georgia. We haven’t been getting very good sleep, and it has been affecting our energy levels throughout the days. So, Thursday, Beth decided would be “Mattress Day”.

I got off work an hour early since I worked an extra hour earlier in the week, and we were going to catch the bus, Line 7, out to 63^rd Street and May to go to Big Lots and purchase a mattress. Well, we ended up missing the bus we had planned to take at 4:15, but that shouldn’t have been an issue as another bus on the 7 line was arriving at the downtown transit center at 5:00pm. Beth and I got to the bus station with our bus fare in hand at 4:45 and sat down to wait for the bus. There were several other people waiting for our bus – a diverse group of all different ages and races. 5:00pm rolls around and the bus hasn’t shown up. This isn’t too surprising, it being rush hour and all, so we all sit patiently. 5:15 comes and goes, and everyone is getting beginning to get anxious or downright annoyed. It’s now 5:25 and the bus still isn’t there. I think one woman summed up the feeling of everyone, however uncouthly, with her frustrated exclamation, “God Damn it! I got things to be!” It was a funny moment amidst an air of growing frustration.

Finally, at 5:30, a bus whose marquee read “Going Home” pulls into the station, immediately followed by a bus with “Number 7” on the marquee. The driver of the “Going Home” bus was actually the number 7 bus that didn’t show up at 5:00, and had somehow fallen a half-hour behind schedule. She had no reason to have the “Going Home” marquee indicated, but none of the people waiting had any patience for her incompetency and boarded the second number 7 bus which could not pull into the station fully, half hanging out in the road, due to this very late bus. This was very frustrating, and clearly represented a dangerous liability for the Metro Transit system as people boarding a bus in a street are at risk for being hit by other vehicles.

Finally we get on the bus and on our way to the 63^rd and May. Everyone on the bus was enjoying our bus driver’s animated frustration and humor regarding the driver of the previous bus, and we all had a very pleasant ride being able to bond over a common crisis.

After about a 30-minute ride Beth and I dismounted the bus at the bus stop in front of the Big Lots. This bus stop, sadly, is typical for Oklahoma bus stops. A lone bench, with three 2x4s for a seat and an advertisement for a back, sitting on a grassy shoulder with no sidewalk is just about the bare minimum a transit system can provide for its riders. What’s interesting is that COTPA (Central Oklahoma Transit and Parking Authority) doesn’t actually provide the majority of the bus stops in the city. That is contracted out to an advertisement company that owns billboards in the city. The company seems to think that they are doing the city a service by providing these benches for bus stops, but it’s clear what the real motivation is. The bus benches are miniature billboards. The owners have an incentive to make the benches as unusable as possible so as to not obscure the signs on the backing. There is rarely any shelter and often no access for the disabled. It is a sad state of affairs that must be fixed if COTPA plans to have transit system worth anything. I can think of no better way to bolster the transit system and increase ridership than by improving the conditions of bus stops around this city.

Beth and I found a mattress we liked and purchased it. Big Lots will deliver furniture for a flat rate of $60, and will also hold furniture at their store for you to pick up later, which makes purchasing furniture without a car very manageable. The staff was very helpful and friendly. Also in the shopping center is an Akin’s Health Food store where Beth was able to get chocolate soy milk, which you can’t get anywhere in the downtown area, not even Native Roots!

After eating a fast-food dinner while we waited for the bus, our adventure began again. We caught the line 7 bus heading back to downtown, and it was the last bus of the night. It was the same driver we had coming out to Big Lots and she was still talking to people on the bus about how much the previous bus driver had thrown off the route schedule. Many people were upset about how their plans for the evening were disrupted because of these issues. It just goes to show how important it is for a transit system to be well-monitored and staffed with competent, responsible drivers. The ripple effect of this one driver’s inability to be on schedule and follow protocol affected hundreds of Oklahoma City citizens.

The way that it affected us was particularly bad. Because this was the last bus of the night, it was not en route to return to the downtown transit center, but was heading south on Pennsylvania Avenue back to the bus depot. We only found this out as we boarded the bus. The driver was able to take us as far as 10^th Street and Penn, which we accepted because it was a much shorter distance to travel than where we presently were. 10^th and Penn is about 1.5 miles away from our apartment, and is a quickly growing neighborhood. As we came to find out, however, it is still very rough around the edges and was legitimately scary to walk through after dark. I would not recommend anyone do this. We stayed on the well-lit 10^th Street all the way to Classen, turned south, and then east on 5^th Street back to our apartment. It was cold, somewhat frightening, and an overall pain in the ass that could have all been avoided had the one bus driver not ruined it for everyone.

