[wesley108]

Like all already the state (not just the main cities), what is the public transport like? Is it bad? To costly? None at all? What?

[debzkidz]

virtually nonexistent.
Minimal amounts even in the cities.

[wesley108]

Okay but is this a problem? Like does it get costly? Or what?

[DarkWolf]

Form what my OK friend said , theres barely any service to relie on. Its better having a car in OK.... He and I can agree that OK won't have a decent system in any city for the next 30 years.

[debzkidz]

I'm curios where you are Wesley108. Have you ever been to Oklahoma? Most everyone here has a car. Even in the cities, it would be hard to survive without a car. Things here are far too spread out to make public transportation viable for most of the state. The population is just not dense enough. There is bus service in the cities, but it is very limited and from what I understand not extremely reliable.

Does what get costly? Not having public transportation or using the public transportation we do have? Can't tell you if it's costly or not. I've never used it.

[Zachj7]

Isn't OKC like the biggest land area of a city in the United States? Public Transportation is out of the question. In Norman, there is a sort of ok bus system, mostly for college kids. Even the college kids all have cars. This was a big surprise for me when I came from California. It is hard to even imagine their being a light rail service from Norman to Edmond just one line. That is what, 40 miles?

Out of all the cities I have been to and lived in, OKC is the one city I feel that you absolutely need a car to get around.

[debzkidz]

Originally Posted by Zachj7

Isn't OKC like the biggest land area of a city in the United States? Public Transportation is out of the question. In Norman, there is a sort of ok bus system, mostly for college kids. Even the college kids all have cars. This was a big surprise for me when I came from California. It is hard to even imagine their being a light rail service from Norman to Edmond just one line. That is what, 40 miles?

Out of all the cities I have been to and lived in, OKC is the one city I feel that you absolutely need a car to get around.

I know it was at one time, not sure if it still is, but if it's not, it's still very close to the largest. It would be different too, if it were densely populated, but it's not. Heck, there are still farms/rural areas in the city limits.

Traffic is a non issue here and parking is plentiful, so most people are not going to be willing to give up the convenience of their own vehicle to ride mass transit. Maybe in the urban core, but not further out. DH works with a guy that tried to take the bus once from Edmond to their office in downtown. First he had to drive several miles to a place where the bus runs. Then, apparently, they don't offer an express service, or at least not where he was, so they had to trek all around town, stopping every couple of blocks. It took him almost 2 hours to get to work, door to door. It would have taken him about 30 minutes in his own car. Who's gonna do that every day?

Yeah, its about 40 miles or so. I drove it last week at about 8 am. It took me 40 minutes from my front door to the OU campus. It would be great if there was some kind of light rail service that ran from Norman to downtown and on up to Edmond, but really I don't ever see it happening. It would be great to be able to hop on a train and go down to Bricktown for dinner or a Thunder game. I drive down quite often and meet DH for dinner or a game, then we have to drive 2 cars back home. It would be nice if I could just ride down then drive home with him. But if and when that ever happens, I'll probably be so old, they won't let me out of the nursing home for such adventures.

[#1soonerfan]

Actually the MAPS3 tax did include money set aside for a new streetcar system that will evenutally connect Dowtown, Bricktown, Midtown, and all of the areeas south of the current I-40. Eventually this will be interconnected into a larger light rail system that will (hopefully) connect Norman, Edmond, MWC, etc. Of course the tax just started collecting this year and the actual project groundbreaking is probably 6-7 years away.

In the mean time you will have to deal with the the system will have now. Everyone so far is right. I can only speak for OKC, but I'm pretty sure Tulsa is the same. In the inner city area, roughly defined by 240 to the south, 44 to the north, and west, and 35 to the east, bus service is decent but not great. Its doable, but other cities of size I would image have much better service. Outside this area it is practically nonexistant.

Truthfully, you must have a car here. OKC is the biggest city land wise in the nation that is not part of a consolidated county. And Tulsa isn't much better in the sprawl department. Not sure what the point was to the OP's question, but if you are moving here and don't have a car I would strongly suggest living in one of the more walkable areas of town. For OKC that would be midtown (where I live) and tulsa that would probably be Cherry Street/15th Street area. You can at least walk or bike to places. I can say that during the snow storm we had in February my car was basically drifted in behind a 4 ft wall of snow. I was able to walk to work, the store, and a few restaraunts. It was fantastic (albeit very cold).

[ou_norman]

Norman has the best transit in Oklahoma. There is a pretty serious movement in OKC for better bus service and city rail transit (as #1soonerfan outlined above). Luckily it seems that Oklahoma is currently avoiding the trend of conservative states being for some reason ideologically opposed to transit. The pro-business interests that understand how important transit is for economic development and attracting Generation Y sort of outweigh any "anti-infrastructure" interests such as those in Florida, Ohio, and Wisconsin recently.

[StillwaterTownie]

Originally Posted by debzkidz

virtually nonexistent.
Minimal amounts even in the cities.

Yes, it costs $130 to take a taxi from Stillwater to Oklahoma City since Stillwater lost its bus service. The in city bus service is mainly geared to students since OSU sponsors it.