Mayor Buddy working to solve mess at SunRail's Church Street station

Now we’re getting somewhere.

For the past couple of weeks we’ve been on a rant about poor pedestrian design of downtown Orlando’s SunRail station at Church Street.

Regular users know that after disembarking SunRail in the morning, riders have to survive a dangerous traffic obstacle course to get to work.

 In addition, those boarding the southbound train at Church Street often to walk nearly 4 blocks to reach a ticket machine that accepts cash. The southbound platform doesn’t have a ticket machine that accepts cash, nor is there a sign telling riders where to find a cash machine. Click here to check it out.

Mayor Buddy at SunRail meeting

SunRail’s official response has been either silence, or to blow smoke up our you-know-what.

This morning, however, Orlando Mayor Buddy Dyer Tweeted this response: “We’re working to have a cash machine added and better ped access for that station. It’s definitely an issue.” Or click here.

The mayor’s response is what SunRail should have said months ago.

Granted there are issues where we may not see eye to eye with the mayor, but this is certainly a case where he walked the talk (No pun intended.)

In the mayor’s 2013 state of downtown speech Dyer said the city’s strategic transportation plan included “making Downtown a more pedestrian friendly destination and expanding public transportation options.”

Dyer’s following through, and he’s got the power to make things happen because he was just selected to chair the Central Florida Commuter Rail Commission, which oversees SunRail.

We’re certainly grateful that Mayor Dyer has become directly and publicly involved in this matter, and look forward to a resolution.

Bravo.

Orlando gives SunRail riders "the finger"

This morning we finally got a response from Orlando traffic engineers about the lack of adequate pedestrian crossings for riders who get off at SunRail’s Church Street southbound platform. They basically gave riders the finger (and you know what finger we mean).

This response comes from Traffic Operations Engineer Frank Consoli:  We quote:

1.  I have contacted SunRail about the issues on the kiosk at the south station not accepting cash.  Their operations people are looking at it.

2.  To enhance pedestrian safety we have requested OPD to provide enforcement in this area.

3.  Staff is reviewing the current signage at this location.  Currently we have signs directing pedestrians to travel to the signalized crosswalks as the safest method to cross South Street.

Unquote.

We consider item #2 to be mean spirited.

Instead of coming up with a reasonable way for riders to cross the street, they’re going to send cops out to give riders jaywalking tickets.

Nice going, Orlando.