The OKC Streetcar is Good, Actually 

Is a light metro system too far fetched for a city like OKC? Let us know your thoughts!

I think one of the biggest obstacles for American cities is that, because we've sprawled so far we can't even afford to pay for the infrastructure we have, we can't afford to develop new infrastructure. Cities are pretty much entirely reliant on the federal government for developing their transit, and the Feds don't exactly hand out a lot of money for transit.

Add the OKC Streetcar to the growing list of modern streetcars that have an inexplicable battery section somewhere...

OKC could do really well with a more commuter focused Light Metro or Interurban service that uses DMUs, kind of like Austin's CapMetro Rail. It could even pass through the main Amtrak Depot (blanking on its name right now, I think it's an old Santa Fe Depot) and travel down to Norman, and similarly up North to Edmond. Get it running with 30 minute headways to hourly off peak and have it use old freight ROWs. I bet it would see a lot of service and then it can be upgraded down the line to higher frequencies

Kansas City's streetcar has been incredibly successful in promoting development along the corridor connecting Union Station and Crown Center to the River Market. The extensions now under construction that will bring it to the riverfront and Country Club Plaza will have a profound impact on development along the entire line. I don't know what the secret to its success is -- being fare-free certainly helps, and maybe the linear nature is a big part of it, too -- but it serves as a great example for other cities to learn from.

In case of light rail to heavy rail, while I do agree that there is a spectum, I wouldn't say it's strictly tram - metro - regional because of the different nieches. Systems like BART, DC Metro and MARTA also are "metros" but they fill in the gaps of regional railways thanks to their huge stop spacing compared to NY Subway, Chicago L and the T which are much more local. Conversely, regional and mainline railways can become a (regional) metro thanks to large scale as it's the case of the London Underground (subsurface lines in particular) and Berlin S-Bahn. Conversely, there are many regional railways in the US which are classified as light rail like the NJT River Line or eBART simply because they don't satisfy the FRA standards. If I were to catagorise them, I would use these categories: Light rail ranges from mixed traffic to protected operation to (nearly fully grade-separated) rapid transit while heavy rail goes from simple regional (relatively big stopping distances, mixed with intercity and freight trains) to proper rapid transit (own tracks, relatively short stopping distances). That being said, the one biggest challenge with the suburban experiment is the lack of space for new infrastructure like rails which makes a streetcar the cheapest and possibly easiest option even though they frankly shouldn't be used for a regional service IMO (especially something like OC Streetcar won't work purely for stop-spacing reasons alone) and cities like Seattle also show that you can't just put them on protected lanes either thanks to the complexity of operation (it started of as an at-grade tramway with some tunnel sections before every following extensions became nearly fully grade separated). I guess turning some stroads into limited access highways (i.e. remove all the driveways and reduce crossings) might make the construction a proper regional railway easier (since the tracks can be placed to the side and not in the middle of the highway while still providing road diet and safety features) but it still can't be applied everywhere where built.

Philadelphia needs these. There's still some leftover infrastructure, just refubrish, rebuild and we'd have a spiritual successor to the trolly hayday

