Remember when you were a kid and you did those “connect the dots” puzzles? They were great! You start with a big polka-dot mess, and when you’re finished—voila! A triceratops!
The City of Orlando is working to connect the dots in a giant spoked wheel. The central hub will be downtown, and the outer rim will be all the neighborhoods where people live and want to ride their bikes or walk to downtown (or some other neighborhood).
Right now, Orlando’s got a pretty nice urban trail network. We’re not talking about dirt paths through the woods here. We’re talking about nice, clean, paved pathways to keep cyclists from having to brave the mean streets. Let’s face it, we’ve all seen a road rage fight between drivers (kinda scary).
The city says, on average more than 200,000 trips are taken each month on the city’s trail network.
The problem is—there are gaps in the trail network. For example, you can take the Cady Way trail from Winter Park down to Colonial, but then you have to brave Colonial in order to get to Lake Underhill. Not for long! Soon there will be an “Airport Gap” trail connecting the two.
And that’s what a public meeting last night was all about—the five gaps in Orlando’s Bicycle Beltway. They are: The Airport Gap, the Downtown Connector, Gertrude’s Walk Phases 3 and 4 and the Orlando Urban Trail Gap.
This is the current timeline:
| Project | Estimated Completion Date |
| The Airport Gap | Spring 2020 |
| The Downtown Connector | Fall 2021 |
| Gertrude’s Walk Phase 3 | Spring 2021 |
| Gertrude’s Walk Phase 4 | Spring 2020 |
| Orlando Urban Trail Gap | Winter 2020 |
The Orlando Bicycle Beltway will ultimately be an 8.5-mile loop trail that will help to better connect commuters to Downtown Orlando using alternative transportation – in this case, cyclists and pedestrians.
This project, which has been in the works since 2018, will better connect Ivanhoe Village and the North Quarter with Downtown Orlando and includes a direct connection to LYNX Central Station and SunRail.
Board members from Bike/Walk Central Florida sit on the city’s advisory committee for bicycle and pedestrian safety. We’re proud to take an active role in advising city officials how to make life better for bikers and walkers in Orlando.
Take a look at the maps and tell us what picture *you* think will be made once the dots are connected.
Ultimately, we’re so excited for the City’s big investment into biking and walking infrastructure. We can’t wait to ride all over town safely, and comfortably (and without dodging bumpers).
