The Tulsa Bicycle/Pedestrian Advisory Committee took to the streets in downtown Tulsa this morning to experiment with ways to make intersections safer.
Using traffic cones and straw, the group set up a temporary protected intersection at 6th Street and Elgin Avenue.
Protected intersections use islands to shield pedestrians. They also make drivers slow down.
Mitch Drummond is the chair of BPAC. He said speed is a critical factor in fatal accidents.
“If a vehicle traveling at 20 miles per hour hits a person, there’s a 90% chance that person will survive. If that car is traveling 40 miles per hour, there’s a 90% chance that person is going to die.
So you look at Tulsa, you look at our arterial streets where people are traveling 45 miles per hour. If they hit a person, that’s certain death. If we can slow people in this intersection down to about 20 miles per hour, we will save lives.”
Drummond said the next steps for the group would be to request money in a city bond package for a project to make intersections safer. He says the group has identified the most dangerous intersections in Tulsa.
Officials from the city attended the demo to watch and ask questions.
2021 traffic fatalities are up in Oklahoma. So far this year, there have been 258 traffic fatalities. That’s 39 more than last year’s 219.