Another example of a mid-sized city with a great light-rail network is Jersey City which is part of the Hudson-Bergen Light Rail network, a system that effectively acts as an interurban! Jersey City also has the PATH which is a rapid transit-commuter rail hybrid that goes between Newark, Harrison, Jersey City, Hoboken, and NYC (with different services to 33rd Street in Midtown and WTC in Lower Manhattan). Now I know people reading this will be like "But Jersey City is a satellite city of NYC, that's not fair" and while they have a point, Jersey City still shows what happens when you build transit where people wanna go (whether it's a science museum, university, shopping at the mall, etc) with great TOD, a bike network, and Vision Zero to complement it! The HBLR has many connections, like Hoboken Terminal being a hub for buses, ferries, NJT rail besides the HBLR, or Bergenline Ave for the Spanish jitneys! Much of the HBLR is grade-separated, even in downtown Jersey City except for street-running on Essex Street. Much of the HBLR is repurposed ROW, though the downtown JC segment was built brand-new. The repurposed ROW selected goes through dense neighborhoods, like the Weehawken Tunnel formerly used by New York Central trains is now used by the HBLR with an underground stop at Bergenline Ave in Union City! With all the TOD and pedestrianization, both the PATH and the HBLR have led to the revitalization of the NJ Hudson waterfront! Jersey City was the first to have a bikeshare system when Citi Bike expanded there in 2015, with Hoboken joining in 2021. Jersey City was also the first in New Jersey to implement Vision Zero with an executive order signed by Steven Fulop in 2018, and in 2022, the city realized zero car crash-related fatalities on city-owned streets, the first city of its size in the country to accomplish this! Rather than concentrate pedestrian safety improvements in a single area downtown, Jersey City worked with Street Plans and pursued interventions across six corridors, one in each of Jersey City’s six wards. Thus, they not only built trust across different constituencies, but was able to experiment and did it fast through tactical urbanism and committed local leadership! And neighboring Hoboken hasn't had a single traffic death since 2017 because of Vision Zero, thanks to implementing things like lower speed limits, daylighting and rain gardens!

Portland, Oregon is smaller in area than Oklahoma City but has a solid transit network that serves as a role model! Portland has a streetcar with different routes to serve the areas surrounding downtown, and the MAX light-rail network to complement it and serve the broader Portland metropolitan area! There's also the WES (Westside Express Service) commuter rail service which connects to the MAX system at Beaverton Transit Center. The MAX system is actually home to the deepest station in North America, Washington Park! It has a depth of 260 ft or around 79 m! It doesn't have long escalators like Soviet metro systems but rather elevators. The station has a geological theme, and so to go along with it, the floor indicators outside the elevators refer to its two levels not by floor numbers but by "the present" and "16 million years ago"! The "16 million years ago" refers to the basalt layers the Robertson Tunnel (named for William D. Robertson, who served on the TriMet board of directors and was its president at the time of his death) passes through, and due to variations in the rock composition, the tunnel curves mildly side to side and up and down to follow the best rock construction conditions! A core sample taken during construction is actually on display at the station with a timeline of local geologic history! The station serves the Hoyt Arboretum, Oregon Vietnam Veterans Memorial, Oregon Zoo, and World Forestry Center! The station opened in September 1998 as part of the Westside MAX extension to downtown Hillsboro. The reason the station is so deep is because prior to the start of preliminary engineering efforts, the Portland City Council asked TriMet to consider building a rail tunnel through the West Hills instead of following the Sunset Highway alternative proposal to run tracks on the surface alongside Canyon Road. TriMet's engineers noted that this surface option would carry a steep six- to seven-percent grade as opposed to only two percent in a tunnel. Thus, they went with a tunnel, identified three tunnel options, and chose the one with the option to serve the Oregon Zoo!

I feel like trams definitely do have a place, but it feels like they’re never used properly. They’re either incredibly short and slow, making them nearly useless if you don’t deliberately work them into your trip, or they’re built onto a network that really should be a metro in order to save a buck. It’s really infuriating to see cities go for a tram rather than a metro to save half the purchase price, only to get 1/5th of the ridership and be saddled with a loss making boondoggle that makes politicians (who don’t understand the different types of transit) think trains are pointless. It’s much like how video games often get remastered, and the company says they’ll make a sequel if the remaster sells well, only for it to underperform since the only people who are interested already brought the last two remasters. Sometimes you’ve got to spend money to invest in something worth doing. I think you’re right that streetcars should be the lowest tier of rail transport, for lower density cities. For really busy places you can justify a subway like London’s Circle Line, but if your city isn’t dense enough a streetcar can be cost effective for lower ridership rates, if you build the proper infrastructure to support it. Light Metros definitely need more investment since they can theoretically be the most efficient form of transit; being vastly cheaper than a subway for lower capacity routes, as well as being faster and more efficient than a streetcar for longer or higher volume routes.

