Oklahoma Turnpikes are horrid!



After taking a 825 mile round trip through most of Oklahoma, I quickly come to learn that their turnpikes are in horrid need of repair and maintenance. Through the years I have traveled the roads thru Oklahoma many times, and I have to say, that this last trip the roads were the more horrible I have seen to date.



I highly recommend that anyone traveling thru the state use alternative method and with the advent of many navigational systems this should not be too hard. While it may add a little time to your travel the long run of vehicle repairs due to faulty road maintenance will cost much less. Deep trenches after you pass bridges, holes that nearly make you lose control of your vehicle, and worn road surface that accelerates the wear on your tires is enough for me.



And that brings the question to mind of what is the state of Oklahoma doing with the funding received from the tolls. Because honestly what I have seen was not maintaining the roads. I paid over $12 in tolls one-way from Missouri-Oklahoma to Lawton Oklahoma. I believe I paid 7 or 8 different toll locations, and with a state imposed method of taxing everyone that passes the road it would be nice to see that money being spent for what it is intended. Coupled with federal funding, gasoline taxes, and state appropriations from property taxes for road maintenance there is no excuse for this.



As the old saying goes, "something is not right in Denmark". As is typical with most systems of government, I suspect that the state legislature feels like turnpike revenue is an open source cash till to be used for everything but road maintenance. I wonder how many deaths per year can be attributed to the lousy maintained turnpikes of Oklahoma. Sadly I saw way to many road crosses left to honor lost loved ones to feel comfortable.



On the way back from Lawton Oklahoma I said screw it and took alternative highways home. And guess what? The roads were far better than the toll roads were. Now that is where it really gets disgusting. All the cross-country travelers pay for the right to travel a road and then the state rapes and pillages that revenue all the while they seem to maintain its non-toll roads just fine. I mean seriously, WTF?



I remember traveling those turnpikes when I was a child and being told how those were the roads of the future. How the revenue earned from tolls would make them the best highways in the country. That was until government learned how to dip out of the revenue register to vote in pay raises, benefits, and pet projects.



Seriously, if you plan to travel thru any turnpike in Oklahoma, heed my warning. Plan and alternate route around the turnpike. It will save you in the long run. And reducing fat cow legislatures funding sources is the only way to make a change.



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