By MIKE JONES Associate Editor on Apr 5, 2011, at 3:56 PM Updated on 4/05 at 3:56 PM
JONEZIN
Well, if at first you don’t succeed …
Last week, Rep. Dennis Johnson, R-Duncan, uttered an ethnic slur on the floor ...
When NBC airs its exclusive interview with convicted child molester Jerry Sandusky next week I hope time is taken to also ...
All together now, awwwwwww.
Poor (not financially poor) Mark Zuckerberg is $7.2 billion less wealthy.
That’s billion ...
CONTACT THE BLOGGER
918-581-8332
Email
I have a small suggestion for those who make decisions about what information to include on signs along our highway system.
First, as anyone who has lived in Tulsa for any length of time will testify, information signs in the Tulsa area are, well, lacking. I won’t get into all the confusing or at least not-so-helpful directional signs or the lack of any signs or the way highways seem to change names in the middle of the city.
The good news is that since Tulsa is laid out on a grid, it’s almost impossible to get lost. Well, almost impossible. There are some of us who are directionally challenged. Thank goodness for the addition of a compass in vehicles. I might even consider getting married again simply to have someone to help me find my way out of strange neighborhoods, or even out of Dillard's.
Right now, however, I have this small suggestion. Will someone please add a few decent-size signs near the downtown exits and highway interchanges that direct travelers to the BOK Center and ONEOK Field?
Here’s one example: If a family from Broken Arrow was headed for a baseball game they likely would use the Broken Arrow Expressway to get there. There are other ways to get there, but that route seems to be the best.
Now, there are plenty of exits for downtown, a few of which are even marked. It seems to me that the best route is to take U.S. 75 north from the BA (that part is pretty well marked). Then you can either take the Seventh Street exit or continue around now that the Inner Dispersal Loop is finished (but be sure and stay headed toward Oklahoma City, not Joplin) and exit even nearer the ballpark.
Continue driving (keep Oklahoma City in mind) and you can exit onto Second Street and get to the BOK Center, although you wouldn’t know that for sure, even if you can see the arena from the highway.
For the BOK Center, the Seventh Street exit works OK if you are coming from BA. The exits for Detroit or Denver avenues or the Second Street exit also all get you there. Take my word for it. There are no signs.
If you happen to be visiting from, say, Stillwater and want to get to ONEOK Field, well, take the Tisdale Expressway, that’s part of I-244 and head toward Broken Arrow. Somewhere along there you’ll be able to see the ballpark and eventually you will run into that Seventh Street exit I mentioned earlier, unless you perchance filnd the first exit near the ballpark, then, well, you get the idea.
Keep OSU-Tulsa in mind. That exit is marked and it will get you close to the ballpark. If you miss it, you still have a shot at Seventh. And if you miss that, keep Oklahoma City in mind. I think its Bricktown area is pretty well marked.
There is an addition to a highway sign on the downtown loop that highlights an exit for the Jazz Museum. I have no quarrel with that, The Jazz Museum, housed in the old Union Depot train station, is a great addition to Tulsa and to downtown. On I-44 at the Lewis Avenue exit, at least until the highway work began, there was a sign to exit there for Oral Roberts University. Fine. But do the highway folks know that you can also get to the University of Tulsa at the same exit. Drivers unfamiliar with Tulsa certainly would not.
I know, for some folks all this seems silly. But there are some of us out there who rely on signs, especially in unfamiliar cities, and sometimes even in the city we’ve lived in 40 years.
In Tulsa, you really need to know how to “get there” before you “get there.” We have two class venues in our downtown. How about we make it easy for those not familiar with downtown to find them?
Only active print or digital subscribers of the Tulsa World are allowed to post comments on stories posted to Tulsaworld.com. After you fill out the form below and click submit, your comment will be published instantly online along with your screen name.
By clicking "Submit" you are agreeing to our terms and conditions.