Thursday night was an adventure that I won’t soon forget, and I’m very glad I had my brave and beautiful wife to go through it with, but I think it might be better to plan for trips of this length to be weekend activities that we can accomplish before nightfall.

The distance to Big Lots from our home is about 7 miles, which took around 30 minutes on the bus, which scores an outright F on our scale, but we only had to walk about a mile and a half in total, which would be a B. Given the fact that we had not planned on walking any substantial distance at all, I’m giving this a D.

The pedestrian and transit infrastructure on this journey varied in different locations. For the evening I don’t think I can give the transit system anything higher than a D. We did get where we were going, but we did not get back from where we were going, and the bus stop was down-right depressing. At Big Lots there were very few elements of walkability. The walk from 10^th and Penn was very walkable though, with sidewalks the entire way home. Regardless, I don’t feel comfortable giving anything higher than a D for this journey.

In terms of transportation options to and around 63^rd and May Avenue, the transit system failed to function correctly, there is a significant lack of pedestrian infrastructure, and there are no bike lanes. This location is only convenient to reach by motor vehicle. Again, I’m going to go with a D, because the transit system doesn’t always suck.

The land use choices in the 63^rd and May area are not terrible, if a bit corporate. As a retail hub there is a wealth of things to choose from, though the region may be suffering a decline. It’s hard to say whether the few vacancies in the numerous strip malls are the beginning of a trend or a temporary thing. While there are better areas to shop in the city, there were many people at the various stores. I’ll give it a C.

The atmosphere of this whole evening ebbed from a downright disaster, to a pleasant shopping experience, to a fearful trek home. It was definitely stimulating, but to encounter major inconvenience that puts you in a place where you’re fearful for your well-being is not an acceptable outcome of a car-less journey. The only real redeeming atmosphere was the helpful Big Lots staff. I’m going to give this a D.

So that’s four Ds and one C for a score of 9 out of a possible 25. I think this trip could have scored much higher if the transit system were better controlled. That said, there is a great need for improvements in the pedestrian infrastructure on 63^rd and May. The number one thing that I see that needs to change is that the busses should finish their routes back at the transit center downtown before heading to the depot for the night so as not to strand downtowners in dangerous areas. 

Transit Meltdown: The Aftermath

In the last post, John wrote about our bogus journey to buy a mattress. That was last Thursday night, so we had the entire weekend to deal with the aftermath, which I'm going to tell you about now.

On Thursday night, we left our precious new mattress at Big Lots to be contended with later. We had more options than we would usually have with a new piece of furniture, as far as needing to get the furniture to our home and how to achieve that while being carless. As John said before, Big Lots offers furniture delivery for a flat rate of $60, which would usually have been our only viable option, but they will also hold furniture to be picked up later. That was actually an option for us with this furniture purchase, because John's dad was coming to visit us the following day! We realized that we could have Big Lots hold the mattress and box spring for us and then return the following evening with John's dad, and more importantly, John's dad's car, to pick it up and bring it home.

As the theme of the weekend was "nothing goes as expected," this, of course, was not to be.

John's dad, Scott, arrived on Friday with a big carload of our belongings. That was the main purpose of this trip: to bring us a good bit of the possessions we left behind in Georgia when we moved to OKC. Being able to visit with us, albeit briefly, was just a nice bonus. Scott arrived around 1:00 PM, so John was still at work for the rest of the afternoon. I welcomed Scott to our home and then we decided to unload the boxes from his car.

John and I love our apartment, but our building tends to make bad first impressions. The day we arrived, the power in the building went out and stayed out for a full night and a large part of the next day. We live on the 19th floor, so this was quite an inconvenience, as the elevators weren't working and we had to climb 19 flights of stairs any time we left our apartment.

