Article from myregion.org

One of Central Florida’s biggest complaints is the traffic on I-4. Did you know that 163,925 people drive to Orange County from neighboring counties everyday?

This myregion.org map (click to enlarge) shows the "average annual daily traffic pattern" in the Central Florida region. As you can see, I-4 is the most densely populated road in Central Florida, other roads do not even come close in comparison. The question that must be considered is, "Is this a traffic problem or a development problem?" An article recently published in the Orlando Sentinel looks at the number of daily "county to county" drivers in the region. A majority of people in Central Florida live in one county and work in another.

The following article gives insight into the traffic difficulties we face in Central Florida.

Traffic Problems
By Jason Garcia
Sentinel Staff Writer
March 6, 2003

Sue Cordova's days hinge on a few decisive moments every morning and every afternoon.

On a good day, the drive to her job in Orlando takes little more than a half-hour. But on others-- days when the phone rings just before she heads out the door of her south Lake County home or a co-worker stops for a Friday afternoon chat -- her drive time doubles.

She's not alone. Cordova is among tens of thousands of new road warriors who in the 1990s joined the horde of commuters streaming daily into Orange County -- a brake-pumping, coffee-slurping, horn-honking army that's multiplying nearly twice as fast as the population itself, according to Census Bureau figures to be released today.

"If I'm even 15 minutes off, I could be an hour sitting on the roads," said Cordova, a 37-year-old financial adviser. "It's frustrating."

From Sanford subdivisions to Four Corners apartments, thousands of new drivers are heading to Orange County each morning and leaving each night for distant suburbs, filling roads that have only just been built and clogging others still waiting to be widened.

In all, nearly 50,000 more Central Floridians began commuting to Orange County during the 1990s. Just more than 115,000 people worked in Orange County but lived outside its borders in 1990, but by 2000, there were nearly 164,000 -- a 42. percent jump.

By comparison, the Central Florida counties surrounding Orange grew 25. percent during the same period.

"We try and do the best we can with all the growth we're experiencing," said Steve Pustelnyk, a planner with the Orlando-Orange County Expressway Authority. "But will we ever solve the problem or get totally ahead of the problem? I'm not sure anybody in the world has."

Explosive growth in region

The overall increase in Central Florida's commuter traffic is a direct result of the region's explosive growth. The combined population of the seven Central Florida counties -- Brevard, Lake, Orange, Osceola, Polk, Seminole and Volusia -- went up 27 percent from 1990 to 2000.

"The work force has grown dramatically in the last decade," said Steve Polzin, the director of transit research at the University of South Florida's Center for Urban Transportation Research in Tampa. "We're always going to have more commuters."

It's not just Orlando that draws the workers. Nearly 32,000 Orange County residents work in Seminole County. More than 1,000 Polk residents spend their days in Lake. And 377,000 people live and work in Orange County, joining the daily crawl on crowded streets and highways.

But the vast majority of Central Florida's commuters traveling between counties are headed to Orange. And they are increasingly coming from the region's outermost suburbs -- in Brevard, Lake, Polk and Osceola.

Lake County, particularly its southern half, has become a haven for Orlando-bound commuters, who are drawn as much by its affordable housing and a direct route into the city -- the now oft-clogged State Road 50 -- as by its trademark hills and countless lakes.

The number of Lake commuters to Orange increased 135. percent during the 1990s -- from 8,500 to 20,000 -- the largest jump in Central Florida.

Dwayne Acevedo left Orlando a year ago to move to Clermont, where he now faces an hour long commute each day to Siemens Westinghouse near the University of Central Florida.

"It just amazes me how many people are actually on the road," Acevedo, 33, said. "Once you get past the first congested area, it's not long before you reach the next one."

While some people are drawn to the suburbs for more space and less congestion, many middle-class workers are forced out of urban areas because of rising housing prices, experts say.

In 1999, 56 percent of all single-family homes built in Orange County cost less than $150,000, according to Metrostudy, a housing industry consulting firm. By last year, just 22 percent of all such homes were that price.

By comparison, 52 percent of new, single-family homes cost less than $150,000 in Lake County. In Osceola County, 36. percent were less than $150,000.

"Most people really would prefer to live in Orange County," said Anthony Crocco, director of Metrostudy's Orlando office. "But the affordability has gotten to where it's difficult for the family buyer to find a house."

Commuting encouraged

At the same time, commuting has been encouraged in places where highways have been built, interchanges added and roads expanded.

John Petno, a 39-year-old truck driver, shaves at least 30 minutes off his drive from Tavares to an Eckerd Corp. warehouse on Sand Lake Road by using the new State Road 429 expressway linking Apopka and Ocoee.

"The 429 saves me time and traffic," said Petno, whose commute still takes 45 minutes.

Steve Homan, a spokesman for the Florida Department of Transportation, can rattle off a slew of major transportation projects completed between 1990 and 2000, from State Road 436 to U.S. Highway 192 to the Central Florida GreeneWay.

Homan said it has been impossible for agencies to keep pace with the region's rising number of commuters.

"You put that many more people on the road, it's just a whole lot of need," he said. "You never catch up."

Still, there are millions of dollars of proposed road improvements. Orange County, for example, soon might ask its residents to support another tax increase, to help fund transportation projects ranging from Interstate 4 expansion to commuter- and light-rail construction.

So, is there anything good to be said about commuting?

Polzin, of the Center for Urban Transportation Research, said some people value the hours spent commuting. For many busy families, the commute might be the only uninterrupted time they get alone or with a family.

"I don't think anybody likes sitting on I-4 in bad weather and bumper-to-bumper traffic," he said. But, he added, given the growing region's growing number of commuters, "clearly that's not so terribly onerous."

Of course, most commuters simply have little choice but to join the rush-hour masses.

"Some areas are really ridiculous," said Cordova, the financial adviser who lives in Minneola. "But what is anybody going to do? The higher-paying jobs are in Orlando."

Monica Scott and Liz Gibson of the Sentinel staff contributed to this report. Jason Garcia can be reached at jrgarcia@orlandosentinel.com or 352-742-5926.

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