I live in Tulsa, which is being suffocated by the turnpikes around. Literally, you can't travel a major non-stop highway out of Tulsa without paying a toll. I've read the statistics stating that over 50% of revenue is from out-of-state drivers, but I can hardly believe it from my point of view. If you live in Tulsa, you have a PIKEPASS. My husband drives the Creek Turnpike on a daily basis to & from school spending hundreds of dollars per year. When we visit family in Enid, we travel the barely drivable & hardly maintained Cimarron Turnpike. I think while living here, we've traveled all of them & paid plenty to use them. And still OTA builds more squeezing Tulsa!!!!

I have a couple of questions about these turnpikes. First, I wonder why OTA keeps building so many toll roads around Tulsa? I mean the Creek & 169 South Loop (which is still being finished & partially opened now) run right through the Tulsa area & are used daily by the citizens!!! It hardly seems right to have toll roads all around one city. Secondly, where do the revenue really go? I can hardly believe it is to pay for & maintain the toll roads only. As I stated we also drive the Cimarron Turnpike regularly is we have watched the progress on re-sufacing the road. Probably, for over a year, one lane was 'scraped' but never re-surfaced with no work going on. This road is poorly maintained for the amount of money being paid to maintain it. Seriously, is there a way to really KNOW where all this money is going?

Another question is how do other states in the US build new roads without tolls? I guess I just wonder if we are paying for the roads over & over instead of just paying the for it up front & being done with it. I think Oklahoma has some of the worst roads in the country yet we get to pay to drive them over & over. Seems odd to me...

-- Amy Wilson (wilsonta@wans.net), September 30, 2001

Answers

Why do we need turnpikes...

Well, It's been more than a year since they scraped the one lane on the Cimarron, in fact, I know it's been at least five. And it can do damage. I can hardly believe that 50% of turnpike revenue comes from out of state drivers, some body is really 'fixing' the figures there. Really, some of these turnpikes are a real waste. OKC has their own version of Tulsa's Creek Turnpike, its called the Kilpatrik. In cases like this, I'd just plan in a little extra time and not even use the things. Your really going to make me pay to use a road to go from south Tulsa to Jenks? Ha. Ridiculus.

-- Wes Kinsler (kinsler1@hotmail.com), October 01, 2001.

Avoiding the Tulsa turnpikes......impossible.

Yes, I am aware of the Kilpatrick Turnpike, but there are roads running right next to it that you can take instead. That is NOT the case in Tulsa. I it literally impossible to get anywhere in a reasonable amount of time without using the turnpikes. That is why I think that the turnpikes in Tulsa are out of the control. I would just like to understand the logic. Some people in Tulsa believe it's OKC's way of constricting growth in Tulsa for OKC's good. Whether that is true or not, it's seems feasible to me considering the number to turnpikes here - 6 currently surrounding Tulsa with only 10 throughout the entire state. HMMMM????

-- Amy Wilson (wilsonta@wans.net), October 01, 2001.

Tulsa's other eyesore of a turnpike the good ol Creek Turnpike has been a joke. It should be nice for me for instance as I travel to South Tulsa around the 71st/Lewis Area from Muskogee, but right now they decided to open the part from the Muskogee Tpk to 101st St S. which accomplishes a whole 4 miles of road and charge ya 30 cents for the incomplete project. While maybe if the road was opened (and further more why did they open that one section while not completing the whole road - leaving the section between 161st E Ave and 101st St S still dirt..). And while the contractors are being penalized for the road being built, is this gonna come off of the promise that "When the road is paid for the tolls will come down" or will another turnpike pop up in a not-so-needed place such as the proposed Muskogee Tpk from I-40 to Poteau expansion?

Also another gripe of mine from the Creek Turnpike expansion is the 1 lane construction zone it created on the Muskogee Turnpike. They were too busy making the exit lanes for the unopened Creek Turnpike to even fix the right lane on the Excessively Traveled Muskogee Turnpike. What gives?

I will continue to use the Muskogee Turnpike as long as I have a pikepass that I am not personally paying for. Whenever that changes, I may start considering the OK-51B route to Coweta to get to Tulsa.

My 2 cents.

-- Travis Turner (radison@cox.net), March 03, 2002.