Oklahoma City Ranked Low In Walkability

Oklahoma City ranks below average in walkability according to walkscore.com. It's labeled a car-dependent city and City officials not only want to change that label, but make Oklahoma City a walker's paradise.

"It's not particularly encouraging," said city interim sustainability director, T.O. Bowman.

Cameron Schmiet is new to Oklahoma City.

"I've been here six weeks," said Schmiet. "It's really walkable, everything is pretty clean, a lot less of confusing traffic compared to L.A. and N.Y., it's really well laid out."

But Walkscore.com disagrees.

"It is something that is important to a lot of people to where they choose to live, work and play," said Bowman.

Walkscore ranks OKC 43rd for most walkable large city, giving it a 32 out of 100 in walkability.

"We do see it as an opportunity to make a connection and improvements to neighborhoods that are up and coming," said Bowman.

Oklahoma City is unique. Covering about 622 square miles downtown is not the only focus of walkability the city is also investing into the more rural areas.

"Increasing the strength of the urban core, but the neighborhoods are just as important," said Bowman.

The city is currently investing over $100 million specifically to improve walkability, $73 million is from general obligation bonds meant for sidewalks and trails, as well as $9 million from MAPS 3.

"We want people to be as safe as possible but when there is a sidewalk there, take advantage of it," said Bowman.

Project 180 is also part of the $100 million investment. A completion date of 2017 is possible, but the city hopes it's never done.