Bicycle beltway: Key part of Orlando’s Downtown Connector Trail nears completion

City of Orlando / Courtesy photo

A map of the Downtown Loop trail.

Stephen M. Dowell/Orlando Sentinel

The Orlando downtown connector trail is pictured on Friday, December 2, 2022. This photo shows the section of the trail that loops around Lake Underhill. (Stephen M. Dowell/Orlando Sentinel)

Stephen M. Dowell/Orlando Sentinel

Construction workers put the finishing touches on the Orlando Downtown Connector Trail on Anderson Street near Lake Underhill on Friday, December 2, 2022.

Hannah Gutner prefers to get to work and around Orlando on her bike, even while much of the city doesn’t have protected bike lanes or off-street paths to travel safely.

When she rides from her neighborhood south of downtown Orlando to areas north of 408, she must share lanes with cars.

But soon crews will finish construction of the Downtown Connector Trail, a 1.5-mile path running along Anderson Street from Summerlin Avenue east to Lake Underhill, opening up new routes for commuters or hobbyists to get to downtown on bike or by foot. It’s one of the final pieces of the 8.5-mile Downtown Loop, a long-planned bicycle beltway that will also connect to trails that head into Winter Park and elsewhere.

“People will have a safe way to get to downtown Orlando without a car,” said Gutner, who also is the president of the Orlando Bike Coalition. “It’s just going to get more people on their bikes who have always wanted to, but were too scared.”

Much of the $8 million connector trail is complete, though this week workers were planting trees between the road and the path. It’s expected to open at the end of January, said Tanya Wilder, Orlando’s transportation director. It passes by Greenwood Cemetery, where shady oaks will provide a respite from the sun.

“It helps people on their bikes, scooters and strollers be safe,” Wilder said.

Central Florida is largely a haven for automobiles, with many roads predominantly or exclusively designed with cars in mind. It’s a contributing factor to the Orlando region’s annual standing as one of the deadliest metro areas for pedestrians in Smart Growth America’s Dangerous by Design report.

The 2024 planned completion of the Downtown Loop will connect more than a dozen neighborhoods with access to the Milk District, Mills/50, Ivanhoe Village, Audubon Park, City District and Parramore, and connect to the Orlando Urban Trail, Bumby Path and Cady Way Trail.

Gutner said the Orlando Bike Coalition advocates for separated and protected bike lanes like the Downtown Connector Trail and hopes to see all of the city’s Main Street districts be connected by bike infrastructure.

Much of the Downtown Loop will be off-street paths.

The connector trail is 10 feet wide and is on the south side of Anderson Street, passing by neighborhoods like Lake Davis and Lake Como, and ending at the Lake Underhill Path, a 12-foot-wide trail on the boundary of the lake.

“What a lot of people don’t realize is there are a lot of kids that live in a lot of those apartments in that 436 corridor or those Lake Underhill apartments, and they work in the Colonial Plaza,” City Commissioner Patty Sheehan said. “It’s going to give them the ability to get into downtown on a bicycle and do it safely.”

The trail also has technology at crosswalks to alert drivers to bicyclists or walkers. Wilder said about 15 live oak trees and 41 crape myrtles are being planted as well.

Work on Summerlin Avenue, Eola Drive, Pine Street, Magnolia Avenue, Washington Street and Jefferson Street is still to come, Wilder said.

Sheehan said she’s confident the trails will be widely used.

“I think more people will be riding their bikes to events downtown when we give them the safe infrastructure to do so,” Sheehan said. “I think people are realizing more and more, especially with COVID, how important these outdoor recreation areas are and I think we need to be adding to them.”

[email protected]

Follow Us