I think the dichotomy of light vs heavy trail is really a matter of technical specification and not a type of transit. For instance, in Macau or Singapore they have light rail and it’s entirely grade separated and runs very 5 minutes or less. Or PATH in NJ is considered regional rail and not a metro/subway because it runs on regular rail lines that could be used by “trains” in the traditional sense.

Love the idea of a light metro supplemented by the streetcar. A light metro from Edmond to Norman with a spur to the airport along with an expanded streetcar system (out to Penn Square terminating at the new resort), would be such a great upgrade to the metro area.

So another difference between light rail and heavy rail is regulatory and crash compliance. Heavy rail generally includes regional rail which comes under the jurisdiction of the Federal Railroad Administration which has a much more developed set of safety and crash compliance standards. Light rail comes under the regulatory authority of individual states and the Federal Transit Administration which is more of a funding organization than a safety regulatory. Within that there are legal difference between streetcars and LRV's which generally have to do with automobile and pedestrian crash compliance and compatibility.

The conclusion says it all; light rail, infill development would complement the Streetcar system perfectly. Can OKC and other cities get there?

I am a Tramdriver in Düsseldorf, Germany and I love the „light metro“ that’s exactly my job. But we mix everything between metro and tram. Today my line is pretty much like a tram but I’ll go under the earth for the Center of Düsseldorf. Other lines do partially have independent structures above ground. It’s really cool to have the different situations in my worklife!

Great overview and lesson for transit planning! It's so funny how cities lean heavily on one mode when that's never completely worked Also really loved how you worked your logo into your thumbnail. Pro tip: for future videos, buy a pop filter for your mic! They're cheap and work wonders.

I feel like whenever a government plans on building BRT or LRT rather than MRT they tend to over-invest in infrastructure that is exclusive to the system (BRT/LRT/whatever they decide to call it) such that if there comes a time to actually consider a metro the existing system makes it somewhat hard to make that transition. My city (not in America) is planning to in the coming decade build a network of what I can only describe as BRT and LRT out of the existing express bus lines and some of the regular tramways and that is a genuinely good thing. However, I worry that the BRT lines might not be so easily converted to LRT when the time comes when the BRT is inadequate for the region it would serve and similarly there's a worry that the LRT might not be so easily converted to a metro once density and traffic load warrants a metro. Thus the issue of eventually building the expensive metro ISN'T solved by building it in steps of slowly upgrading portions of the transit network from regular bus & tram traffic to BRT to LRT to MRT, but rather only pushed to a later date where the Metro would have to be built alongside the BRT & LRT and in a much denser city core which subsequently would make the creation of a metro far more expensive to build than if we'd lay the groundwork of it today.

I used to live in Wichita. I hated how it didn't have any passenger train connections. Wichita is the biggest city in KS, come on people.

I've definitely seen many gen 2 streetcar networks (basically any network older than 1950s) act as a hybrid pedestrianiser and transit system. So like the inner suburbs would be the terminus and streetcars are fast for commuters. But in the city centre, it's slow but is the core of a transit mall. Having special transit lanes for streetcars is probably a must to sell the idea to citizens, as the system can be fast and can be considered a way to escape congestion.

Great video, thanks from Minnesota 🎉

I see the definitions a little differently. I classify Light-rail as the midpoint in city public rail transit infrastructure. Tram/streetcar (no dedicated ROW) Light-rail (dedicated ROW) Subway (fully grade separated) Regional (Metrolink) Long passenger rail (Amtrak)

I just recently spent a winter in Milwaukee for work and used the streetcar fairly regularly. I primarily used it as a return trip from my job downtown and they're starting to expand it to more areas of downtown. If they expanded off of the island that downtown is on I would've been really happy since I would've loved to have visited the zoo and fairgrounds without getting in my car but for barhopping and commuting from lower east side down to the market and work it was great. I really hope they expand into more areas or connect to the airport but at the end of the day I was pretty happy just not having to walk through slush at 6pm after work.

It's a great start and I hope to see it grow to the rest of the metro, lived in denver and loved their light rail along the highways think the same could be done here.