We expected something similarly lame to happen when John's dad arrived, and we were not disappointed; a new tenant was (allegedly) moving in that very afternoon and had taken the sole loading cart. I say that this new tenant was "allegedly" moving in because although he or she had arrived, reserved the freight elevator for the afternoon, and disappeared with the loading cart, we never saw him or her, and neither had anyone at the front desk, as they informed us when we inquired about using the cart. I don't know if the new tenant had arrived and then immediately left to run errands instead of unloading their belongings without letting the front desk know, but either way, it was a very inconvenient time to have the loading cart go missing.

Scott and I begrudgingly began unloading boxes from his car one or two at a time each (depending on how heavy they were), carrying them into the building, riding the elevator to the 19th floor, and depositing them in the apartment, intermittently taking short breaks to recuperate. I had not worked out that day because I was cleaning in anticipation of my father-in-law's visit, but I inadvertently got my strength training in by carrying heavy boxes for three hours, so the situation was fortuitous in that way, I guess.

The fun doesn't stop there. For all of those readers who aren't Oklahomans, here's a fun fact for you: OKC is windy as HELL. Friday was a particularly blustery day, with isolated gusts reaching well over 40 mph. John's dad was parked across the street from our apartment building and at one point, the wind straight-up blew a box out of his arms and onto the street. We could barely stand up straight in this wind, much less when we were encumbered with heavy boxes. (Increased resistance for my strength training? I have no idea what I'm talking about.)

Scott started to worry that we wouldn't be able to get our mattress home that night. His smallish SUV was not quite roomy enough to fit the mattress inside, so we were planning to strap it down on top of the vehicle, but the howling prairie winds were starting to make that plan look like an impossibility. I repeatedly assured him that although OKC is super-windy, I had noticed that the wind died down by the evening on most days, and we'd probably be safe to bring the mattress home later that evening.

I really wanted that mattress.

Also, I was totally wrong. The wind continued to blast full-force through the city after John got home from work that afternoon, so we revised our plan for the night: dinner first, mattress pickup second. We were hoping that eating an early dinner would not only buy us enough time that the wind would weaken by the time we headed to Big Lots, but also help us to beat the dinner rush. Wrong again, because our dinner plan was to show John's dad an authentic (and delicious) piece of Oklahoma City history, and apparently everyone else in the city had the same idea: The Cattlemen's Steakhouse.

The Cattlemen's Steakhouse is over 100 years old, and home to former President George H.W. Bush's preferred T-bone steak. If there's one thing - literally only one thing - I would trust that man about, it's steak. It turns out that I am correct in that sentiment, because John and I have eaten there twice now, once for breakfast, and then for dinner, and it's been SUPER DELICIOUS both times. We are a steak-loving couple, and we love the Cattlemen's Steakhouse. Our dinner there with John's dad did not disappoint; we stuffed ourselves with perfectly cooked sirloin steaks and baked potatoes, and tried their house beer, Double Deuce, which was shockingly good.

We waddled back to the car and headed to Big Lots to deal with the mattress situation. It had become abundantly obvious that we were not going to be picking it up and taking it home, because the gales of wind had not subsided anywhere near enough to make anyone feel comfortable strapping a mattress on top of a car and driving with it. John and Scott arranged for the mattress delivery and we headed back home.

John's dad headed out early the next morning to drive back to Georgia. We saw him off, walked down to (the delicious and locally roasted!) Elemental Coffee for a decaf for me, and then we settled in to wait for the mattress to arrive. The delivery window was "noon to 3:00," and sure enough, the delivery men did not arrive until about 2:50pm. Don't get me wrong, I'm thankful that they at least arrived within the promised window, but we had also waited around that entire time. To quote our bus stop friend from the last entry, I got things to be.

The mattress delivery in and of itself was a pain, yet mercifully brief. The usual protocol for furniture delivery at our apartment building involves delivery trucks driving around to a back loading area which opens into the back door of the freight elevator, but the freight elevator was not available, as it turned out. Surprise, surprise: the same chucklehead who had reserved the freight elevator the day before "to move" and then didn't use it, had reserved it again. We had to coax the delivery men to park across the street and carry the mattress & box spring across the street and into the normal elevator, all while listening to constant lame chatter and vaguely sexist jokes from the main delivery man. Thankfully, it was an easy job and they were out of our lives pretty quickly.

