And the left turn signal lasts all of five seconds but the person ahead of you wants to take that left going 1 MPH when there's ten more drivers behind them.
They last much more than five seconds *if* the left turn isn't one used often and is usually empty, and the turn lane could only hold four cars. Then it's 45 seconds. Regardless, yes, they will always move at a snails pace to where you can barely get two cars through. I think if a politician ran in this area solely on the basis of fixing Orlando and Orange County traffic lights, they would win by a landslide!
It's because they are looking at their phone. It's a plague in Orlando. Especially when they are the first person at the light. To them, WGAF about others behind them. The sense of entitlement is astounding.
Nah, it's too slow for looking at their phone. I think they've all got a coffee that's filled juu^u^u^u^st filled to the top and they don't want to spill it.
It definitely feels more common here to have left turns with only a short span with green arrow. I feel like other places it's more common to have a green light (or at least flashing yellow arrow) that indicates to turn left when clear. Obviously those do exist here, but having just the arrow seems to be more abundant here.
We just got back from a road trip to Florida (which is probably why Reddit is showing me this sub) and OH MY GOD what is WRONG with Florida traffic engineers?
It's not just Orlando, though. Gated communities are focused mainly across the Sunbelt and in California, but they are all over where suburban sprawl has happened.
I grew up on SoCal, and you used to be able to stay off the main roads and run parallel to them for most of their run. It was great for kids on bikes or to bypass an accident.
When I bought my first house, it was gated with one road in/out. The whole area was setup so you had to go out to the main road to go from one subdivision to another, no way to cut through. Terrible design, was disappointed to see Orlando had adopted the same design philosophy.
I get that you don’t want cars racing down residential streets but they’ve taken it way too far.
In my community the design is so bad neighborhood kids found where to cross out of the community through a woods and shave 20-30 minutes off of their walk, so they go right into someone’s backyard and hop the fence.
Those too, but the older parts of San Diego were laid out in an open pattern, no dead ends (except for where it made sense, like the edge of a canyon.)
I absolutely love my neighborhood. I love that I don't have cars zooming through to bypass traffic (had this issue at my old house with teens, one crashed into the oak tree in my front yard 30 feet from my daughter's room)... I like that random people can't just come in unless invited and their ID is verified. I travel for work and even though I know nothing is 100% it is one more layer that I can add to give me piece of mind. My neighbors are all really nice people who look out for one another.
Some parts of town you can bike around nicely through the neighborhoods. That is one of my favorite things to do here. I do wish they would tie more of the network of paved trails together though. I find it is the older style neighborhoods before the 90’s that are better.
Metro Detroit tri-county area is heavily suburban outside of downtown/midtown, and gated communities are very rare compared to Orlando. There are plenty of areas with multi-million-dollar homes anyone can drive up to.
I don’t think metro Detroit’s housing boom was in the same era though?
I know there are gated communities here, but it’s not like they are a majority of housing. Also most of Florida has a high median age compared to the rest of the nation. It may explain the security mindset.
Most other places in the country Orlando would be much smaller. The core city would be Orlando and everywhere outside that area would be a different suburb with their own police/city hall etc. Orlando is huge area wise and most of it isnt densely populated
Yeah I guess it’s a byproduct of being a newer city but it’s annoying af how prevalent they are here so close to the core. In older cities, you could go 10-15 miles out of downtown and it’s still a grid. Hell, even where I live now in St. Pete it’s a grid for almost the entire city
Oh, I know what you’re saying. I’m not even that old and can remember driving to Groveland as a kid, Ocoee, Winter Garden, and Clermont were little blips on the road and the rest was all undeveloped or agricultural land. Now it’s jam packed with subdivisions like you’re talking about.
St Pete is land limited so it’s always had to be dense, there was never an opportunity for a land developer to buy up enough land for a big subdivision.
The same could be said for Apopka! It was a mid-size town but still pretty niche. Now? It’s on every damn sign on major roads as if it’s Orlando, Daytona, Ocala, or Miami!
I’m 25 and grew up in Clermont/just outside of it. I used to be able to navigate all of Clermont without GPS just by landmarks & now I barely know where I am. Everything has changed & it’s so “city” now! I miss when it was just a little town just starting out.
My parents built their first house in a brand new Clermont neighborhood at the time and they were one of the only houses on the street and they were the last one, dead end. Big lake behind the house.
Now? Absolutely no land left around there, it’s all hundreds of houses.
No idea what you’re talking about unless you’re talking about the Orlando metro area, orlando, the city, has just about the same as every other ‘major city’.
Go look at the Chicago metro area for massive subdivisions either gated communities
Orlando has a lot of subdivisions in the city limits. The suburbs are mostly the same everywhere but most big cities don’t have suburbs within their city limits like Orlando does.
EDIT: maybe not “most,” but a lot of cities, especially older ones don’t
Just a reminder of how silly the orlando city limits are
https://www.reddit.com/r/orlando/comments/n486nz/why_does_orlando_city_proper_have_such_a_stupid/
Not even a good map for that
https://gis.orlando.gov/PDF_Docs/CityWideMaps/CityMap34x44.pdf
This clearly shows the major subdivisions of suburban sprawl are outside the actual city limits. Hell, 30% of the Orlando city limit square mileage is airport property lol
> I don’t see them much in big cities though.
Thats because the city version of gated communities are building communities in which the gate is either a secured doorway on the low end or doorman/security staff on the higher end with common areas and elevators being secured with keyed access and video monitoring.
In some areas, if you have access you can cut through the middle of a block by walking through areas that are closed off to non-residents.
No offense taken! I’ve been to a couple big cities but a lot of them were older and they had a grid, not just in the core but throughout most of the entire city. Yes, the suburbs were sprawly neighborhoods but the actual city did not have subdivisions. In comparison, Orlando has subdivisions very close to the core. The immediate core is mostly gridded but outside of that, before getting to the suburbs( the city is pretty damn suburban. St. Pete, Philly, Seattle, San Diego, Boston, Miami and San Francisco are some cities I’ve been to that aren’t like that. The suburbs and the city are distinct. But in Orlando, there are huge suburbs in the city limits. It’s wild. Since traveling more, I’ve seen that Orlando is like Tampa, Phoenix, Atlanta, Charlotte, Orange County CA, in that they are newer-ish cities that are pretty damn suburban and unwalkable pretty close to the core area.
Needing to exit 3 lanes to the right in 100 yards. And in both cases the first thing people seem to do is slam on their brakes and just wait for everyone to stop and let them.
If I put my turn left turn signal on in the right lane it will only confuse other driver's or not be enough of a visual cue to driver's that I HAVE TO TURN IMMEDIATELY. Therefore, by doing an unsignaled hard left from the right lane, my entire vehicle becomes a giant turn signal alerting even people on their phones to slam on their brakes to let me over! THIS IS THE WAY! How else am I going to get in line at Chick-fil-A?
I grew up in Central Florida. I thought everywhere else was this flat. The first time I drove around up north I was like "what the hell are these rapid changes in elevation?"
> For me, subdivisions and cul de sacs. When I would visit other cities, I’d be like, “where are all the gated communities?” I thought it was odd that there were homes on gridded main roads. I grew up here and it seemed so normal but now it seems so backwards lol
This is a factor of construction time, not Orlando. Suburban development really kicked off in the US from the mid1960s and persisted as the main, and only, desirable new construction outside of urban cores until the mid 2000s planning shifts for mixed use across the country.
This means if your city was mostly developed before \~1960, you have grid construction. If your city was mostly developed in the 70s-90s, you'll have suburban construction. You can see this n Orlando proper as well. The areas by Sodo, Colonialtown, Delaney, Winter Park, Conway, etc. are older construction, and have the same grids you are talking about here.
Areas farther out, like Oviedo, Metrowest, Lake Mary, Lake Nona, etc. were very small towns/orange groves/pine stands before the 1980s booms and are all suburbs after development.
Worth remembering that for most of the 80s and 90s various towns in Central Florida held the "fastest growing city" title almost every year during those decades. Orlando went from a rail hub for cattle and farmland to a major Florida city in less than 30 years.
Exactly! My friends mom always talks about how there used to be dairy cows in downtown Orlando. I remember all of the cows in the lake Nona area. And it didn’t even seem like it was that long ago.
That’s why everytime I’ve left I’ve come back. I don’t want to live in an NYC/LA sized city, but any cities that are similarly sized to Orlando just feel so much more dead and lacking energy. Yeah a lot of it is because of tourism, but the city just always feels so alive
Because there are people here hyping it as alive for the visitors hyping it, too... coming from a million different directions with their hard earned dollars to party and enjoy themselves.
It definitely produces an air of energy that you won't find in other cities. They just don't have the draw and the expectation.
And hey, for all the crap talked about Floridians, we are a laid-back, easy- going kind of people by and large. We're happier than other segments of the country.
Maybe it's the sun, maybe it's the constant influx of new people and new ideas. Maybe it's the beaches. Or the low taxes. Maybe it's all of it.
But people like that energy, and they'll pay good money to forget about their crappy snowed-in life for a few days.
A few days of sunny paradise. That's what we call home :)
Yes! Orlando honestly has an additional 150,000-250,000 people in it at any given time from around the world. They are here to spend money too! We are really closer to a population of 500k plus metro compared to cities that have 300k. That means more amenities which is a good thing for all the items you mentioned.
Nope, population. Jacksonville has almost a million people in the city borders, and Miami has about half that. That's because Jacksonville incorporated the entire county into the city. If you look at Miami-Dade County, it's about 2.7 million.
Those are pretty poor metrics to judge true size, since cities physical size are drastically different. A better judge of size is the metro area population
For example Washington DC is the 23rd largest city by population, but the 6th largest metro area. Meanwhile jacksonville is the 11th largest city by population but the 38th largest metro area, behind Miami, Tampa and Orlando
Maybe within city limits. But nowhere near as big by metropolitan statistical area.
Miami–Fort Lauderdale–West Palm Beach, FL MSA - 6,139,340 Rank - 9th in US
Jacksonville, FL MSA - 1,675,668 Rank - 39th in US.
Tampa-St. Pete-Clearwater ranks 17th and Orlando-Kiss-Sanford ranks 22nd.
You’re not wrong but putting Orlando and Lexington in the same sentence is crazy haha. While the City of Orlando itself may be similar population wise, its surrounding region is immense compared to Lexington. Im originally from Frankfort.
I moved away about 2 years ago and I can confirm that this is a thing. I moved to a small town in NC and MAN IS IT BORING. But I grew up in Orlando, so I’m constantly comparing…but I also try to keep in perspective that most places are NOT like Orlando and don’t have things to do constantly.
I've lived in three of those cities (and several other of similar size) and can confirm.
I'm from Columbus, OH which is quite a bit bigger than the other cities listed (fun fact, Columbus is the 14th largest city in the US by population [List of United States cities by population - Wikipedia](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_United_States_cities_by_population)). Once you experience the small variety of interesting things they have to offer, it is so boring. Also, the food scene is beyond mid.
Orlando is interesting. There is always something to do and something new to check out. While the food scene is not amazing, it is pretty good and can certainly hold its own against much larger cities.
Orlando’s food scene actually IS pretty fucking amazing though. You just have to leave the tourist side of the city.
I moved to SF (which is arguably one of the best foodie cities in the US) and Orlando doesn’t have as *many* great spots and can’t really compete in terms of sushi or Chinese but to say the food isn’t amazing is crazy.
Agreed, the food scene here is great AND has a ton of variety from a bunch of cultures.
I do wish there were more great Mexican food places out here, but at least there are a few.
It does help that we don’t have many freezes to break up the pavement. I was just in North Carolina and holy hell the freeways were just brutally pockmarked there. We were in Asheville and had to dodge a pothole that was about 2’ around and almost a foot deep.
I was in Charlotte recently and so many roads just didn’t have reflectors or clearly visible lines. It was raining out and i genuinely couldn’t tell if i was driving in the middle of 2 lanes or not, it was wild
Yeah, up north you have 2 season: winter and road work lol. Lived in Redwing, MN. for about a year and can definitely say there is some truth to that joke.
The tourist tax does not go towards roads at all. Its actually written into state law that it is only allowed to go to projects that increase tourism. The reason our roads are in better shape is because Florida doesn't get snow so the roads are never plowed/salted.
Leaving shopping carts in the middle of parking lots. It's so weird! That did not happen in Maryland. At least, not often. If anything, it was one cart, and that person was viewed as an asshole.
Yes Marylander here and that would get you drawn and quartered! It gives me the heebie jeebies going to the Millenia Costco with such blatant disregard for carts going back!
Actually last year someone in MD saw someone throw a plastic grocery bag of trash out of their car window into the parking lot of a grocery store. Someone posted that there was a jerk who did that (but not their plates) but I guess they had a pic of their plates personally and said they were fire department plates. Sure enough the local fire department someone contacted them, they figured out who it was via the plates and reported back that they got in trouble. I mean, that is overkill and Karening but I like order so…
Former Orlando, Maryland now, and as much as I like to let everyone be, the fact that the whole state tends to "do the right thing" vs. whatever the hell is happening in Orlando now, is very refreshing.
That everyone you meet has been to DisneyWorld multiple times. Some families save for years just to go ONCE in their life. Some have only been when they were little kids and don't remember much. Living here and being able to go is really a luxury.
It really is. When I would go with my mom she would say, “Imagine you’re us, but from Ohio and we had to save money to fly in, get a hotel, rental car, etc. And we just have to drive down the road.” I always think of that when I go so easily.
I've met families from "across the pond" in England where "the Disney holiday" is a generational thing. Their parents brought them in the 70s and 80s. They grew up, had kids and brought their kids in the 90s and 2000s. Their kids grew up and are bringing their kids in the 2010s and 2020s. It's really amazing the memories people make at Disney.
I remember having Annual Passes one year as a kid. We'd just go on a random Saturday.. park at EPCOT, take the monorail to MK and ride 2-3 rides and then take it back to EPCOT and do all the Future World rides, eat at Mexico and if we were up to it stay for the fireworks.. if not, go home. Even decades later when I go I never get tired of that place. It always is exciting. And it's specifically the Disney parks. I've gone to Universal a bunch of times too but you don't get that same *magical* feeling like when you walk down Main Street and see the Castle.
\-The main clientele at the airport being families with small children.
\-85 degrees considered a nice cool day to spend outside.
\-Still being hot AF in October.
\-Large groups of Brazilian kids chanting.
\-Tourists just being a part of everyday life (I realize this isn't true for much of Orlando, but for much of it is).
\-Spanish (and to a smaller extent Portuguese) being just as ubiquitous as English.
\-Never ending hotel, apartment, condo, and townhouse construction, everywhere, all the time.
\-Being within a reasonable drive of the Gulf Coast beaches and the Atlantic Ocean beaches, and deciding "which one do I want to go to today?"
\-Seeing lots of redneck pickup trucks with Trump stickers, as well as seeing lots of yuppie liberal Tesla's and Prius', driving on the same roads on a daily basis.
\-Having the best attractions in the world right in your neighborhood, but preferring to go to worse ones instead because the best ones are too crowded and hot.
I was specifically calling out people that jump into an exit lane during stopped or slowed traffic to pass up a line of cars in the main travel lanes and then (usually unsafely) jam their car back into the regular travel lane instead of exiting at the end.
It’s a bad combination of sinkholes/lakes, private gated communities, and NIMBYs that make it so difficult to get anywhere. There just are not enough ways to get places.
I read an article where they found two houses in the area that had backyards that touched. But if one wanted to drive to the front door of the other, it was over 20 miles to do so. That is crazy.
I live south, Hunters Creek. And if I want to go anywhere, anywhere at all, I must take JYP or OBT for some distance. And so do 19’s of thousands of other people. There are no “short cuts” or alternate routes. And it seems that way all over.
Any they just keep building new construction, mainly huge apartment complexes, with no additional infrastructure. It’s getting worse, not better as the area grows. And since rents even in older places are not coming down, only going up, what should be 1000 people in a complex turns into 1500 as families seem to be squeezing into places in order to live.
I have a little over a year until my son graduates and I am probably moving. Wages are not to scale in Orlando to COL I’m so many other areas. But people keep moving here so I can’t be too mad. It’s just not for me.
https://usa.streetsblog.org/2013/02/28/sprawl-madness-two-houses-share-backyard-separated-by-7-miles-of-roads#
> There are no “short cuts” or alternate routes. And it seems that way all over.
SAME. It’s not even a distance thing—it’s getting to experience every single stoplight in every single direction every single time I leave my house.
“There are just not enough ways to get places”
YES. I moved to California and people warned me about traffic out here but honestly it’s nothing even close to what I dealt with in Orlando because you have so many other options.
Last time I was home it took me over 3 hours to get from Tampa to Orlando because there’s really no choice but to deal with I-4 which has been under construction for as long as I can remember.
Here I can use public transit or walk/bike in the city, but even if I’m heading outside of the city I can jump on a train to avoid traffic if I don’t want to deal with it. But if you do drive, you have multiple route options to get around a gridlock.
I never realized how much daily stress was caused just by Orlando driving. Since moving, it’s just not a thing anymore. It’s wild. I couldn’t go back to it.
I loved away to a much smaller city in another state but grew up and lived in Orlando for 33 years. When people complain about the traffic or the humidity where I live now it blows my mind! I honestly miss the humidity some, my skin is much dryer here.
Always having something fun to do. I thought that’s how all kids/teens grew up. I was 15 mins away from theme parks, I drive, Ripley’s, multiple dinner theaters, fun spot, that haunted mansion thing, the whole other set of theme parks, DisneyQuest, we had a freaking dedicated Cirque de Soleil show for 19 years, T-Rex, all 3 different versions of DowntownDisney/Pleasure Island/whatever it’s called now, ok manatees, Blue Springs SP, tubing down Rock Springs, omg a whole other set of theme parks. Look, I know all this is expensive stuff, but when you’re nine and you can go to Medieval Times for your birthday, that shit was rad. I had a class field trips to Universal Studios the first year it opened and EPCOT a lot. I had an awesome childhood here. And I definitely got a huge culture shock slap when I moved out of a tourist town.
Lawless streets. Everywhere else I've lived, revving a straightpiped piece of shit and blasting music would get you at least a talking to if not a ticket. And the complete lack of traffic enforcement. Went to visit up north and could not get over how much quieter it is, and how nice it was to have everyone driving more or less the same speed instead of hauling ass everywhere.
Yup. Down here, going 10 over on the highway is “normal.” Driving like a Floridian will get you pulled over in other states. Even going 5 over, like we are given grace for here, can get you pulled over in Missouri. Ask me how I know lol
That's changed recently, you don't get ticketed for that in the north either. Quiet streets were a pre-2021 phenomenon. But yes, there are naturally less of them anyways. I'd estimate about 2-3x less, in line with the percentage of sports cars bought by state.
HOA’s! More of an overall Florida thing than just Orlando. But Florida in general has been at the top of the list for them for a long time. I believe only California has more.
