This past Thursday IQC visited Altus, Oklahoma, a town of about 19,000 people and hour west of Lawton. We did a walkthrough circle of the roads from the Parks and Recreation Department by Missile Park, past Altus Primary School, down Inis Street, west along E. County Road 165, and back up Navajoe Street to the Parks and Rec building. Afterwards we had a meeting to discuss our findings. Right off the bat we noticed a couple of consistent issues. There was a severe lack of sidewalks down the major North/South road Navajoe Street. Asalee Street, the road that leads from Navajoe to the elementary school, also had a lack of sidewalks, or poorly maintained sidewalks. We recommend that the city prioritize the addition and maintenance of sidewalks along these primary walking routes for children to safely walk to school, and citizens to be able to walk to the downtown area. We noticed that at the railroad tracks there was a lack of crossing arm or signage, which seems unsafe. Another safety issue was that there were no streetlights. This poses a hazard for people walking at dawn or dusk, especially in the winter months where the sun sets early. The last safety problem we noticed was a few of the intersections along Navajoe Street lacked stop signs or other signage, and the speed limit along the street seemed a little high for a residential street. Lowering this limit and altering intersections with stop signs would improve vehicular safety.
Other non-safety related observations were that Missile Park seems like an under-appreciated asset to the town. Altus had recently opened a splash pad near the park that is free for people to use. Placing better signage at the surrounding roads and wayfinding signs would increase usage of this park and promote walking in the area south of the railroad tracks. I look forward to working with IQC on our formal proposal for the City of Altus.
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Amy HostetterCurrent student. Archives
January 2019
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