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5 reasons why OKC needs more bike lanes

9:53 AM EDT on March 22, 2018

Unless you're driving a car, it's incredibly dangerous to get around in Oklahoma City. If you're on a bicycle, you have to worry about sharing a lane with maniacs in SUVs who are more interested in looking at the newest Snapchat filters than watching the road. For pedestrians, most of the city is like an off-road challenge, and you still have to be cautious for bad drivers.

I know all this because I use a bicycle as a primary mode of transportation. Now, the city is launching a master plan to dramatically improve the way we walk and cycle around. Dubbed Bike Walk OLC, the initiative "shows how to plan and build a complete bicycle and pedestrian network throughout the city to promote safer, healthier and more enjoyable active transportation choices." The city even allowed people to leave notes and comments on their comprehensive proposal up until... yesterday. Sorry for the late notice.

The problem with Bike Walk OKC plan is that it's about 160 pages. Who the hell has the time to read all of that?

The TL;DR is they want to complete the huge trail loop that circles around the city, build protected bike lanes and greenways in certain areas, and put sidewalks anyplace that doesn't look like they were just hit by a level 10 Frackquake. I skimmed enough to find a few facts that could convince some of the "Why walk when you can drive?" crowd that there are benefits to enacting this kind of infrastructure: