The Gauntlet: Mike Fournier Tulsa

Mike Fournier Tulsa

There are actually two areas of Tulsa roads that drivers routinely call The Gauntlet.  The first starts at the intersection of 71st & Memorial, and heads due east for 2 miles to 71st & Garnett.  In that little gem of traffic engineering, a person will experience 13 stop lights, and endless amounts of retail commerce, with nary a foot of the 2 mile stretch not being occupied by someone wanting/needing to sell you something.

On any given day, it will take you up to 10 minutes to traverse this 2 miles.  Of course, if it is a weekend, the time just easily doubled.  And if it is Christmas season, it can take over an hour.  It depends on how many of the 13 stop lights are red when you make it to the intersection, which will be blocked by traffic from the other intersection waiting in the middle to pass.  (This is the prime reason why you will NEVER find me on 71st street from mid-Nov to mid-Jan.)

The 2nd Gauntlet, (and newer in terms of longevity) is the 2 mile stretch of road that starts at 91st & Memorial, and heads due south for 2 miles to 111th & Memorial.  This is another gem of traffic engineering, as it boasts a whopping 12 stop lights in only 2 miles.  And it too is a stretch of road with endless amounts of retail commerce.  What is truly amazing to me is hearkening back to all the naysayers that thought the Ford car dealer was nuts for building his dealership at 96th & Memorial when it was just a prairie.  (This was before the Creek Turnpike, and was when Memorial was still 1 lane of traffic on each side.)

On April 1st, 2015, beginning at 6:36 a.m., I shot the Memorial Road Gauntlet!  Had I wrote the blog then, it might have been dismissed as an April Fool joke; but nope, this is 100% truth.

Starting on Memorial, heading north at:

131st, green light.
121st, green light.

Now, The Gauntlet:

111th, green light.
109th, green light.
104th, green light.
103rd, green light.
101st, green light, but it was turning yellow as I was passing through the end of the intersection.
99th, green light.
98th, green light.
96th, green light.
95th, green light.
94th, green light, but it was turning yellow as I was passing through the middle of the intersection.
93rd, green light.
91st, green light.

End Gauntlet.

81st, RED light, arrived for my breakfast destination.

My joy ride was over.  I had just hit 14 green lights in a row.  I had shot The Gauntlet!  I had accomplished something that will never again happen in my lifetime, and rarely happens in anyone's lifetime.

Tulsa's traffic lights are not synchronized, and never will be.  It is one of the things that maddens Tulsa drivers more than anything.  Well that, and traveling on 1 lane roads that should be 5 lanes.  Or, losing filings each time you hit a pothole the size of a wheelbarrow.  Or, dodging idiots trying to race and cram in front of you before they plow into construction barrels.  Or, risking your life with the 99.7% chance of a red light runner(s) blowing through your intersection at 52 mph just as you start to ease into the intersection.  Or, getting behind someone traveling 30 in a 45 on a no-passing 1 lane road.  Oh my, the list is nearly endless; no wonder Tulsa roads are rated F for 18 years in a row ~ but that too is for another blog.  

At that time of the morning, the roads are at about 65% of rush hour capacity, so that made it even more amazing to have accomplished what was done with that much traffic.

And yes, I was looking for movie camera's to see if I was being filmed for a sequence of The Truman Show.

That was fun.