Transportation in Tulsa, Oklahoma includes a bus network and a system of raised highways and primary thoroughfares, laid out in mile-by-mile increments. In addition, throughout its entire length in Tulsa, historic Route 66 is a drivable road, with motels and restaurants reminiscent of the route's heyday era.
Tulsa Transit, the city's transit bus operator, runs 97 buses on 19 different routes across Tulsa and in surrounding suburbs such as Broken Arrow, Sand Springs and Jenks. Tulsa Transit has two stations: the Memorial Midtown Station at 7952 E. 33rd St. in Midtown Tulsa, and the Denver Avenue Station at 319 S. Denver, across from the BOK Center in Downtown. Most routes go through one or both of the stations, facilitating the commute to work and events in Downtown or Midtown. Buses stop at specific stops such as Tulsa Community College, Oklahoma State University-Tulsa, CityPlex Towers, Cox Communications, the various medical facilities in Tulsa, and many shopping destinations, hotels, and schools. The bus schedules are periodically changed; votes are taken by Tulsa Transit to help decide what are the best specifics for certain routes. [1] Tulsa is also implementing a Bus Rapid Transit (BRT) line along Peoria Avenue from 54th Street North to 81st Street South which will feature more frequent buses, upgraded stations, and faster travel times, one of the first 12 cities to adopt such a system. [2]
Tulsa streets were simply dirt tracks until after the turn of the 20th century. The first contract for paving was awarded in 1906. Bricklaying did not begin until October of that year and proceeded slowly because local demand for bricks far exceeded the capacity of nearby brick plants. [3] Later, streets were paved with concrete or asphalt.
The Tulsa Street Railway Company (TSR) was formed in 1905 by a group of 18 private investors, led by real estate developer Grant Stebbins. [4] By the end of 1906, TSR had electric streetcars operating downtown along Main, Third and Fifth Streets. [5] One reference states that the street car lines were completed even before the streets were paved. [6] In 1913 TSR was forced to withdraw its service on Cincinnati Hill by the City of Tulsa due to the danger of cars sliding down the hill. [7] In 1909, the Oklahoma Union Traction Company (OUT) built another streetcar line that ran from Owen Park to 18th Street and Lewis, an area now known as Swan Lake. The route went through Downtown on Fourth Street, south on Elgin to 11th Street, and then turned south on Lewis. TSR then built a line from First and Peoria to Kendall College. By 1923, TSR owned 21 miles (34 km) of track and 52 trolley cars. Several more lines were built until the 1920s, when private cars and taxis became more abundant and ridership began to decline. TSR was sold in 1926 to United Service Company. The streetcar system was sold again in 1936 to National City Lines. [8]
OUT went bankrupt in 1935. The trolley wires and rails were removed, and public transportation turned exclusively to buses. [5]
Starting Nov 2, 2012 the city of Tulsa introduced a newly-revived Tulsa Trolley system that would run every Friday & Saturday from 5pm through 2am to three of some of the City's most popular entertainment areas: the Blue Dome, Brady Arts, and Deco Districts, free of charge. [9] [10]
In 1911, the Sand Springs Railway Company built an interurban line connecting Tulsa and Sand Springs. The Tulsa Sapulpa Union Line (originally the Sapulpa and Interurban Railway) connected the two towns with the oilfields. [6] All of the lines are defunct. The Sand Springs line was the last interurban operating in Oklahoma when it ceased operating, on January 2, 1955. [11] The Tulsa Sapulpa line went bankrupt in 1917 and again in 1934, when it acquired its present name. It still operates as a freight-hauling Class III short-line railroad with 23 miles of track connecting BNSF in Sapulpa with Union Pacific in Tulsa. [12]
Into the late 1950s several trains of the Frisco, Katy or MKT and Santa Fe railways went in diverse directions from Tulsa's Tulsa Union Depot. Destinations included Chicago, Illinois; Kansas City, Missouri; St. Louis, Missouri; Oklahoma City, Oklahoma; Dallas, Houston, San Antonio and Galveston, Texas. [13] For a brief period in recent years the Iowa Pacific company planned and operated test commercial runs of the Eastern Flyer, a passenger train between Tulsa and Oklahoma City. [14]
Interstate 44 and the Skelly Drive Bypass crosses Tulsa through midtown from east and west. Its sister highways, Interstate 244 and Interstate 444, make up the inner-dispersal loop surrounding downtown and wrap through the northern part of the city, reconnecting to Interstate 44 in the east and southwest parts of the city. U.S. Highway 412 leaves the city from its most eastern and western points, but through most of its duration in Tulsa, it is primarily concurrent with Interstate 244. U.S. Highway 64 forms the Broken Arrow Expressway to the east and goes as far as the Sand Springs Expressway to the west. U.S. Highway 75 traverses West Tulsa through downtown going north and south, and U.S. Highway 169, also called the Mingo Valley Expressway or the Pearl Harbor Memorial Expressway, generally crosses the city in its eastern areas in a north–south direction. State Highway 11 serves the Tulsa International Airport, connecting from I-244 and Highway 75. The Creek Turnpike splits away from Highway 169 from the South and Interstate 44 from the East, bypassing most of the city of Tulsa and the suburb of Broken Arrow, eventually reconnecting with I-44 in Catoosa to the east and Jenks to the west.