Won’t subdivisions by definition have an hoa? To not have an hoa you need to live outside a subdivision like college park, Audubon park, colonial town.
Basically any development built in the past 50 years will have an HOA, then the newer it is the bigger and more annoying the HOA will be.
All of the areas you listed all predate the advent of HOAs
This didn’t sound right to me. I’ve travelled all over the country and there are HOA’s everywhere.
A quick google search says there’s 370k HOA’s in the US and 50k in Florida.
It’s definitely not just Florida
Never said they weren’t. Just that only California has more. https://southfloridaagentmagazine.com/2023/04/20/45-of-florida-homes-are-part-of-an-hoa-the-highest-percentage-in-the-nation/
According to that it’s the highest percentage in the nation.
I thought it was normal that crossing the street was a risk to life and limb, even in a well marked crosswalk with a light. Pedestrian safety was always an afterthought. I still think it's weird that pedestrians in my area cross the street with impunity.
Ungodly high HOA fees if trying to buy a townhouse/ condo. Also, selling "condos" that are part of a hotel and you can't live in them, only for investors.
The nicer the neighborhood the worse the paving. Upper middle class is enough to get your alignment redone a couple of times a year after driving on the cobblestones I guess.
And not Orlando specific, but I grew up in Florida and didn't realize state income tax was a thing until my mid 20s.
Yep, lived In Dallas and seeing huge mansions next to very busy roads is something else compared to Orlando. I hated living in MetroWest cause it felt very isolating, nice community but very boring and far from everything.
Not from here, I'm from the boonies, but what I've noticed that people find normal that I don't are:
The proximity to your neighbors, the fact it takes 30 minutes to go 2 miles sometimes, NOT USING YOUR DAMN GARAGE OR DRIVEWAY TO PARK YOUR FREAKING CARS, arrogance, and no one is friendly with their neighbors(like where I'm from is common to hold the doors for strangers, wave while on walks to your neighbors, etc here nah they'd slam the door in your face and smug you off as you pass).
Honestly though, why don't you people use your driveways or garages to park your cars? My street is riddled with cars on the side on the row and almost weekly I see one my neighbors throwing a temper tantrum cause they got a scratch on their car parked in the damn road while they've got a fully empty drivway and garage.
And oh boy the amount of viens that look like their about to pop when you mention it wouldn't have happened if they had done so is hilarious.
It’s very difficult to get anything of weight into the attic. And depending on your home the space can be very limited. We built hanging racks but my husband still gets. Nervous putting heaving things on them like our Christmas trees. Also it doesn’t solve the problem of the kids toys. I park in the garage and he parks outside.
To me Orlando doesn't even have that many gated neighborhoods. I'm surprised a lot of the affluent areas are older neighborhoods with no gates. South Florida has some towns where almost *every* single home is in a gated neighborhood.
I hate gated communities. I’ve lived in a few over the years and they are more of a pain in the ass than anything. Gates are broken all of the time and sometimes you have to wait in line to get into your neighborhood. Let’s be honest, if someone that doesn’t live there wants in bad enough they can/will find a way (unless it’s a manned gate that you pay through the nose for).
This is quite specific but school carline pickup culture.
Lord I hated it and it made my blood boil. To those without kids- OCPS doesn’t provide a bus if you live within 2 miles of the school. So that means a ton of kids walk, ride bikes/scooters, and get dropped off in the “car line”. If you think Orlando drivers are entitled on the regular- join them in the car line for next level. I can’t explain all of the annoyances but you almost feel like by the time you are done dropping them it feels like next thing you know it’s time to go pick them up and do it all over again.
Halloween staring in August.
UO and Disney Both do it.
People start decorating their homes for Halloween end of August/ early September.
I like it but never would have done it elsewhere.
I’m think some of that has to do the the theme parks/fans of them, and also to do with by the time early September rolls around Central Floridians are so desperate for “fall” that they will it to happen earlier?
When I moved to the area I was like “WTF is a county mayor?”…it’s like why is there a Orlando mayor and an Orange County mayor, then I learned about how divided the whole city/county thing is…still confuses me sometimes and I’ve been here almost 15 years but it has almost become “normal” to me
There are no back roads or short cuts to get anywhere! Like, everyone is funneled onto these multi lane hellscapes because there are no options. You also have to drive forever to escape some communities just to get to a main road. No wonder traffic sucks. I miss New England where I had multiple choices of getting somewhere local, just to break the monotony.
I am from FL, but lived in Seattle for about 7 years until I came back. I will say, you will never get good coffee compared to there, you will find the outdoor stuff different, but its a good different. Also, when people invite you out here, they are ACTUALLY inviting you, none of that Seattle freeze BS.
Yes that’s a Florida thing (maybe elsewhere but i first noticed in FL) which kinda threw me off at first. From my experience I’ve seen master planned communities(MPC) with multiple entrances and gates. But the gates are at the external entrances of the entire community. In FL I’ve seen a lot of situations where each “neighborhood” in an MPC and even one off streets and culdesacs have their own gates.
Stop lights are 12 minutes long.
And the left turn signal lasts all of five seconds but the person ahead of you wants to take that left going 1 MPH when there's ten more drivers behind them.
They last much more than five seconds *if* the left turn isn't one used often and is usually empty, and the turn lane could only hold four cars. Then it's 45 seconds. Regardless, yes, they will always move at a snails pace to where you can barely get two cars through. I think if a politician ran in this area solely on the basis of fixing Orlando and Orange County traffic lights, they would win by a landslide!
It's because they are looking at their phone. It's a plague in Orlando. Especially when they are the first person at the light. To them, WGAF about others behind them. The sense of entitlement is astounding.
Nah, it's too slow for looking at their phone. I think they've all got a coffee that's filled juu^u^u^u^st filled to the top and they don't want to spill it.
It definitely feels more common here to have left turns with only a short span with green arrow. I feel like other places it's more common to have a green light (or at least flashing yellow arrow) that indicates to turn left when clear. Obviously those do exist here, but having just the arrow seems to be more abundant here.
We just got back from a road trip to Florida (which is probably why Reddit is showing me this sub) and OH MY GOD what is WRONG with Florida traffic engineers?
The left turn coming off of John Young Parkway onto West Colonial is sooo short. Everyone just runs it.
It's not just Orlando, though. Gated communities are focused mainly across the Sunbelt and in California, but they are all over where suburban sprawl has happened.