And then... THEN, we were free. Free to lie on our wonderful comfy new mattress for the next two days, with short departures to go eat Thai food at Thai Kitchen (our favorite restaurant with a walkability rating of approximately 1 billion, but we'll do a formal rating and review of that one in another post), pick beer at Broadway Wine Merchants (awesome craft beer selection and equally awesome walkability rating), and for dinner and bowling at Redpin in Bricktown.

See how happy I am?

This mattress is absolutely amazing. We are both so happy with it! After sleeping on an air mattress for about a month and a half, the mattress feels utterly decadent. We had decided to buy at Big Lots to be economical but we are definitely pleasantly surprised with the quality and comfort we got with this purchase.

There's not really a carless rating involved with this post; the ground covered here, so to speak, is the same route/place that John rated in the last post. The troubles we had with getting our mattress to our home were not necessarily specific to being carless. I wrote this post as a wrap-up and to let you all know how the mattress adventure turned out. Thankfully, it has a very happy - and comfy - ending!



Stay tuned - upcoming posts on Carless in OKC include our Veteran's Day Shopping Catastrophe (or, Why It's Important To Read Numbers Properly) and my rating of my latest carless interviewing jaunt.

Complete Streets - What Are They? Who's Going to Use Them? How Should They Be Implemented?

Something I do in my work is to look at the concept of Complete Streets and how it might be implemented into the context of Oklahoma City. Complete Streets is the concept of making roads that are equitable for all modes of transportation; cars, bikes, pedestrians, public transit, freight, etc. In addition to this, Complete Streets strives towards appropriate place-making such that street upgrades are not a blanket solution for all areas of a city, but are tailor-made to enhance the character and usage of a place. Complete Streets policies have been authored, adopted, and implemented all around the country, and Oklahoma City is working towards this goal as well.

Philosophically, I’m a big fan of Complete Streets as a method of improving the lives of everyone in the city. However, I do worry that adding bike lanes and sidewalks (I can’t believe we have to add SIDEWALKS in so many places) will not be enough to make the investment something that impacts the majority of Oklahoma City citizens’ lives. We have to create a culture that appreciates walkability, bicycling as a means of transportation rather than solely exercise, and areas that are vibrant, small-scale places with character.

 Local planners, such as Blair Humphreys have been planning the future of one street in particular, Western Avenue. It’s no wonder that it’s a popular street for upgrading as it stretches further to the north and south of the city than nearly any other street. Western could become the non-automobile transportation spine that provides access to east-west streets throughout the city. Western changes character in many different areas, so there is no single silver bullet change that could be implemented to be effective the entire length of the road: In downtown there are four car-traffic lanes, intermittent sidewalks, no bike lanes, and spotty land use ranging from commercial to gas stations (Figures 1 & 2); around N. 45^th Street you see a totally different character, with 2 car lanes, 2 better-defined sidewalks, (still no bike lanes), and a diverse mix of retail, commercial, and residential (Figures 3 & 4); further north you enter suburbia, and Western is stripped to two lanes of car-traffic and nothing else (Figures 5&6).

Figure 1 - Downtown Section View

     

Figure 2 - Downtown Plan View

Figure 3 - Urban (non-Downtown) Section View

Figure 4 Urban (non-Downtown) Plan View

Figure 5 Sub-Urban Section View

Figure 6 Sub-Urban Plan View

I’m working on Complete Streets examples at work to improve these areas, including different scenarios based upon the amount of money that would be invested in the projects. For now, take a look at the drawings below that were created on StreetMix.net. This is the same section of Western in the Downtown area as the previous pictures, but with the spacing reorganized to provide multi-modal usage. The 4-lane street has been diminished to a 3-lane street with a center turning lane; bike lanes have been added to both sides; a sidewalk has been added to the eastern side of the street; and none of this would require tearing up pavement. The initial width of the street is maintained, but the lines on the street have been re-painted. Obviously, paint costs money, but approaching streets in this fashion could help make the implementation of Complete Streets in Oklahoma City affordable, and would be a good selling point for those worried about the cost of upgrading.

 Existing

Complete

Adding the center turn-lane would actually make traffic more efficient as no travel lanes are blocked when someone wants to turn left, and the ADT of Western does not require so many lanes, particularly in the downtown area. This design already functions in other areas of Oklahoma City, the downtown and elsewhere, and is being promoted by the Complete Streets Coalition that came to speak with City and County officials and staff last week.

