ORANGE COUNTY, Fla. — Orange County Mayor Jerry Demings says congested roads and traffic jams aren’t going away any time soon.
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The county says it will take $22 billion to address all of its transportation needs, as a transportation tax initiative that would have paid for road projects is on hold at least until 2026.
For now, the county is focusing on incremental change. It is about six months into a separate 100-million-dollar Accelerated Transportation Safety Program.
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The program provides Lynx with $45 million in funding over the next 5 years to improve the frequency of 4 major routes: Link 21, Link 37, Link 42, and Link 436 South.
It also funds a new route, Link 311, which connects the Orlando International Airport and Disney Springs. That bus will run every 30 minutes beginning April 21st.
According to Orange County officials, the Accelerated Transportation Safety Program will decrease wait times for commuters and will add 150 new bus shelters across the districts.
Additionally, the program allocates $55 million over the next 5 years to address small-scale road improvements.
246 road safety projects for pedestrians, bikers, and drivers are planned.
So far, 58 projects are in design the design stage or under construction.
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Residents can track the progress of those projects and learn about the projects planned for their neighborhood via the interactive dashboard linked here.
They include speed management projects, pedestrian safety projects, traffic calming projects, and a new sidewalk program that addresses 26 miles of county sidewalk.
The dashboard provides a district breakdown of each project, project details, and a timeline.
However, Orange County Mayor Jerry Demings says a tax will eventually be needed to help the county keep up with growth.
“Without a new dedicated funding source. We will not be able to address the 20-plus billion dollar need that we have as a community,” said Demings.
The mayor said commissioners will continue to talk about transportation with residents ahead of 2026, when board members could try again for a transportation penny sales tax.
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Last week, commissioners suspended the latest effort to get the transportation sales tax on the ballot because commissioners felt not enough had changed from when voters overwhelmingly said no to the tax increase in 2022.
Demings also said the county will look to secure additional federal dollars in the meantime, but he believes private corporations need to ‘step up’ to make mass transit a real option as well.
“There is no good time to tell people that you need to pay more taxes or that more taxes are needed. So how do you overcome that? You do what you say you’re going to do,” said Demings
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