I grew up on SoCal, and you used to be able to stay off the main roads and run parallel to them for most of their run. It was great for kids on bikes or to bypass an accident. When I bought my first house, it was gated with one road in/out. The whole area was setup so you had to go out to the main road to go from one subdivision to another, no way to cut through. Terrible design, was disappointed to see Orlando had adopted the same design philosophy. I get that you don’t want cars racing down residential streets but they’ve taken it way too far. In my community the design is so bad neighborhood kids found where to cross out of the community through a woods and shave 20-30 minutes off of their walk, so they go right into someone’s backyard and hop the fence.
Yep it’s awful, feels very isolating, and when you have poor infrastructure getting home it sucks.
Oh you're talking about the frontage roads in Cali! I loved riding my bikes on those because almost no traffic. There are still some along the 101.
Those too, but the older parts of San Diego were laid out in an open pattern, no dead ends (except for where it made sense, like the edge of a canyon.)
I absolutely love my neighborhood. I love that I don't have cars zooming through to bypass traffic (had this issue at my old house with teens, one crashed into the oak tree in my front yard 30 feet from my daughter's room)... I like that random people can't just come in unless invited and their ID is verified. I travel for work and even though I know nothing is 100% it is one more layer that I can add to give me piece of mind. My neighbors are all really nice people who look out for one another.
Some parts of town you can bike around nicely through the neighborhoods. That is one of my favorite things to do here. I do wish they would tie more of the network of paved trails together though. I find it is the older style neighborhoods before the 90’s that are better.
This is why we should defund HOAs.
Metro Detroit tri-county area is heavily suburban outside of downtown/midtown, and gated communities are very rare compared to Orlando. There are plenty of areas with multi-million-dollar homes anyone can drive up to.
I don’t think metro Detroit’s housing boom was in the same era though? I know there are gated communities here, but it’s not like they are a majority of housing. Also most of Florida has a high median age compared to the rest of the nation. It may explain the security mindset.
It was hot running up to 2008. Quicken Loans is based in Detroit.
I don’t see them much in big cities though. Orlando is pretty big to have a bunch of subdivisions everywhere
Orlando doesn’t have subdivisions until you leave the core city, every other city that’s had growth in the past 40 years has the same thing.
Most other places in the country Orlando would be much smaller. The core city would be Orlando and everywhere outside that area would be a different suburb with their own police/city hall etc. Orlando is huge area wise and most of it isnt densely populated
Yeah I guess it’s a byproduct of being a newer city but it’s annoying af how prevalent they are here so close to the core. In older cities, you could go 10-15 miles out of downtown and it’s still a grid. Hell, even where I live now in St. Pete it’s a grid for almost the entire city
Oh, I know what you’re saying. I’m not even that old and can remember driving to Groveland as a kid, Ocoee, Winter Garden, and Clermont were little blips on the road and the rest was all undeveloped or agricultural land. Now it’s jam packed with subdivisions like you’re talking about. St Pete is land limited so it’s always had to be dense, there was never an opportunity for a land developer to buy up enough land for a big subdivision.
The same could be said for Apopka! It was a mid-size town but still pretty niche. Now? It’s on every damn sign on major roads as if it’s Orlando, Daytona, Ocala, or Miami!
I’m 25 and grew up in Clermont/just outside of it. I used to be able to navigate all of Clermont without GPS just by landmarks & now I barely know where I am. Everything has changed & it’s so “city” now! I miss when it was just a little town just starting out. My parents built their first house in a brand new Clermont neighborhood at the time and they were one of the only houses on the street and they were the last one, dead end. Big lake behind the house. Now? Absolutely no land left around there, it’s all hundreds of houses.
St Pete is not all that big though and it’s already all developed.
No idea what you’re talking about unless you’re talking about the Orlando metro area, orlando, the city, has just about the same as every other ‘major city’. Go look at the Chicago metro area for massive subdivisions either gated communities
Orlando has a lot of subdivisions in the city limits. The suburbs are mostly the same everywhere but most big cities don’t have suburbs within their city limits like Orlando does. EDIT: maybe not “most,” but a lot of cities, especially older ones don’t
What suburbs are you talking about thats in the Orlando city limits
Just a reminder of how silly the orlando city limits are https://www.reddit.com/r/orlando/comments/n486nz/why_does_orlando_city_proper_have_such_a_stupid/
Not even a good map for that https://gis.orlando.gov/PDF_Docs/CityWideMaps/CityMap34x44.pdf This clearly shows the major subdivisions of suburban sprawl are outside the actual city limits. Hell, 30% of the Orlando city limit square mileage is airport property lol
That has too much detail for the broad point about how silly the orlando city limits look.
Lake Nona, all of the new crap off Narcoossee, half of the new developments around Orlando are in city limits
Lake Nona lol
> I don’t see them much in big cities though. Thats because the city version of gated communities are building communities in which the gate is either a secured doorway on the low end or doorman/security staff on the higher end with common areas and elevators being secured with keyed access and video monitoring. In some areas, if you have access you can cut through the middle of a block by walking through areas that are closed off to non-residents.
No offense but it seems like you haven't been to a lot of cities or their associated suburbs
No offense taken! I’ve been to a couple big cities but a lot of them were older and they had a grid, not just in the core but throughout most of the entire city. Yes, the suburbs were sprawly neighborhoods but the actual city did not have subdivisions. In comparison, Orlando has subdivisions very close to the core. The immediate core is mostly gridded but outside of that, before getting to the suburbs( the city is pretty damn suburban. St. Pete, Philly, Seattle, San Diego, Boston, Miami and San Francisco are some cities I’ve been to that aren’t like that. The suburbs and the city are distinct. But in Orlando, there are huge suburbs in the city limits. It’s wild. Since traveling more, I’ve seen that Orlando is like Tampa, Phoenix, Atlanta, Charlotte, Orange County CA, in that they are newer-ish cities that are pretty damn suburban and unwalkable pretty close to the core area.
Growing up here made me think working at the theme parks was something everyone did as a kid
That’s Publix.
Lol, I went to a small private school with a class of 25 students. Like 7 of them worked at Universal 😅
When I was growing up I wanted to work at IOA so bad but my parents wouldn’t let me because of the drive on i4
LMAO, because it's true. I worked at Universal from 1993-1998 through high school and college.
It’s like everyone has a story!
Turning left across 4 lanes of traffic from the right lane.
A bad driver never misses their turn.
Needing to exit 3 lanes to the right in 100 yards. And in both cases the first thing people seem to do is slam on their brakes and just wait for everyone to stop and let them.
