UPDATED: 09/01/22 | ORIGINALLY PUBLISHED: 11/12/19
It started as a desire to feel safe on the road. It started as a way to inform people about Central Florida’s bike-friendly infrastructure. It started as a simple idea and is now a movement that thousands of riders have tackled over the years!
Bike 5 Cities is a 30-mile regional bike ride on trails and bike-friendly, comfortable roads through five Central Florida cities. From an inaugural ride of 250 people to nearly double that in its fifth year despite a loss in momentum contributed to the COVID-19 pandemic. Bike 5 Cities has expanded tremendously, to the point it’s just one of three ride options on the day of cycling dubbed BIKE 5 | 5 Miles, 5 Parks, 5 Cities. Riders of all ages and abilities come together for fun, laughs, and to offer a message to their elected officials—safe bike infrastructure matters!
As the movement has grown stronger, the Bike 5 Cities route has grown into a tool used to heighten awareness toward places that need safer connections while celebrating the comfortable places to ride that are already in place. The route isn’t just a one-day ride anymore, it’s about showing people how to get around on bike-friendly roads and enabling them to feel safe to travel between cities on two wheels.
Officials from the five cities of Winter Park, Orlando, Maitland, Casselberry, and Eatonville, along with members of the GAI Community Solutions Group embarked on a project to create the Bike 5 Cities Wayfinding Master Plan, which will permanently install signage along the Bike 5 Cities route for cyclists of all ages to use all year long.
The project consists of three main parts:
- Riding the route to decide on signage placement
- Designing the actual signage
- Presenting the project to the five cities.
GAI and Bike/Walk Central Florida worked together with the cities during each of these steps to ensure maximum benefit for the community and accessibility of the route.
Read GAI’s article on the Bike 5 Cities Permanent Signage Project
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- Example permanent sign to mark Bike 5 Cities route
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- Example trail marker for Bike 5 Cities route
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- Example pavement marker for Bike 5 Cities route
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- Bike 5 Cities route as mapped by GAI Consultants
With the master plan completed in 2020, we’re closer than ever to having permanent Bike 5 Cities signs throughout our cities. “We are absolutely focused on the livability of our community and all the communities we work in,” said GAI Urban Planner Wes Shaffer in GAI’s article. “We do our best to empathize with peoples’ needs and aspirations – and many times, we live in these communities ourselves – a lot of us are cyclists, and so many of us have kids, relatives, and friends who bicycle, so we share Bike/Walk Central Florida’s dedication to supporting a walkable, bikeable Central Florida.”
In mid-2021 the City of Casselberry was the first to install permanent signage along their portion of the route with Seminole County installing “breadcrumb” arrows through a portion of their route as well. We’d love to expedite the wayfinding project faster than what some municipal budgets may allow.
Help us reach our goals,
fully funding wayfinding along the entire Bike 5 Cities route!
Bike/Walk Central Florida is a 501(c)3 and donations are tax-deductible as allowed by law.
BIKE 5 Today
Whether you’re interested in riding, volunteering, or supporting the efforts of the coolest pedal-powered event in Central Florida, you can see what’s happening currently at https://bikewalkcf.wpengine.com/bike5/