The OKC Streetcar gets about 600 riders/day. The entire OKC Embark bus system gets 6,000 riders/day. Given those numbers, the streetcar is a very expensive solution for a small ridership. Indeed, it loses about $5 million/ year in operating costs. While public transit is not a profit venture, nor does it need to break even, it does need to meet the needs of and provide economic opportunities for it's rider base. I don't know if the streetcar is providing $5 million in economic benefit to the city in other ways. In order to increase the speed of the tram, the city needs to provide signal preemption for the tram. If the tram is slower than the bus, that's a problem. The OKC streetcar can also be extended to provide better connectivity with extensions to the huge medical district and govt center 1 mile to the east of the line. That said, given that Embark only has about 6,000 riders/day for a city of 680,000, a light rail would be a disproportionately expensive solution for OKC to operate and maintain. There is room to build ridership. Frequency is a key factor and OKC only has 1 bus line with decent frequencies less than 15 minutes, the Rapid NW line. In fact, frequency is the #1 rider requested improvement according to Embark surveys (2nd being extended hours). Therefore, this would be the first step. The second step could be a frequent BRT-light grid network (NW23rd St, NW10th/SE15th St, May or Penn Ave, Western/Classen Ave, in addition to the NW Rapid) with signal preemption would be a good way to increase ridership with fast, frequent, and reliable service connecting the major colleges, medical centers, downtown-midtown, business, shopping and entertainment districts, employment centers, and attractions. This fast and frequent trunk BRT-lite service should significantly increase ridership without breaking the city's budget. It could also be executed years before the planned commuter rail system would be. Even after the rail service comes in, it would be a complementary service providing access between the widely spaced rail stops as well as servicing the N/S commutes outside of downtown. It's also interesting that there is no direct bus service to the Univ of OK in Norman as well as no bus service to the Univ of Central OK in Edmund. They should be connected with express buses; one going to Edmund serving the shops at Moore, Norman Regional Healthplex, Norman Regional Hospital, downtown Norman, and U of O; and a BRT-lite extension of the Western Ave line along Memorial Rd and Hwy 77 to central Edmund and the Univ of Central OK. An express regional bus between Tulsa, Stillwater, and OKC would also benefit the region by connecting the states 2 largest cities and the largest university. This could also provide service years before the planned commuter rail system does.

You should read about Right-of-Way (ROW) categories by e.g. Professor Vuchic. These define so much about the type of service, frequency and capacity. Also on a side note, light metro and light rail are not the same thing. Light metros aka Medium-capacity systems (MCS) are e.g. Vancouver Metro or VAL-systems in France, and light rail systems are e.g Seattle’s Link Light Rail or Muni Metro in SF Thanks for the video!

I also came away with a positive view of the OKC Streetcar. Was pretty skeptical of these mini streetcar systems, but it does make downtown travel very easy even pretty late into the evening, especially if experienced as a tourist arriving by Amtrak.

Incredibly well-researched and articulate on these topics.. subbed

I've always found it interesting how rail transit systems in the US are often built inverse to how rail developed in Australian cities. The top 5 largest cities in Australia are served by suburban rail networks similar to S-bahn systems in Europe and these systems started off as mainline railways eventually growing 'inward' to serve the expanding suburbs. In Sydney and Melbourne, some parts of suburban lines reach almost metro-like frequencies and in particular Sydney is literally building a metro line by converting a suburban line. In the US i've typically found its the other way round with tramways growing outward, forming interurban networks and if they werent ripped out historically, they would eventually evolve into grade separated metro networks (like in chicago or the subway in nyc iirc). It's interesting seeing this process (hopefully) starting up again with the new wave of tram (or streetcar i should say) systems emerging in the US. As a side note, I feel like with all the freight railways cutting through cities in the US, it's a missed opportunity not using these already established rights of way for more S-Bahn-like service. I live in Adelaide; a city around the same size as Oklahoma City and yet have access to a network of 6 suburban train lines, and a tram network more than twice the size of the OKC streetcar... and we're considered the worst in the country! I still can't believe a one way loop tram system was built in the 21st century... that's insane! Great video, and though ive never been there, i hope OKC, as well as other smaller US cities, get the trams/light rail network they deserve someday :)

The Cincinnati Streetcar is also great, but focuses on a cyclical route Downtown. Plans are coming to expand across the city. I love the car itself, they are usually clean and very modern, and they just look cool riding around. Stops at every major part of Downtown.