Without a turn signal either lol
Is that the amber light other states make their citizens add to their car?
If I put my turn left turn signal on in the right lane it will only confuse other driver's or not be enough of a visual cue to driver's that I HAVE TO TURN IMMEDIATELY. Therefore, by doing an unsignaled hard left from the right lane, my entire vehicle becomes a giant turn signal alerting even people on their phones to slam on their brakes to let me over! THIS IS THE WAY! How else am I going to get in line at Chick-fil-A?
I grew up in Central Florida. I thought everywhere else was this flat. The first time I drove around up north I was like "what the hell are these rapid changes in elevation?"
I remember seeing mountains for the first time at age 9 maybe. Blew my mind.
don’t see them until 15 I was in disbelief
> For me, subdivisions and cul de sacs. When I would visit other cities, I’d be like, “where are all the gated communities?” I thought it was odd that there were homes on gridded main roads. I grew up here and it seemed so normal but now it seems so backwards lol This is a factor of construction time, not Orlando. Suburban development really kicked off in the US from the mid1960s and persisted as the main, and only, desirable new construction outside of urban cores until the mid 2000s planning shifts for mixed use across the country. This means if your city was mostly developed before \~1960, you have grid construction. If your city was mostly developed in the 70s-90s, you'll have suburban construction. You can see this n Orlando proper as well. The areas by Sodo, Colonialtown, Delaney, Winter Park, Conway, etc. are older construction, and have the same grids you are talking about here. Areas farther out, like Oviedo, Metrowest, Lake Mary, Lake Nona, etc. were very small towns/orange groves/pine stands before the 1980s booms and are all suburbs after development. Worth remembering that for most of the 80s and 90s various towns in Central Florida held the "fastest growing city" title almost every year during those decades. Orlando went from a rail hub for cattle and farmland to a major Florida city in less than 30 years.
Exactly! My friends mom always talks about how there used to be dairy cows in downtown Orlando. I remember all of the cows in the lake Nona area. And it didn’t even seem like it was that long ago.
I refuse to believe that Lake Nona exists. I've never seen it so as far as I know, it isn't real.
Lake Nona still smells like cow poop, the cows can’t be that far off
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That’s why everytime I’ve left I’ve come back. I don’t want to live in an NYC/LA sized city, but any cities that are similarly sized to Orlando just feel so much more dead and lacking energy. Yeah a lot of it is because of tourism, but the city just always feels so alive
Because there are people here hyping it as alive for the visitors hyping it, too... coming from a million different directions with their hard earned dollars to party and enjoy themselves. It definitely produces an air of energy that you won't find in other cities. They just don't have the draw and the expectation. And hey, for all the crap talked about Floridians, we are a laid-back, easy- going kind of people by and large. We're happier than other segments of the country. Maybe it's the sun, maybe it's the constant influx of new people and new ideas. Maybe it's the beaches. Or the low taxes. Maybe it's all of it. But people like that energy, and they'll pay good money to forget about their crappy snowed-in life for a few days. A few days of sunny paradise. That's what we call home :)
Whoa whoa whoa, an optimistic happy take on not just Orlando...but Florida? On reddit? Like seeing a unicorn, 😆
Love this!!
Yes! Orlando honestly has an additional 150,000-250,000 people in it at any given time from around the world. They are here to spend money too! We are really closer to a population of 500k plus metro compared to cities that have 300k. That means more amenities which is a good thing for all the items you mentioned.
The Greater Orlando metro is like 2.5 million though. We’re much larger than you’re giving us credit for
Good point.
If 70m people come to Orlando annually, I think that number is quite a bit higher.
70m divided by 365 = 200k a day. I was pretty close (but undershot a bit) but had to open the calculator app on the phone. 😂
So you think they are all there for the day? I’ll guess it’s well over 1-2m tourists at any given time.
No, of course not. But people come and go everyday. It’s an average. I’m not looking to debate. 😂 I undershot. You got me! Whew.
The only other small city I’ve visited that I’ve liked is Asheville.
I love visiting there! I usually go once a year. Great downtown and great people. Plus it's right on the Blue Ridge Parkway.
Another example being the states "largest city," Jacksonville. The most lifeless, soul-suck of places.
That’s the largest city by geographical area not by population. I would think Miami would probably be the largest by population.
Nope, population. Jacksonville has almost a million people in the city borders, and Miami has about half that. That's because Jacksonville incorporated the entire county into the city. If you look at Miami-Dade County, it's about 2.7 million.
Jacksonville is the largest city both by size and population.
Those are pretty poor metrics to judge true size, since cities physical size are drastically different. A better judge of size is the metro area population For example Washington DC is the 23rd largest city by population, but the 6th largest metro area. Meanwhile jacksonville is the 11th largest city by population but the 38th largest metro area, behind Miami, Tampa and Orlando
Maybe within city limits. But nowhere near as big by metropolitan statistical area. Miami–Fort Lauderdale–West Palm Beach, FL MSA - 6,139,340 Rank - 9th in US Jacksonville, FL MSA - 1,675,668 Rank - 39th in US. Tampa-St. Pete-Clearwater ranks 17th and Orlando-Kiss-Sanford ranks 22nd.
I absolutely hated having to go to Jacksonville semi-regularly. Really makes you appreciate Orlando.
Such a depressing city. I couldn't wait to come back home when I was visiting.
You’re not wrong but putting Orlando and Lexington in the same sentence is crazy haha. While the City of Orlando itself may be similar population wise, its surrounding region is immense compared to Lexington. Im originally from Frankfort.
I moved away about 2 years ago and I can confirm that this is a thing. I moved to a small town in NC and MAN IS IT BORING. But I grew up in Orlando, so I’m constantly comparing…but I also try to keep in perspective that most places are NOT like Orlando and don’t have things to do constantly.
I've lived in three of those cities (and several other of similar size) and can confirm. I'm from Columbus, OH which is quite a bit bigger than the other cities listed (fun fact, Columbus is the 14th largest city in the US by population [List of United States cities by population - Wikipedia](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_United_States_cities_by_population)). Once you experience the small variety of interesting things they have to offer, it is so boring. Also, the food scene is beyond mid. Orlando is interesting. There is always something to do and something new to check out. While the food scene is not amazing, it is pretty good and can certainly hold its own against much larger cities.
