Orlando SUCKS. It is the very definition of urban sprawl. Horrible place. No reason for anyone to ever go there, IMHO. Disney et al are all prefabricated corporate representations of idealized small town America---so go on vacation to a small town somewhere. Now that my rant is over, I live in a small town on the west coast of Florida, and it's not a cycling mecca, no. Even here everything is spread out. The problem with Florida(except for St. Augustine), is it developed too late. My area didn't really start growing until 20 years ago, and that's when gas was cheap. Therefore nobody minds the grocery store being 10 miles away.

I'm fortunate in that my county benefitted from lots of impact fees due to Yankees and Yuppies building McMansions here before the bubble burst. Now we are gifted with two really nice bike trails(Suncoast Trail to the south, and Withlacoochee State Trail to the east), and MUPs and bike lanes cropping up everywhere. The downside is the bike lanes are coming with the 4 laning of the roads.

Drivers are horrible here. It's a combination of redneck natives and ancient Yankees. I grew up in rural south Louisiana, and have lived in Texas, Colorado, Wyoming, Montana---and Florida drivers are the worst. I've seen things here I've never seen anywhere----like people in the left turn lane at a light who pull WAY past the light into the intersection. Then when the light goes red for them they sneak across. ERR.

I've been run over, yelled at, chased down, had garbage thrown at me, gotten wolf whistled, called a ****, chased by pit bulls, and I keep at it. Why? Because I can ride in shorts in December. That's why. Where else am I gonna find that---California, Texas, the Southwest, or Hawaii.