Lastly, to come back to the concept of creating a culture around alternative modes of transportation, I think that it the most effective way to implement Complete Streets would be to begin in districts that already see a lot of people: your Plaza Districts, Paseo Arts District, Stockyard City, etc. In addition, upgrading the streets between these districts to make a network of Complete Streets would create a network of bike lanes and sidewalks so that people could bike to and from the different districts. From there constructing sub-networks that connect to different sites around the city would create an organic system of complete streets that becomes easier and easier to fill in.

The City has allocated a good amount of money to the initiative of improving the transportation infrastructure of the city, and it is imperative that it serve everyone: from those who are currently underserved by the system, to those who have the choice of driving – we need a total buy-in from the community to make this a successful endeavor.

The Search Is On: Let's Find The Worst Bus Stop in OKC! - Contender #1

Hello everyone! I hope you're all having a great Thanksgiving! Here at Carless HQ, we've been relaxing and sleeping off the huge meal that we ate earlier today.

I've had the idea floating around in my head for awhile that I'd like to start posting photos of awful OKC bus stops as a way to raise awareness about the dismal state of bus stops here in the city. As the resident bus transit expert, I've seen a lot of bus stops here in Oklahoma City, and a lot of them are a pretty disappointing sight to behold. About a week ago, I snapped this photo near the intersection of NW 10th Street and Western Avenue.

The photo doesn't even do justice to this bus stop's true awfulness - click on the picture to get the full effect. In real life, it stopped John and me in our tracks. The bench is pretty much completely unusable. OKC bus stop benches are never an exercise in comfort or hospitality, but this one really steps up the rickety game. First of all, this is an uphill street, so it's already sitting at an angle, since it's aligned parallel to the road rather than at the customary angle, which would alleviate a bit of the slope. Next, bring your attention to the seat slats: they're all warped, splintered, and resting on different levels. Look at the exposed nail! Who knew that a tetanus shot would be a prerequisite for using a bus stop? I don't think anyone would attempt to sit here, which I would usually say is the entire point of the seat being so awful - to ensure as much visibility for the back billboard ad space without the obstruction of a seat occupant - but the even the advertisement is in disrepair. It's all peeled off and obviously hasn't been changed or tended to in months. Get it together, people. If you're going to run an ad-space-under-the-guise-of-bus-stops racket, at least do it right and keep those ads looking sharp.

Let's not forget to mention the huge amount of litter on the ground in front of the stop. That's not really the fault of the bus stop itself as much as the people walking or standing by, but the trash certainly doesn't help the overall aesthetics of the stop.

Is this the worst bus stop in OKC? It's pretty wretched, but I'm reasonably confident that it isn't the worst, so let's keep looking! Do you know of a particularly awful OKC bus stop? Comment and let us know, or better yet, snap a picture and share it with us!

Poem

Tourists in Their Own City

It's curious that people take their cameras everywhere
Like tourists in their own city, they feel the need to share.

With smiles fixed, and hair just right, and loved ones in their embrace,
They perch on rocks in the park that's their's, they paid for in the first place.

One night a year, maybe two or three, downtown becomes alive,
with citizens who seem overjoyed, who've made the half-hour drive.

I wish they would do this more often, I wish they would take ownership,
of the city they paid for, the city that needs them to do more than take a trip.

It's dead when they're gone, and alive when they're there,
when they're out of their cars, when they all seem to care,
when they notice pedestrians, and are finally aware,
that people do live here, who walk, and bike,
explore the streets every day and night,
who don't need a car to get there.

So, take your pictures and don't forget, that it's more than your loved ones who make up the set.
It's the city around you, the streets and the lights, and others who use them, who give them their life.

Going Carless: A Radical Act?

Having an activist spirit is sometimes really difficult in our world. If you're anything like me, you want to do what you can to make a difference. You want to make decisions that will make a positive impact, but sometimes those decisions are not black and white. For example: obviously, sweatshops are a bad thing, so one would immediately think to boycott companies and brands that produce their goods using sweatshop labor. However, if you think a little bit more about it, what if those companies are providing the only jobs available in an extremely impoverished country? The sweatshop may be paying people next to nothing for long, punishing hours in sub-par working conditions, but is it worse than the nothing that they might otherwise receive?