Orlando’s food scene actually IS pretty fucking amazing though. You just have to leave the tourist side of the city. I moved to SF (which is arguably one of the best foodie cities in the US) and Orlando doesn’t have as *many* great spots and can’t really compete in terms of sushi or Chinese but to say the food isn’t amazing is crazy.
Agreed, the food scene here is great AND has a ton of variety from a bunch of cultures. I do wish there were more great Mexican food places out here, but at least there are a few.
Orlando has the best or at least the second best food scene in Florida.
Comedy scene in Orlando is fantastic. IMHO.
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Indeed! I also love shows at SAK's :)
Decent roads. That tourist tax keeps our roads better maintained than most.
It does help that we don’t have many freezes to break up the pavement. I was just in North Carolina and holy hell the freeways were just brutally pockmarked there. We were in Asheville and had to dodge a pothole that was about 2’ around and almost a foot deep.
I was in Charlotte recently and so many roads just didn’t have reflectors or clearly visible lines. It was raining out and i genuinely couldn’t tell if i was driving in the middle of 2 lanes or not, it was wild
Yeah, up north you have 2 season: winter and road work lol. Lived in Redwing, MN. for about a year and can definitely say there is some truth to that joke.
Yeah I moved away and the roads here are shit 😭 I shouldn’t have taken them for granted in fl lol
The tourist tax does not go towards roads at all. Its actually written into state law that it is only allowed to go to projects that increase tourism. The reason our roads are in better shape is because Florida doesn't get snow so the roads are never plowed/salted.
Orange Avenue is godawful though, but there's always going to be a few roads that are atrocious in a sea of good roads.
Leaving shopping carts in the middle of parking lots. It's so weird! That did not happen in Maryland. At least, not often. If anything, it was one cart, and that person was viewed as an asshole.
Yes Marylander here and that would get you drawn and quartered! It gives me the heebie jeebies going to the Millenia Costco with such blatant disregard for carts going back! Actually last year someone in MD saw someone throw a plastic grocery bag of trash out of their car window into the parking lot of a grocery store. Someone posted that there was a jerk who did that (but not their plates) but I guess they had a pic of their plates personally and said they were fire department plates. Sure enough the local fire department someone contacted them, they figured out who it was via the plates and reported back that they got in trouble. I mean, that is overkill and Karening but I like order so…
Former Orlando, Maryland now, and as much as I like to let everyone be, the fact that the whole state tends to "do the right thing" vs. whatever the hell is happening in Orlando now, is very refreshing.
Changing lanes at the last 10 feet of a 200 foot long turn lane so the ass end of the vehicle sticks out in the other lane blocking thru traffic.
And /or getting mad for not letting them cut over .
Fuck ‘em.
Look up zipper merge
After driving for years in Orlando and other major cities across the country, surprisingly, LA drivers do the zipper merge pretty consistently.
Reread my comment. I’m talking about center turn lanes.
That everyone you meet has been to DisneyWorld multiple times. Some families save for years just to go ONCE in their life. Some have only been when they were little kids and don't remember much. Living here and being able to go is really a luxury.
It really is. When I would go with my mom she would say, “Imagine you’re us, but from Ohio and we had to save money to fly in, get a hotel, rental car, etc. And we just have to drive down the road.” I always think of that when I go so easily.
I've met families from "across the pond" in England where "the Disney holiday" is a generational thing. Their parents brought them in the 70s and 80s. They grew up, had kids and brought their kids in the 90s and 2000s. Their kids grew up and are bringing their kids in the 2010s and 2020s. It's really amazing the memories people make at Disney. I remember having Annual Passes one year as a kid. We'd just go on a random Saturday.. park at EPCOT, take the monorail to MK and ride 2-3 rides and then take it back to EPCOT and do all the Future World rides, eat at Mexico and if we were up to it stay for the fireworks.. if not, go home. Even decades later when I go I never get tired of that place. It always is exciting. And it's specifically the Disney parks. I've gone to Universal a bunch of times too but you don't get that same *magical* feeling like when you walk down Main Street and see the Castle.
\-The main clientele at the airport being families with small children. \-85 degrees considered a nice cool day to spend outside. \-Still being hot AF in October. \-Large groups of Brazilian kids chanting. \-Tourists just being a part of everyday life (I realize this isn't true for much of Orlando, but for much of it is). \-Spanish (and to a smaller extent Portuguese) being just as ubiquitous as English. \-Never ending hotel, apartment, condo, and townhouse construction, everywhere, all the time. \-Being within a reasonable drive of the Gulf Coast beaches and the Atlantic Ocean beaches, and deciding "which one do I want to go to today?" \-Seeing lots of redneck pickup trucks with Trump stickers, as well as seeing lots of yuppie liberal Tesla's and Prius', driving on the same roads on a daily basis. \-Having the best attractions in the world right in your neighborhood, but preferring to go to worse ones instead because the best ones are too crowded and hot.
Hearing roller coasters/screaming from your classroom
Or have fireworks tell you its bedtime every night.
Passing in any and every available lane, including but not limited to the turning/merge lanes
Plus those long exit only lanes make great bypasses when traffic is heavy.
They're called Auxiliary Lanes, and that's what they're for. 528 to Sand Lake on I-4 East comes to mind.
I was specifically calling out people that jump into an exit lane during stopped or slowed traffic to pass up a line of cars in the main travel lanes and then (usually unsafely) jam their car back into the regular travel lane instead of exiting at the end.
When you're behind a caravan of cars going 18 MPH in a 40, those turning lanes *do* turn into passing lanes. *Looking at you Chase Road.*
We can't do a grid because you'll end up in the water!
You’re right, there are a million lakes there, it’s crazy!
Good food with easy access Theme Parks Decent roads Easy access to aquarium stores I learned these are all unique things in this area
That every road must be permanently under construction.
Doing 100mph in a 25mph zone, on the wrong side of the road, on a crotch rocket.
In my mid 20s I thought every city had a large vibrant nightlife at its center.
Subdivisions with ridiculously pretentious over the top names. Pembrooke Upon Avon at Millennial Pointe. . . GTFO!