Fellow Oklahoman here! I’d love to see our city become more urbanized. Have you thought about running for public office?

You may need to visit New Orleans again someday and do a video on their historic streetcar system! Since this subject is something I've never given a lot of thought, it was especially interesting. I just have one question. Did the white (and a little black) kitty ever make it to its destination? ;)

I've long felt that there's a transit heirarchy based on distances and speeds, and it roughly lines up with what you describe. As much as I'm a railway history nerd though, I feel like the focus on rail takes away from the real importance of busses. Trams have a much better image, and I do think that all bus lines aspire to become tram or light rail lines, however think the distinction is capacity. If a bus line (or the intermediate step, a trolleybus) has great frequency and still gets near capacity routinely, then it's ready for a tram line. However I feel that many US cities are looking at things project by project, rather than as a system that works together, hence making projects that look great but feel very "meh" due to how alone they are in their context.

If OKC is going to have the tallest building on the continent, they're worthy of at least a sky train like Vancouver

I've been saying from day 1 of the streetcar, that it should cover as much distance as the old Interurbans.

As a transportation nerd who lives in OKC, finding this channel made my day.

It would be an extremely hard sell in my area, given that almost everyone owns a vehicle, those who would use public transit are often addicted, mentally ill, or violent, and the area required to install such a service would tear up a good portion of the historical section of the town (one of the "westward gates" for pioneer settlers). Edit for clarity, difficult to sell because the roads that exist follow the original town layout, and installing rails and overhead lines would invite disaster on a main street that transitions to a four lane divided highway; too many motorcycles would wipe out, and too many oversized loads would inevitably hit the overhead wires.

I wish they would do an east to west train going parallel with 40 like the one on 35 going from OKC to Little Rock. But I doubt that will ever happen. 😅

Very good video, like !!!

2 thoughts: 1) OKC seems a bit of a child saying "that city has one, we need one" see the river walk, the devon tower (I guess now the legends tower), and now the "BRT". Looks good on paper but misses nuiances. The book:Boom Town delves into this a bit 2) OKC will probably always be car first. Oil and gas are still the top industries and so any thing that callenges that status quo probably wont get far. Also OKC is HUGE in terms of geographic area. OKC would need at least 4 inter urbans at least, not including lines to Edmond, Yukon, Norman, etc. The idea of all that construction costs and delays would be a hard sell to most people in the area. Car brain is strong, and the NIBYs are also strong. Downtown is strong because of the MAPS programs, and if any changes to more tram lines, bike lanes, parks, etc. all need to be subtle and unassuming in order to get funded and done

really interesting stuff

In for the City Nerd reference

Can I ask, what exactly on the light/heavy rail spectrum determines the positioning of a specif system. I ask because, in my opinion, a metro system is “heavier” than a conventional railway line. I think is heavier in terms of construction capital costs, technical frequency and passenger capacity to the point that often requires a larger standardization of trains and services. The metrics where a rail might be “heavier” might be the weight per axile, or passenger*miles. Thank you.

You should check out the metro rail in buffalo ny. it's somewhat unique.

Why would a Tram stop at Stop Signs? As European I have never seen this. Oh, did I mention that my Homecity with 184.000 People actually has a Tram that also reaches into the smaller Towns around and plans to extend the current 1-Line Network by 4 Lines?

To be fair, when New York was OKC's size, it already had multiple lines on what would become part of the subway.

Bro OKC is not a small city. The city I studied in (Valenciennes, in Northern France) has 44k inhabitants and has 2 lines of tram.

