Route 66 in the News
State Gauges Interest in Promoting 66
2008-02-22 16:19:37
EDMOND, Okla. - Arcadia resident Janetta Chapple remembers the time before 1965 when almost every small town had a downtown along Route 66. Edmond Mayor Dan O’Neil remembers his family driving through Route 66 on their way to Walt Disney Land in 1956.
“One of the things I remember most is the Wide Awake Café on Route 66,” said Tom Hoskison, of the business development office for the City of Bethany. “We all have stories in our community that we need to preserve before they disappear.”
The Oklahoma Department of Transportation has teamed up with the University of Oklahoma to preserve these memories through the promotion of Route 66 through the Scenic Byways Program. Richard Andrews, ODOT State Byways program coordinator, said Route 66 is a state byway but the program is submitting an application for national designation.
Community leaders from across central Oklahoma met Thursday in Edmond to hear results from an OU survey that asked 10,000 households what they thought about Route 66 and if they thought it promoted economic development in communities by attracting travelers.
“The survey indicated we need to educate people about the value of Route 66,” said Pam Lewis, University of Oklahoma Outreach contract manager for the state Scenic Byways program.
She said they made 10,925 call attempts during the survey and reached 3,499 in their results. Three generations were represented, including baby boomers, Generation X and what Lewis termed as the Net Generation. Survey results showed the Net Generation spends 12.2 hours a week online, which is 28 percent more time online than Generation X and 50 percent more than baby boomers.
“We have to begin to think about the next generation traveler,” Lewis said. “How do we get in the technology where people are talking in an electronic mode.”
When asked which activities attract out-of-state travelers, only 1.1 percent of survey respondents mentioned Route 66 and 80.6 percent did not mention it at all. When asked if they thought out-of-state travelers would be interested in Route 66, 61.3 of respondents believed they would be very to somewhat interested while 38.7 said not at all interested or they didn’t know.
Lewis said the State Byways Program came up with some ideas to promote Route 66 and encourage economic development, which included forming a Leadership Development Council that would meet six to seven times and releasing a podcast series, “Audio 66,” that captures the history of Oklahoma and Route 66.
“About 75 percent of our downtown visitors are not Edmondites,” O’Neil said. “They’re looking for that Route 66 experience.”
In Edmond, Route 66 comes west along Second Street to Broadway and then jogs south along Broadway Extension.
Chapple said traffic was diverted around many of these downtown areas when more highways were constructed.
Several community leaders in attendance said they thought it would be good to target niche markets.
“I know a lot of bikers and corvette clubs that thrive on Route 66. It’s a special road to them. It’s not meant to be the interstate. That’s the charm,” O’Neil said.
Hoskison said all of Bethany’s economic development is donated to Route 66.
“Route 66 is our main street. You can’t go through Bethany without going through Route 66. You don’t separate Route 66 from our culture.”
O’Neil said the city recently purchased the northeast section of property off Route 66 and Douglas to construct a softball field. He said it is the city’s hope that the lighting and fixtures will resemble the Route 66 theme.
~Courtney Bryce, EdmondSun.com
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