Tulsa follows a systematic naming and numbering convention for all streets that are within its municipal jurisdiction. Admiral Place is the east–west-running dividing line for "streets north" and "streets south," and Main Street is the north–south-running dividing line for "west avenues" and "east avenues." Avenues west of Main Street are named for US cities west of the Mississippi River for one run of the alphabet, and afterward, numbered "west avenues" are assigned. Avenues east of Main Street are named for US cities east of the Mississippi River for approximately three runs of the alphabet, and afterward, numbered "east avenues" are assigned. Streets north of Admiral Place have important names in Tulsa's history for one run of the alphabet, and afterward, numbered "streets north" are assigned. Streets south of Admiral Place are numbered, beginning with "1st Street" and continuing southward. Street names and numbers are consistent throughout the Tulsa jurisdiction, regardless of whether a particular street is contiguous or continuous.
Addresses reflect their associated hundred block from either Admiral or Main. There are usually 16 blocks per mile, as counted by avenues, and there are 10 blocks per mile, as counted by streets. Other right-of-way labels (such as Place, Court, Drive, Terrace, etc.) may be used to describe an intermittent street or avenue, but the actual name will usually be the same as the adjacent street or avenue (such as Knoxville Avenue and its neighboring Knoxville Place, which are both assigned as the 3600 block east).
Major arterial streets can be found at every mile, as assigned by the township-and-range system, resulting in a well-defined grid of thoroughfares across the Tulsa region. As an example, east–west thoroughfares south of Admiral Place are streets ending with a 1, giving 11th Street, 21st Street, 31st Street, etc.
Sapulpa is a city in Creek and Tulsa counties in the U.S. state of Oklahoma. The population was 21,929 at the time of the 2020 census, compared with 20,544 at the 2010 census. It is the county seat of Creek County.
The Pacific Electric Railway Company, nicknamed the Red Cars, was a privately owned mass transit system in Southern California consisting of electrically powered streetcars, interurban cars, and buses and was the largest electric railway system in the world in the 1920s. Organized around the city centers of Los Angeles and San Bernardino, it connected cities in Los Angeles County, Orange County, San Bernardino County and Riverside County.
U.S. Route 75 is a north–south U.S. Highway that runs 1,239 miles (1,994 km) in the central United States. The highway's northern terminus is located at the Canadian border near Noyes, Minnesota, at a now-closed border crossing. From this point, the highway once continued farther north as Manitoba Highway 75. Its southern terminus is located at Interstate 30 (I-30) and I-45 in Dallas, Texas, where US 75 is known as North Central Expressway.
The Hamilton Street Railway (HSR) is the public transport agency for Hamilton, Ontario. The name is a legacy of the company's early period, when public transit in Hamilton was primarily served by streetcars. Although streetcars are no longer used in the city today, the HSR operates bus and paratransit services, with a ridership of 21 million passengers a year.
The Toronto Suburban Railway was a Canadian electric railway operator with local routes in west Toronto, and a radial (interurban) route to Guelph.
State Highway 97 is a 19.86-mile (31.96 km) state highway, maintained by the U.S. state of Oklahoma. It connects two towns in the northeast part of the state: Sapulpa and Sand Springs. Several communities of West Tulsa are along the road between these two towns, including Pretty Water, Allen, and Prattville.
State Highway 66 is a 192.7-mile (310.1 km) state highway in the U.S. state of Oklahoma, beginning at U.S. Highway 81 in El Reno and ending at U.S. Highway 60 near White Oak. The highway was designated in 1985 as a replacement for the decommissioned U.S. Highway 66. Although most of the highway follows Historic Route 66, the highway follows US 66's final alignment, joining Interstate 44 through Tulsa and Oklahoma City, while older versions of the route follow various city streets through both cities.
Lake Street is a major east-west thoroughfare between 29th and 31st streets in Minneapolis, Minnesota United States. From its western most end at the city's limits, Lake Street reaches the Chain of Lakes, passing over a small channel linking Bde Maka Ska and Lake of the Isles, and at its eastern most end it reaches the Mississippi River. In May 2020, the Lake Street corridor suffered extensive damage during local unrest following the murder of George Floyd. In August of the same year, city officials designated East Lake Street as one of seven cultural districts to promote racial equity, preserve cultural identity, and promote economic growth.
