- March 28, 2024
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WINDERMERE — Based on changes within the last few weeks, such as traffic-light patterns, residents at the Lakes of Windermere have struggled to drive out of their community at the intersection of Chase Road and County Road 535 (Winter Garden-Vineland Road).
“The lights are not synchronized at all,” Lakes of Windermere Homeowners Association President Jon Johnson said. “There are people turning in front of people to get out of the neighborhood in every direction and end up blocking the intersection so you can’t get out of the neighborhood.”
Currently, the traffic light for drivers leaving Lakes of Windermere on Chase Road stays green for about five seconds, allowing as few as three cars to go through the intersection. Some drivers have resorted to pushing the pedestrian crossing button to force the light to remain green longer.
In addition to the signal, Johnson said he also has seen people cutting through his neighborhood and other nearby streets at high speeds, endangering even the most alert and responsible children in their trek to school, he said.
“I had a meeting based on the way we parked that was a slowing process for people coming through,” he said. “People were slamming on the brakes, and we changed the traffic pattern because people are such bad drivers. County streets are meant to get in and out of the neighborhood, not cut-throughs. I believe we have six exits out of our neighborhood. It’s not desirable to have people cutting through the neighborhood. It’s dangerous.”
A new access road to Sunset Park Elementary School near that intersection has created a loop effect, and two access points with special timers for students to cross the street have frustrated drivers who cannot make right turns on red as a result, Johnson said. The scenario is difficult because parents do not feel their children would be safe while walking or biking to school, but they do not have time to drop them off en route to work, especially with traffic causing delays, he said.
But speeding through the area is unacceptable to him, regardless.
“We called Orange County for speed control to try to get people to slow down,” he said. “One morning before we went to work, we literally had a lady going by at 60 mph. Not a neighbor from the neighborhood, just cutting through, and she flipped me off.”
Police have directed traffic, which Johnson deemed necessary for the rest of this school year, but it has not seemed to alleviate congestion at either the intersection of C.R. 535 and Chase or C.R. 535 and Overstreet Road just to the south, Johnson said.
“I go outside the back of the neighborhood at Overstreet,” he said. “There’s been numerous accidents there and a fatality. I’ve seen numerous cars on their side or in collisions. I leave anywhere from 6 to 8 in the morning. I’d take a 10- to 15-mile drive to get about a mile down the street. It could take me as long to get out of the neighborhood as to get on State Road 429 up to Maitland.”
But Johnson has talked to county engineers, who told him they would look into the matter.
One such engineer is Hector Bertran, of the Orange County Public Works Traffic Engineering Division, who said the chief engineer has prepared coordination timing to more efficiently move traffic on 535 but cannot quantify how lights have been affected, although afternoon traffic has improved from technicians’ alterations.
“I went out there one morning, and there is evidence of a backup in traffic because the sheriffs are doing what they’re instructed to do,” Bertran said. “I think they’re doing the best job they can. It’s a balancing act — safety and flow. We can’t have everything happening in this situation. There are too many conflicting parameters.”
Orange County Sheriff’s Office officials said they do their best to balance pedestrians’ safety and moving traffic.
Because sheriffs are directing traffic, Bertran has not seen the new timing implemented in the morning, but a juggling act of traffic between C.R. 535 and side streets has led to difficulties in coordination, in addition to disruptions of signals, he said.
“When school is over this year, we can observe how traffic is working,” he said. “Of course, it will change because parents are not taking their kids to school. There’s a lot of conflicting interests here that make it a very difficult intersection.”
Contact Zak Kerr at [email protected].