Orlando’s Robinson Street sized up for diet
Known for providing a generous view of Lake Eola, Orlando’s Robinson Street is disliked by many as an obsolete relic meant for motorists and unkind to pedestrians, bike riders and buses.
Its many officially noted failings are driving city officials, residents and road builders to consider open-asphalt surgery for Robinson’s four lanes.
The Florida Department of Transportation and the city of Orlando propose a “road diet” or “lane reduction.” A slimmed version of the street would include a pair of widened travel lanes, a turn lane, welcoming sidewalks, protected crosswalks and a desig-
nated bicycle path.
DOT has shopped the concept for months and has years of bureaucracy before it might become reality. Fear of snarled traffic has stirred opponents, while supporters want a humane street in the heart of historic Orlando.
“I haven’t been hit yet,” said David Martens, neighborhood president in Lake Eola Heights, one of the oldest and most architecturally diverse parts of the city. “We don’t have a safe way to walk across Robinson.”
The proposed redo along 2 miles of East Robinson would start downtown and go through frontage along the city’s signature Lake Eola Park, a stretch of historic homes and professional offices, and a portion in the gentrifying Milk District.
On the table are design options for parking, sidewalks, bike lanes and roadway.
Thursday is the last chance for residents to comment on the plans. DOT’s website has a difficult address but can be found with a Google search for “Florida DOT Robinson Street corridor study.”
Patty Sheehan, the area’s city commissioner, is “delighted” with the idea.
“While some may be opposed to change, in my opinion, a well-planned construction project bringing the road up to code and making it safer will benefit everyone who uses Robinson,” Sheehan said.
Robinson is hazardous even for city buses. According to DOT, buses have smacked mirrors against trees and hit objects or vehicles 33 times in the past three years.
The road agency attributes those problems to one of Robinson’s scarier deficiencies: Lanes are significantly narrower than buses.
Common on Robinson is the sight of drivers cowed by a bus as it barrels along, hogging its substandard lane and invading some of the adjoining lane with its big tires.
The lane closest to Panera Bread at Lake Eola Drive spans 9 feet from curb to white dash; buses, according to DOT, are 10.5 feet wide from mirror to mirror. Each day, 190 of them ply the street, one of Orlando’s most packed.
DOT shows Robinson at Fern Creek Avenue carries 17,500 vehicles a day on average.
Other top counts: 13,100 vehicles on Edgewater Drive in the core of College Park; 31,000 along Mills Avenue near Colonial Drive; and 40,500 on the overwhelmed Colonial at Bumby Avenue.
Robinson’s dysfunctions — dicey for buses, devoid of crosswalks, despised by cyclists and discouraging at rush hour — are owed to history.
Founding fathers in the 1800s laid out Robinson in the form that lasted decades, a neighborhood street with two lanes and parking.
Traffic engineers bloated Robinson into four lanes and a new role in the 1960s, a time of big growth for Orlando.
Interstate 4 was being built. The East-West Expressway, or State Road 408, would soon emerge. Downtown neighborhoods were disintegrating as the appeal of gated suburbia was taking off.
Robinson would funnel to arterials and expressways, propelling suburbanites between downtown jobs and outlying homes.
Still today, according to DOT, 40 percent of Robinson traffic is from cutthrough commuters.
Even with the resurgence of downtown historic and business districts — seven adjoin Robinson — a remake didn’t land on Orlando’s todo list until recently.
A task force on downtown’s future, Project DTO, labeled the street a highspeed “barrier” for Lake Eola neighborhoods. The group urged redesign “to slow vehicular traffic and create a more pedestrianoriented street.”
It’s hard to find anyone who loves Robinson, but many worry a diet would throttle traffic.
Janice Mason, who commutes on Robinson and walks along it at break time, predicts chaos: “Especially at 8 in the morning or 5 in the afternoon: That’s crazy.”
Howard Middle School at Summerlin Avenue already fights congestion.
“We encourage bike lanes but have concerns regarding the flow of traffic,” said Tyrone Smith, an Orange County Public Schools senior administrator. “It is important to OCPS that any changes made to Robinson Street do not make the traffic flow worse.”
DOT and city officials said much remains to be studied, including whether frustrated drivers would invade adjoining streets.
But officials said a diet can encourage walking and cycling while taming traffic into efficient flow.
After Edgewater Drive in College Park was narrowed from four lanes to three in 2002, a study found reduced crashes, injuries, speed and traffic, although the car count eventually topped that of four-lane days.
Robert Stuart, the city commissioner for College Park, said local opinion remains split about the road’s configuration. Not helping, Stuart said, is that Interstate 4 reconstruction is dumping traffic onto Edgewater.
Tom Cook, president of College Park Neighborhood Association, said the community is better because of the Edgewater remake.
“You’re not supposed to blow through here, and if you are commuting through here, I’m not too worried about you,” Cook said. “I much prefer to have it the way it is, as opposed to what it was before.”