One of the joys of living in Winter Park is the ability to experience all that metro Orlando has to offer but still have a small town where I do my daily activities. I have the ability to do all basic living without ever leaving a 6 block or so area. There are numerous shops, restaurants, grocery stores, art museums, a movie theater, book stores, a post office, a private liberal-arts college, and a train station (servicing the silver line going from here all the way to NYC) within a short bike ride or walk of my house.

What makes this so interesting is that Winter Park is a planned community, actually it is the first centrally planned community in the entire state of Florida. It is in some ways the type of city that many places are now trying to replicate, such as Baldwin Park in Orlando and Celebration in Kissimmee.

Orlando is now being broken into more refined districts, such as Baldwin Park, ViMi (Virginia and Mills), SoDo (South of Downtown), Parramore, and so on. Winter Park being literally across the railroad tracks from Orlando has the opportunity to show Orlando and urban planners the world over how to deal with transportation within these new (actually old yet rediscovered) district villages.

Instead of having Orlando or any medium to larger city for that matter focus on a single plan of action in address the pedestrian and traffic concerns of a city I believe each district should address the issues in a district wide approach then lay out a simplified approach in the connecting of these districts.

This is where Winter Park can shine. It has the ability to prove this method, though many other smaller cities are also already proving it.

I hope for a future in Winter Park where a bike sharing/rental program is city wide, where a city wide bus or trolley system connects the residential and commercial areas throughout. Instead of relying on the county to address the transit needs of the city why not have the city address them? Why not build large parking garages outside of the downtown shopping district with buses that people can use to travel to and from the shopping area.

Parking near Park Ave is at its breaking point and more overly decorated parking garages behind the shops on expensive real estate is not the answer. The answer lies in the idea of moving people to and from the downtown area without their cars. This means more bike trails, more walkable roads, and a better transit system.

London has a system in its core district that literally taxes every car that enters it, now I am not one for taxes but I do see where making it less desirable to bring your car into the core area and instead using an alternative way to access it helps the city. By getting people out of their cars they can pass more shops and spend longer in the city which in theory has them spending more in it.

I am imagining a system where people park near Orlando Ave (17/92) or 436 and enter into the core area of Winter Park in alternative forms of transit. Of course the SunRail will dramatically help this, one of the many reason I am a huge proponent of the SunRail and the supporting high speed rail. SunRail though is more of the system that connects the districts since it only has one or so stops in each district (one being in Winter Park, one being in Downtown Orlando, one being in Altamonte, etc.) But one commuter rail line is not enough.

We need buses, trolleys, maybe even boat taxis and horse drawn carriages to move people through the area. Altamonte realizes this and is attempting to address this by introducing the flexbus system the connects to the SunRail. This is a great first step but one bus route around a mall is not the end by any means.

Then if it is proven to work to here other areas will copy it. Baldwin Park seems to always be copying Winter Park (As seen in the recent ads that state "32814 is the new 32789" 32814 being Baldwin Park, Fl and 32789 being Winter Park.)

Winter Park has the opportunity to not only continue its growth by new transit but also can lay the foundation to help other areas realize their own potential when they look within themselves instead of looking for a metro wide approach.