Another example is buying a hybrid car, which seems like a great step for the environment, but there are big negatives to hybrids. One is that the hybrid battery itself is very harmful to the environment, so much so that it almost outweighs the positive aspects of owning a hybrid versus a conventional vehicle (Source). Secondly, studies show that people who own hybrid cars actually drive more than those who own conventional cars, because the lowered gasoline cost encourages more car travel (Source).

Ford Escape Hybrid Battery Pack

These are obviously rough sketches of these decisions and their consequences and by no means an exhaustive analysis of either issue; I'm bringing them up simply to make a point about how hard it is to make a statement with your actions without the possibility of an unforeseen negative result. For those of us who try to be socially conscious, this is a nightmare, because all we want to do is make a positive impact on this world. We want to be aware of how our life choices affect the world, and when it starts to seem like our choices have rotten consequences no matter what you choose, it’s very, very discouraging.

Well, I have good news for all of you. I know of one radical act that helps the environment, improves your health, and sticks it to the corporate powers that be. Not only that, but it has virtually zero negative effects to weigh against the positive. Do you want to know what that is?

Ditch your car.

That’s it. That one gesture is a revolutionary act of defiance. Choosing not to drive a car flies in the face of the status quo in almost every way that you could hope for. Why is that? Let’s talk about it.

The earth is the biggest benefactor of your decision to stop driving a car. When you take your vehicle off the road for good, your carbon footprint decreases greatly. The impact of this reduced carbon output cannot be overstated, especially when more and more people start doing it.

Probably the simplest way to improve your health is by increasing your physical activity. Walking has been proven to reduce the risk of obesity and diabetes, which are two major and growing threats to American health. When you stop driving and start using alternative forms of transportation, an increase in physical activity is automatic. Even if you’re riding the bus or taking the subway or a train, you’re probably walking to and from the bus or subway stop. Ideally, people should be able to live in walkable cities where they can access almost all of their work and desired goods and services within walking distance and won’t necessarily need to even use the bus or subway very much, but let’s not get ahead of ourselves here. The point is that choosing to stop driving a car results in walking or biking more no matter what transportation mode you choose, and that is extremely beneficial for your health!

It’s hard to choose, but sometimes I think my favorite thing about not driving a car is sticking it to the man. I’m just a born anti-authoritarian, what can I say? John has already written a post about how much money the average person can save by not owning a car, and the figure is astronomical. In today’s economy, where people of our generation are saddled with thousands of dollars of student debt, healthcare costs are rising, and we face an uncertain retirement future with Social Security in jeopardy and fewer companies offering pension plans, it is an objective fact that we could really, really use that money.

We obviously have enough to spend our money on...

When I saw those numbers, my first reaction was to feel very indignant. It’s pretty obvious to me that the automobile, gasoline, and insurance industries have quite an interest in keeping us all dependent on cars. They stand to make hundreds of thousands of dollars from each American family over the course of their lifetimes; not to mention that they stand to earn the interest on that money from us rather than allowing us to earn that interest for ourselves on our own hard-earned money. Do you see why this makes me angry? Of course these corporate lobbies do everything they can to make walkable cities and transportation options seem like a ridiculous pie-in-the-sky concept; their very bloated livelihood depends on us being trapped in an urban and suburban model of living that keeps us in our cars forever. I, for one, am more than willing to do what it takes to say “no, thank you” and throw that back in their faces. That is why John and I do what we do here at Carless In OKC.

If you want to get on board with a movement that is truly revolutionary, get on the train - or sidewalk, bike, or bus – and ditch your car. You don’t even have to go completely carless like we are to make a big difference. Just start walking, biking, using car sharing or ride sharing programs, or taking public transit when you can. I promise you’ll get hooked on the feeling of doing something great for your health and the environment, with the happy side effect of disempowering the corporate system that keeps us in our cars and dependent on oil.

The activist in all of us should be satisfied with that.  

Watch Your Step! - Six Hazards of Being a Pedestrian

Today we're going to look at some things that make being a pedestrian more difficult. Most of the things on this list could be prevented, and in an ideal situation wouldn't be an issue. Let's take a look at some hazards involved with being a pedestrian:

1. Poop. Dog poop, everywhere.

We’ll start the list off with a bio-hazard. I love seeing people out walking their dogs, but I hate that nobody in this area picks up after them. There’s poop in the planters, poop in the grass, and poop on the sidewalk. Where do dog owners get off thinking it is acceptable to leave a steaming pile of feces on the sidewalk? Our building doesn't have any trash cans or disposal bags outside, which would make a big difference, but I don’t think it would solve the problem. If you own a dog, pick up after them. Period. It’s disgusting, unsightly, and selfish. If you can’t pick up after your dog, then you don’t deserve to own one.

