Newcomers find that getting into, around and out of Tulsa is amazingly easy for a city of its size. The city is laid out in a very user-friendly grid with north-south and east-west main arteries at one-mile intervals. Several convenient bridges over the Arkansas River offer access to west Tulsa and points beyond. The metropolitan area’s highway system includes both heavily traveled interstates and convenient freeways and toll roads connecting all areas of the community.

Tulsa’s infrastructure is solid and expanding. Interstate 44, the city’s major east-west thoroughfare, separates north and south Tulsa. The well-traveled highway offers a straight shot to Oklahoma City to the west and Joplin, Missouri to the east. U.S. Highway 75 cuts through Tulsa from north to south and offers easy drives to Dallas and southeast Kansas.

Highway 169, recently widened to six lanes, has become a major route for commuters. The north-south roadway offers easy access to south Tulsa’s retail corridor and Tulsa International Airport and the city of Owasso to the north. The Broken Arrow Expressway (Hwy 51) is the main route for commuters coming into Tulsa from Broken Arrow. Recent construction has made the BA more accessible. Tulsans are looking forward to coming years when a loop will circle the city. The Creek Turnpike to the south now offers a south loop that connects with I-44. The Gilcrease Expressway in north Tulsa will eventually circle around the city’s northwest region and connect with I-44.

Commuters in the surrounding suburbs received a traffic relief this year with the opening of the last leg of the Creek Turnpike. The new section runs the 9.1 miles between the Will Rogers and Muskogee turnpikes and makes it possible for motorists either to circumvent the city or reach the heart of Tulsa with ease.

South Tulsans are benefiting from the completion of construction on South 71st Street that has been widened to six lanes from the busy retail corridor at Hwy 169 west to the Arkansas River. The extension and improvements to the Riverside Parkway make the popular and scenic road a convenient commuter connection for south Tulsans heading downtown. Funding from the Oklahoma Department of Transportation continues to enable communities throughout northeastern Oklahoma to improve their transportation infrastructures.

An overview of Tulsa’s transportation options would be incomplete without some mention of the city’s leadership in alternative fuel usage. Alternative fuel vehicles, or AFVs, have become commonplace throughout the Tulsa metro area. AFVs, whether powered by compressed natural gas, propane or electricity, yield energy security as well as environmental benefits and are particularly attractive in light of our dependence on foreign oil and rising prices at the pump. Tulsa Public Schools, Fine Airport Parking, the Tulsa Zoo, American Airlines and Southwest Airlines, the Creek County Sheriff Department, the University of Tulsa, the Metropolitan Environmental Trust, Tulsa Parks, the Indian Nations Council of Governments (INCOG), United Parcel Service (UPS) and the US Postal Service (USPS) are among the organizations and agencies that are setting the standard for energy efficiency and environmentally friendly transportation.