This week's Traffic Inbox submission was from Sherryl Socie, a Pine Castle resident who thinks that Orange Avenue just north of Sand Lake Road is already too busy and can't handle any more growth.
 
"There are no plans to widen the road," she wrote. "It's backed up for great distances in the morning and afternoon and people are cutting through our neighborhood. We need some help to see what can be done for road improvements prior to construction so we can proactive instead of reactive!"

When we visited the area, we found that if one thing is true about Orange Avenue, it's heavily traveled.

Cars and buses are constantly zipping through on their way to the airport, but there are also large, heavy trucks that need this road as well.

Several people who I talked to but wished to remain anonymous told me that they actually fear getting on to Orange Avenue during the day, especially when it requires crossing lanes of traffic.

As it turns out, Orange County and the Florida Department of Transportation have had their eyes on this Orange Avenue corridor for some time.  The catalyst for their joint efforts began with the imminent arrival of a SunRail station.  Now their goals are to make the area safer for pedestrians and enhancing mobility for Orange Avenue.

The Florida Department of Transportation and Orange County each did their own studies of the area and concluded that there should be more addressed besides adding more lanes to the road.  In fact, when I reached out to Orange County, they told me that "simply widening the the road (which is cost prohibitive) would not be consistent with the needs of the community" while noting meetings have been held and continue to be held.  You can even see some of these notices posted along the sides of the road.

The proposed mobility enhancements will eventually include median modifications, operational improvements, signalization, pedestrian and vehicular modifications.

Orange County says there is "no one project associated with this…it's planning for sustainable growth within a transit area."

Because there are so many moving parts, Orange County as of yet is not giving out a timeline for the area's completion, but they are scheduling another public hearing in the area soon and could have more updates for the public then.

So stay tuned and thanks for your submission! And if you have a traffic issue or question at home that you want looked at, go to mynews13.com/trafficinbox and just fill out the simple form.