Transportation in Richmond, Virginia and its immediate surroundings include land, sea and air modes. This article includes the independent city and portions of the contiguous counties of Henrico and Chesterfield. While almost all of Henrico County would be considered part of the Richmond area, southern and eastern portions of Chesterfield adjoin the three smaller independent cities of Petersburg, Hopewell, and Colonial Heights, collectively commonly called the Tri-Cities area. A largely rural section of southwestern Chesterfield may be considered not a portion of either suburban area.
Oklahoma City is near the geographic center of the United States and is an integral point on the U.S. Interstate Network. The city is served by numerous roads and highways, toll roads, three major airports, a train station, a bus station, and a transit system.
Transit Windsor provides public transportation in the city of Windsor, Ontario, Canada as well as LaSalle, Essex, Kingsville, Amherstburg and Leamington and serves more than 6 million passengers each year, covering an area of 310 km2 (120 sq mi) and a population of 235,000. They operate a cross border service between the downtown areas of Windsor and Detroit, Michigan via the Tunnel Bus, and service to events at Detroit's Comerica Park, Little Caesars Arena, Huntington Place, and Ford Field. The Windsor International Transit Terminal neighbours with the Windsor International Aquatic and Training Centre.
The historic U.S. Route 66, sometimes known as the Will Rogers Highway after Oklahoma native Will Rogers, ran from west to northeast across the state of Oklahoma, along the path now taken by Interstate 40 (I-40) and State Highway 66 (SH-66). It passed through Oklahoma City, Tulsa, and many smaller communities. West of the Oklahoma City area, it has been largely replaced by I-40; the few independent portions that are still state-maintained are now I-40 Business. However, from Oklahoma City northeast to Kansas, the bypassing I-44 is mostly a toll road, and SH-66 remains as a free alternate.
The Phoenix Street Railway provided streetcar service in Phoenix, Arizona, United States, from 1888 to 1948. The motto was "Ride a Mile and Smile the While."
Streetcars in St. Louis, Missouri, operated as part of the transportation network of St. Louis from the middle of the 19th century through the early 1960s.
Transportation in metropolitan Detroit comprises an expansive system of roadways, multiple public transit systems, a major international airport, freight railroads, and ports. Located on the Detroit River along the Great Lakes Waterway, Detroit is a significant city in international trade, with two land crossings to Canada. Three primary Interstate highways serve the region.
U.S. 75 Alternate is a 30.15-mile (48.52 km) highway near Tulsa. The southern terminus is at U.S. Highway 75 and SH-16 east of Beggs. The northern terminus is signed at State Highway 66 and State Highway 97 in Sapulpa. However, the highway continues unsigned along SH-66, ending at the north terminus of the Turner Turnpike, where SH-66 merges onto the free portion of I-44. It runs parallel to US-75 for its entire length.
Streetcars originally operated in Atlanta downtown and into the surrounding areas from 1871 until the final line's closure in 1949.
In Atlanta, Georgia, trolleybuses, generally called trackless trolleys there, were a major component of the public transportation system in the middle decades of the 20th century, carrying some 80 percent of all transit riders during the period when the system was at its maximum size. At the end of 1949 Atlanta had a fleet of 453 trolleybuses, the largest in the United States, and it retained this distinction until 1952, when it was surpassed by Chicago.
Atlanta's transportation system is a complex multimodal system serving the city of Atlanta, Georgia, widely recognized as a key regional and global hub for passenger and freight transportation. The system facilitates inter- and intra-city travel, and includes the world's busiest airport, several major freight rail classification yards, a comprehensive network of freeways, heavy rail, light rail, local buses, and multi-use trails.
Tulsa–Sapulpa Union Railway Company, L.L.C. is a Class III shortline rail carrier which operates freight service between Tulsa, Oklahoma and Sapulpa, Oklahoma over 10 miles of track known as the Sapulpa Lead, and which also leases and operates a 12.9 mile section of Union Pacific track known as the Jenks Industrial Lead between Tulsa and Jenks, Oklahoma. The line connects with two Class I railroads, being the Union Pacific at Tulsa and the BNSF at Sapulpa, and additionally connects to its fellow Class III shortline, the Sand Springs Railway, in Tulsa. It is owned by the Collins Family Trust. Major customers on the Sapulpa Lead include Technotherm, Prescor, and Ardagh Glass, and on the Jenks Industrial Lead, the HF Sinclair oil refinery, Kentube, Word Industries, Pepsi Cola, and Kimberly-Clark.