Right on the sidewalk that's still covered in snow a week later.

Good grief; do you dog owners have no decency?

Oh come on! Horse poop?! In Midtown?!

2. While we’re on the subject of animals… 

Being chased by a dog is no fun… well, that’s not always true. We were chased down the street by three adorable puppies the other day, and that was the cutest attack ever. But I still felt like I had the responsibility to make sure the pups got back to their owner’s property, which wasn't easy. If you have dogs, please put them in an enclosure or have them leashed. We've been chased down by barking angry dogs and I’m not sure what to do in the situation. I don’t want to hurt an animal, but I’m not going to let an animal bite me or my wife.

Pit Bulls can be sweet, but I'm not willing to wait to find out when one is charging me on the street.

Other animals can pose a hazard as well. In downtown OKC when the weather is warm grackles are EVERYWHERE;  Thousands of them sitting on electrical wires and on the ground, just waiting for the moment to drop poop on you from above.

It’s amazing how much of an issue poop is when steps aren't taken to control animal populations.

Multiply this by several hundred, and you've got the flocks that swarm downtown OKC.

"This is my turf!"

3. Okay, no more poop. Another hazard is the weather.

If you’re a pedestrian you have to be prepared for Mother Nature. Whether it’s hot, cold, or both hot and cold at the same time (Oklahoma City has demonstrated to me that this is possible several times; freezing wind and baking hot sun. How do you prepare for this?!) you need to be sure that you've got the appropriate clothing and accessories. An umbrella, sunglasses, scarves, gloves, hats, and other appropriate clothing choices will keep you comfortable regardless of the weather.

4. Distractions

Texting and talking on the phone while driving is a serious issue that creates a hazardous environment for drivers on the road, cyclists and pedestrians. But pedestrians are not innocent here by any means. I’ve seen people texting while walking and walk right out into an intersection when they don’t have the right-of-way. This behavior is bad for many reasons. It puts your life in the hands of drivers who may not be paying attention either. It also gives pedestrians a bad reputation, which is the last thing that needs to happen if we want to successfully campaign for better pedestrian infrastructure. Groups of pedestrians that are too engrossed in their conversation to be aware of their surroundings are also at risk of injury.

Here Elizabeth demonstrates how not to cross the street.

5. Unsafe Intersections

In Oklahoma City there are plenty of road intersections that are perfectly safe, but there are also those that are potentially dangerous for pedestrians. In particular the Classen diagonal that runs from Midtown up to 16^th Street has several difficult intersections. These three intersections have very poor pedestrian crossings, either no crosswalks, faulty signals, or no signals. 

Classen and 11th: A six way intersection with two crosswalks

Classen and 13th: This intersection is HUGE. There aren't sidewalks on each side of the road, so this one is particularly difficult.

Classen and 16th: Do you want to cross this on foot?

6. Poorly Maintained Infrastructure

Sidewalks can fall into disrepair and become hazardous for daily use. This can be realized in many different ways: vegetation can be allowed to take over the sidewalk, with street trees making the sidewalk uneven, or shrubs having to be pushed out of the way. With all the snow and ice we've been having lately it’s become apparent that clearing sidewalks is not a high priority. While none of the streets are covered in snow thanks to the snow plow trucks, I have to walk like a penguin so that I don’t slip and fall on the ice-covered sidewalks in downtown. There should really be some effort given to ensuring that sidewalks are maintained as well as streets. It’s not fair that pedestrians have to deal with snow and ice for a whole week after it has fallen because pedestrian safety isn't a priority.

Where'd the sidewalk go? It snowed 5 days ago.

It's areas like these that make me glad I'm not wheelchair-bound.

These are just some of the hazards we face as pedestrians, and the majority could be avoided by taking personal responsibility. The others require municipalities to properly implement pedestrian infrastructure, which is our main goal at CarlessInOKC; walking needs to be a safe and easy option. What other hazards can you think of? Feel free to comment and start a discussion!