Surprised Portland, Oregon didn't get mention in the intro since it's basically the same size as OKC

I still haven't ridden this one yet. The times I've actually needed it, its been full so I just walked. The weird loop design also didnt seem super effective but your thoughts on creatively using it are interesting. One of these days Ill definitely try it out. Even if its just to catch pokemon for community day

I'm nearing ten years as a resident of downtown OKC. During my time here, I set out on a vacation comprised entirely of rail travel. OKC Streetcar->Heartland Flyer->TEXRail->DART light rail/DART->TEXpress->Heartland Flyer->OKC Streetcar What I learned was the greatest compliment to our network in OKC would be a robust, thoughtfully placed light rail network. Nothing overly extensive, mind you. I believe connecting Edmond to Norman and Yukon to MWC would suffice.

Great video! 👍 😉💯 I still can't get over the fact that *Kyler is basically just Miles in Transit,* but *blondeheaded & based in Oklahoma.* Otherwise the resemblance between the two is almost entirely identical to each other, you might as well just be twins or brothers 😂😅

One thing that baffles me about all the american tram networks that have been built in the modern time is how hilariously tiny they are, it's almost invariably just a single line with maybe 10 stops! It just ends up feeling like those train lines in zoos and theme parks, where it's more of a fun thing than an actual mode of transportation. Meanwhile you have cities like Portland, Seattle, and even Bergen in Norway that all built a "light rail" system with one or two lines that stretch through most of the city, mostly serving to connect the suburbs to the downtown, and thus are actually useful for a significant amount of people and can't simply be replaced by a bikeshare system..

Can you do some sort of video on northwest Arkansas

u should stretch a tshirt over ur microphone to keep it from picking up pops and clicks. hi from norman. ive noticed an increase in bus traffic in the past 2-3 years for sure but i hope to see more; a light rail line from norman to edmond would be massive, if i could live anywhere in the metro and still get to okc for my job without an hour of traffic id never leave

I've always wondered, is a tram worth it. like couldn't you just have one lane set for buses (trams do look cooler though so you could compromise by making buses look like trams but still have rubber wheels to avoid the costly installation of rails)

Do any cities in Oklahoma have Sunday transit service? Heard even Oklahoma City and Tulsa transit are closed on Sundays.

The main issues with okc street car: -the route is confusing for first time users, which limits adoption -it’s incredibly infrequent and unreliable -it doesn’t go near actual housing. It connects businesses and restaurants. The route needed to go through deep deuce -it doesn’t connect long enough distances. Most people are going to use a scooter instead

I don’t really consider Oklahoma City a Mid sized city it’s got about the same population as Washington DC, but Wilmington DE is definitely a mid sized city that used to have streetcars and unfortunately got rid of them.

Good to see these developments after hearing so much about how the U.S. used to boast the best train system in the world, and now, well maybe one of the worst

I love our city.

That's the fireplace at the tulsa gathering place. Am I right

this tram don't have dedicated line. So you can still get stuck in traffic jams This is the main problem

I have to disagree with these loop-designs for streetcars. The more successful streetcar systems around the world and North America have direct routes across a downtown area, connecting destinations in simple linear way with prioritisation of pedestrian space, and then transition to a more light rail type of system with faster speeds and dedicated roadspace outside the city core. The more successful examples of this type of model to my mind are Sydney & Gold Coast AUSTRALIA, Berlin & Munich GERMANY, Calgary & Edmonton CANADA and in the US it would be San Diego & Minneapolis whilst I think Kansas City MI is heading in this direction too but perhaps staying too much in the "tram" territory.

✌🏾

Okc gig worker here. Not a fan of the streecars because they go pretty much nowhere, but get in the way a lot. Just a toy for tourists.

The land use around the OKC streetcar is very poor. Just a ton of empty lots, parking lots etc that will take hundreds of years to develop. OCK needs to stop messing around with building skyscrapers and start building on all those empty lots. The last thing OKC needs is a 100 story building.

It’s empty 90% of the time I see it pointlessly slowing down traffic.

trains and trams are the best, america sucks with all these cars. cars are so dead and outdated

They took out the rail and street cars in our small town. There was even a trolly that went between towns many years ago. The station for the main line rail is still there but unused for passenger transit.