The result is that the Oklahoma City MSA added 19,759 people between July 2008 and July 2009, the largest numerical increase of the decade- barely beating the 05-06 increase of 19,644. More than half of the year’s growth was in Oklahoma County, which added 10,588. The Shawnee Micropolitan Area (Pottawatomie County) made it to 70,274, meaning that the Oklahoma City Combined Statistical Area is barely shy of 1.3 million at 1,297,552.

The Tulsa MSA increased to 929,015.

The Lawton MSA increased to 113,228, but the population is still down from its decade high of 114,996 in 2000.

Oklahoma also has five Micropolitan areas over 50,000 (plus Shawnee which I pointed out above).

The Stillwater Micropolitan area increased to 79,727.

The Muskogee Micropolitan area increased to 71,412.

The Enid Micropolitan area increased to 58,298.

The Ardmore Micropolitan area increased to 57,450.

The Bartlesville Micropolitan area increased to 50,706.

This table shows Oklahoma’s estimated growth by year since 2000.

As seen, growth has increased quite a bit since 2005-2006, and the strongest year has been from 2008-2009.

Overall, the population of Oklahoma has grown by 233,107 people since 2000, for a total growth rate of 6.75%.

Here are the Top 12 Fastest-growing states from 2008-2009.

And the components of the 2008-2009 increase are estimated as follows:

These numbers, especially domestic migration, represent a the change that has been going on in Oklahoma over the last 5 years. Check out domestic migration numbers at the beginning of the decade, compared to the last few years. 5 out of 6 of the years from 2000-2005, we had negative domestic migration- but in the last four years, we have gained an average of 14,000 per year from other states.

With so much domestic migration ocurring as a result of changing economic circumstances in the high-growth states of the first part of the decade, it will be interesting to see how Oklahoma is affected, and how the 2010 Census reflects those changes. Maybe all the positive economic press we’ve been getting really has been making people notice Oklahoma and decide to give it a go.

Little Rock has 3.4 miles of streetcar, connecting hotels, tourist attractions, historic neighborhoods, a convention center, an arena, and the office district. The original 2.5 miles were built in 2004 for only $8 million per mile, which is cheap since $10-20 million per mile is a generally acceptable estimate. It has been doubling ridership expectations, with about 3,000 per day. They only charge $2 for a day pass on River Rail, so this low price may be a reason for the high ridership.

The layout of the track is basically two small loops connected by a single-track bridge over the Arkansas River, with an extension to the Clinton Library. Looks like the schedule generally offers 15-minute service.

Portland is the go-to city for streetcar discussion, and has been discussed a lot, so I decided instead to start in Seattle, which just opened the South Lake Union Streetcar line exactly 2 years ago on December 12, 2007. Originally known as “South Lake Union Trolley – S.L.U.T.,” the streetcar is just 2.6 miles long and runs through an area of new development north of downtown Seattle. It cost close to $50 million, with half paid by various government sources and half by local businesses in a Business Improvement District type situation. It connects to bus lines, monorail lines, and light rail lines.

Seattle has gone with the double-track method, meaning that there are two tracks with two directions of traffic. That means they are able to run three streetcars on the line at once, at fifteen-minute intervals, without worrying about passing lanes. Note that sometimes the tracks are traveling opposite directions on the same street, and sometimes they are separated by one block.

Also note that this is a linear plan rather than a loop. It is part of Seattle’s ambitions for a future multi-linear streetcar network. In the map below, the orange line is the completed SLU Streetcar line, and other colors show future linear expansion areas.

This map of the future expansions shows the benefits of a network of streetcar lines over a loop- you can reach out to multiple neighborhoods and connect them directly to the central focus point- downtown- without looping through or around other outlying areas.

I will be interested to see more professional discussions of the argument between running bi-directional traffic on a single track, and using passing lanes, or keeping bi-directional traffic to two separate tracks. We will get more distance out of using single-track, but I don’t know how single-track might affect the flow of the streetcars and the wait times.

Most importantly, as we lay out our streetcar plan, we must also consider where we will run future streetcar alignments, so that what we put in today is compatible with future expansion.

For best results when viewing these images full size, open the images in a new window by right clicking. Or, if you have a Mac, apple+click.