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Old 11-12-07 | 11:48 AM
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KingTermite
On my TARDIScycle!
 
Joined: Jun 2005
Posts: 3,925
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From: Eastside Seattlite Termite Mound

Bikes: Trek 520, Trek Navigator 300, Peugeot Versailles PE10DE

You listed some of the reasons I left Florida 6 months ago having lived my whole life there (I was in the Tampabay area about 1 1/2 hours West of Orlando).

Yes, its all spread out. You mentioned the weather was nice, but that's because you got there in November. If you had been there only 1 month earlier, it still would have been sweltering hot. Yes, you don't have to worry about the cold, but the heat in the summer (which is about 8-9 months of the year) can be absolutely staggering with humidity so high its hard to breath. I hated biking in that.

No, the medians aren't all to catch water....that was probably a fluke. Disney was built on and around swamp area, so its likely due to the natural terrain there. It sure would be nicer if they made smaller medians and added bike lanes or even wide shoulders. How many bike lanes or wide shoulders did you see on the roads? Not much, I suspect. We didn't have many in Tampa area.

Another bad thing is that FL is just not a cycling friendly state. Drivers are horribly unsympathetic and ignorant of cyclists. I once saw an article that showed Tampa as the worst city in the U.S. in terms of dangerous roads for cyclists.

Anyway...enough rant. That's why I'm not in FL anymore.

Originally Posted by 1ply
We just came back from spending a week visiting Mickey in Orlando.

I've seen several cyclists there, some may have been commuting, none were in a great hurry. In the city if you want to get somewhere fast you MUST have a car.

Having never been there before I was amazed at how spread out the city is. Some streets (International Drive for one) you can drive for 5+ miles and there's absolutely NOTHING on either side, just six lanes seperated by a wide median.

Everywhere you go, there's traffic. If you need to get from A to B, chances are that there will be cars whizzing by you at 55+ and there is almost no bikelanes to be seen

Some good points - the weather You can take your sweet time getting to work on your bike because you're sure NOT to freeze

The multi lanes of traffic could also work in your favour in some cases since it gives the cars lots of other lanes to pass you in.

The fun factor - With all the medians in the city (they rule in U turns) once in a while there will be a sign "keep off median". I first thought that they just don't want frustrated motorists ripping up their lawn and possibly creating a hazard to oncoming traffic accelerating from the side of the road. I found out why the other day.

Turns out that some frustrated soul wanted to do a U turn in the wrong place. Right before the entrance to Disney. What LOOKED like solid grass apparently wasn't and his car was sideways in the middle of the median with its lights on. The problem was that the lights were just above the WATER !

Guess those medians are just more areas to hold the water which is everywhere in the area. Lesson learned the hard way for buddy who I saw was walking along the road away from his half sunk car.

The good again - NO HILLS - The highest climb is to the top of the overpass which is 15 feet above the street below. Quite the climb.

The bad - This place is amazingly spread out! I can see why someone may look at you funny when you say that you bike to work.

More bad - the traffic. Orange Blossom (IIRC) is amazingly busy. Total of six lanes.... just try to turn left out of a parking lot! I did it, but it took some time.


Overall, like the climate, the people are friendly everywhere - even at the out of the way places the tourists don't visit much. Will visit again but am sure glad to be safe (kind of) in my bike lane only being passed by traffic doing 45-50mph at the most.
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