We extended the reach of the 2015 IQC Placemaking Conference by sending three conference speakers on the road in Oklahoma during the week of the conference. Gil Penalosa traveled with the IQC to Tulsa and Oklahoma City. Chuck Marohn and Tripp Muldrow traveled with the IQC to Enid, Lawton, Ada, and northwest Oklahoma City.

Tulsa

In Tulsa, we met up with the OU-Tulsa Urban Design Studio, which is currently working on a stretch of Route 66 on 11th Street in east Tulsa. Penalosa met with planners, engineers, and students on site before giving a lecture at OU Tulsa and participating in a design activity.

News on 6 covered the event:

NewsOn6.com – Tulsa, OK – News, Weather, Video and Sports – KOTV.com |

On Tuesday, a group of OU students along with city planners and international urban planner, Gil Penalosa, met to talk about what’s next. Gil Penalosa, international urban planner, said: “Now Tulsa has a magnificent opportunity on how to transform this historic Route 66 on a route that works for everybody, walking cycling.”

“We are looking at things like street right-of-way, where poles are located, driveways, how pedestrians are using streets,” said Sean Shaefer, director of Urban Design Studio.

“We saw a couple of people riding bikes on the sidewalk because it wasn’t safe on the streets,” said Gil Penalosa.

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After the walking tour and lecture, Urban Design Studio students led a design activity they created to explore options for the street. The activity allowed participants to arrange scale models of travel lanes, parking lanes, bicycle lanes, sidewalks, buffers, trees, lighting, and other street features to consider design concepts.

Oklahoma City

In Oklahoma City, Gil provided guidance to several groups promoting livable streets in the city. Using the OU College of Architecture‘s new Oklahoma City Design Center on Film Row, Gil met with organizers of Open Streets OKC to discuss how to expand and improve the event in the future.

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Over lunch, Gil gave a talk about livable streets to a group of citizens and civic leaders. Following lunch, a group of planners and advocates remained for a discussion about how to put positive change in motion for bicyle and pedestrian infrastructure in Oklahoma City.