Residents get Corrine Drive design options
If Audubon Park residents opt for revamping Corrine Drive from five lanes to three, making room for landscaping, curb parking, sidewalks and bike lanes, then rush hour through a community that celebrates its funky character would worsen dramatically, according to MetroPlan Orlando.
A three-lane remake is one of several approaches described in “Corrine Design Concepts” put out by the transportation-planning agency for public response. The road, derided as an eyesore and hazardous, traverses an otherwise quirky, original and increasingly popular neighborhood wedged against Baldwin Park and Winter Park.
“There is no perfect solution,” MetroPlan Orlando’s Elizabeth Whitton said of a proposed overhaul that has no price, funding source or deadline yet. “Everything we are presenting will require trade-offs.”
The road serves pass-through commuters, Audubon Park residents who live next to and
near it, and an array of local shops in two plazas and East End Market.
MetroPlan has drafted three concepts, calling for attractive landscaping and different objectives.
Users of Corrine are invited to visit CorrineDriveStudy.org through March 16 to rank each concept by marking love it, like it, neutral, dislike it or hate it.
The concept changing Corrine the least would have five lanes — where the center lane is for turns — with curb parking, landscaping and sidewalks 5½ feet wide.
The biggest alteration would come with a concept of three lanes for cars, a pair of bike lanes, curb parking and sidewalks 6½ feet wide.
In a hybrid offering, the third concept would have five lanes and sidewalks 7½ feet wide. The outside lanes would convert to parking on weekends.
Each of the concepts has an alternate with variations.
Early reaction from residents and visitors in Audubon Park ranged widely.
“How necessary is that turn lane?” asked Mark Cacek, who works at East End Market, of a feature meant to reduce collisions and bolster pedestrian safety.
“I think ‘leave well enough alone,’” said Katy McBride, also at the market with her newborn child.
Audubon Park resident Justin Letchworth said he was encouraged that the concepts include a midblock crosswalk with traffic lights.
“There is a lot of speeding,” he said. “To get across Corrine, I just have to wait until there is an absolute gap.”
Gene Willard, owner of Willard Appliance on Corrine for more than 30 years, stressed the road would be dysfunctional with three lanes and that limited parking available now must not be decreased.
“Without parking, you’ll lose customers and your businesses will die,” he said.
Removing travel lanes to add bike lanes would result in vastly increased traffic congestion, according to MetroPlan.
The agency estimated commute times along 2 miles of Virginia Drive, Forest Avenue and Corrine Drive between Mills Avenue to the west and to Bennett Road to the east.
The five-lane version would create rush-hour travel times of about seven minutes; a three-lane Corrine would bring travel times of as much as 27 minutes in the morning.
“I’m not really sold that there would be that much delay,” Orlando transportation director Billy Hattaway said of the predicted congestion along a threelane Corrine. “People will adjust. They will leave earlier or later or take a different route.”
He said his office will examine the calculations by MetroPlan but will not endorse any concept, preferring to get direction from public reaction.
Whitton of MetroPlan said with the three-lane version, “we could expect 300 to 400 cars per hour being diverted onto other streets, the local streets of the neighborhood.”
Darrell Cunningham, owner of Bikes, Beans & Bordeaux Neighborhood Cafe on Corrine, questioned whether hundreds of drivers would flood residential streets or opt for other thoroughfares.
“Is it really dispersed into the neighborhoods or is it eventually redirected to roads that are more appropriate?” he said. “Because if you try to drive through Audubon Park neighborhoods, you can’t get here from there. There are lakes and ponds and not a direct route.”
A MetroPlan study found the road has a “speeding problem” and is widely regarded by users as unsafe for walking or cycling.
Traffic counts on Corrine are about 23,000 cars a day during the week — which is comparable to counts on Bumby Avenue in the Milk District and Edgewater Drive in College Park — and 12,000 to 18,000 a day on weekends.
To provide details about the concepts, MetroPlan will hold public “pop-up meetings” with the first on Monday at Audubon Park Community Market. Others will be at Baldwin Park First Friday Festival, Leu Gardens, East End Market and Redlight Redlight.
MetroPlan plans to propose a Corrine concept to local governments this summer; the road is owned by Orange County, maintained by Orlando and bordered by Winter Park.
Many see a Corrine remake as key to Audubon Park’s livability.
“This place has been really up and coming,” said Aimee Dulcie, who works at Blue Bird Bake Shop. “So, it’s ‘OK, how do we deal with this new popularity?’ ”