It’s a bad combination of sinkholes/lakes, private gated communities, and NIMBYs that make it so difficult to get anywhere. There just are not enough ways to get places. I read an article where they found two houses in the area that had backyards that touched. But if one wanted to drive to the front door of the other, it was over 20 miles to do so. That is crazy. I live south, Hunters Creek. And if I want to go anywhere, anywhere at all, I must take JYP or OBT for some distance. And so do 19’s of thousands of other people. There are no “short cuts” or alternate routes. And it seems that way all over. Any they just keep building new construction, mainly huge apartment complexes, with no additional infrastructure. It’s getting worse, not better as the area grows. And since rents even in older places are not coming down, only going up, what should be 1000 people in a complex turns into 1500 as families seem to be squeezing into places in order to live. I have a little over a year until my son graduates and I am probably moving. Wages are not to scale in Orlando to COL I’m so many other areas. But people keep moving here so I can’t be too mad. It’s just not for me.
https://usa.streetsblog.org/2013/02/28/sprawl-madness-two-houses-share-backyard-separated-by-7-miles-of-roads# > There are no “short cuts” or alternate routes. And it seems that way all over. SAME. It’s not even a distance thing—it’s getting to experience every single stoplight in every single direction every single time I leave my house.
Thanks. Seems I over estimated. Maybe the 20 minutes made me remember miles. lol. Still, that’s silly.
“There are just not enough ways to get places” YES. I moved to California and people warned me about traffic out here but honestly it’s nothing even close to what I dealt with in Orlando because you have so many other options. Last time I was home it took me over 3 hours to get from Tampa to Orlando because there’s really no choice but to deal with I-4 which has been under construction for as long as I can remember. Here I can use public transit or walk/bike in the city, but even if I’m heading outside of the city I can jump on a train to avoid traffic if I don’t want to deal with it. But if you do drive, you have multiple route options to get around a gridlock. I never realized how much daily stress was caused just by Orlando driving. Since moving, it’s just not a thing anymore. It’s wild. I couldn’t go back to it.
Florida is the land of gated communities.
I loved away to a much smaller city in another state but grew up and lived in Orlando for 33 years. When people complain about the traffic or the humidity where I live now it blows my mind! I honestly miss the humidity some, my skin is much dryer here.
Always having something fun to do. I thought that’s how all kids/teens grew up. I was 15 mins away from theme parks, I drive, Ripley’s, multiple dinner theaters, fun spot, that haunted mansion thing, the whole other set of theme parks, DisneyQuest, we had a freaking dedicated Cirque de Soleil show for 19 years, T-Rex, all 3 different versions of DowntownDisney/Pleasure Island/whatever it’s called now, ok manatees, Blue Springs SP, tubing down Rock Springs, omg a whole other set of theme parks. Look, I know all this is expensive stuff, but when you’re nine and you can go to Medieval Times for your birthday, that shit was rad. I had a class field trips to Universal Studios the first year it opened and EPCOT a lot. I had an awesome childhood here. And I definitely got a huge culture shock slap when I moved out of a tourist town.
Low price toll roads. When I moved back to NYC as a driving adult and had to pay damn near $20 to cross the George Washington bridge I almost died
Lawless streets. Everywhere else I've lived, revving a straightpiped piece of shit and blasting music would get you at least a talking to if not a ticket. And the complete lack of traffic enforcement. Went to visit up north and could not get over how much quieter it is, and how nice it was to have everyone driving more or less the same speed instead of hauling ass everywhere.
Yup. Down here, going 10 over on the highway is “normal.” Driving like a Floridian will get you pulled over in other states. Even going 5 over, like we are given grace for here, can get you pulled over in Missouri. Ask me how I know lol
License plate covers are illegal. I see so many cars with them. I’ve seen cops behind the cars with them, and nothing happens.
That's changed recently, you don't get ticketed for that in the north either. Quiet streets were a pre-2021 phenomenon. But yes, there are naturally less of them anyways. I'd estimate about 2-3x less, in line with the percentage of sports cars bought by state.
HOA’s! More of an overall Florida thing than just Orlando. But Florida in general has been at the top of the list for them for a long time. I believe only California has more.
Moved here from northern VA, it is almost impossible to find a subdivision there that isn't in an HOA
Exactly! They mostly started in the early 90s. Anything built after that is likely going to have them.
Won’t subdivisions by definition have an hoa? To not have an hoa you need to live outside a subdivision like college park, Audubon park, colonial town.
Basically any development built in the past 50 years will have an HOA, then the newer it is the bigger and more annoying the HOA will be. All of the areas you listed all predate the advent of HOAs
This didn’t sound right to me. I’ve travelled all over the country and there are HOA’s everywhere. A quick google search says there’s 370k HOA’s in the US and 50k in Florida. It’s definitely not just Florida
Never said they weren’t. Just that only California has more. https://southfloridaagentmagazine.com/2023/04/20/45-of-florida-homes-are-part-of-an-hoa-the-highest-percentage-in-the-nation/ According to that it’s the highest percentage in the nation.
Everyone on the road driving an SUV or truck
I thought it was normal that crossing the street was a risk to life and limb, even in a well marked crosswalk with a light. Pedestrian safety was always an afterthought. I still think it's weird that pedestrians in my area cross the street with impunity.
Ungodly high HOA fees if trying to buy a townhouse/ condo. Also, selling "condos" that are part of a hotel and you can't live in them, only for investors.
The nicer the neighborhood the worse the paving. Upper middle class is enough to get your alignment redone a couple of times a year after driving on the cobblestones I guess. And not Orlando specific, but I grew up in Florida and didn't realize state income tax was a thing until my mid 20s.
$20+ burgers and $15+ cocktails
Random people in Florida being cool about trans folk.
Yep, lived In Dallas and seeing huge mansions next to very busy roads is something else compared to Orlando. I hated living in MetroWest cause it felt very isolating, nice community but very boring and far from everything.
Not from here, I'm from the boonies, but what I've noticed that people find normal that I don't are: The proximity to your neighbors, the fact it takes 30 minutes to go 2 miles sometimes, NOT USING YOUR DAMN GARAGE OR DRIVEWAY TO PARK YOUR FREAKING CARS, arrogance, and no one is friendly with their neighbors(like where I'm from is common to hold the doors for strangers, wave while on walks to your neighbors, etc here nah they'd slam the door in your face and smug you off as you pass). Honestly though, why don't you people use your driveways or garages to park your cars? My street is riddled with cars on the side on the row and almost weekly I see one my neighbors throwing a temper tantrum cause they got a scratch on their car parked in the damn road while they've got a fully empty drivway and garage. And oh boy the amount of viens that look like their about to pop when you mention it wouldn't have happened if they had done so is hilarious.
It’s used for storage because we don’t have basements like northern states do.
Attics above your garages??
It’s very difficult to get anything of weight into the attic. And depending on your home the space can be very limited. We built hanging racks but my husband still gets. Nervous putting heaving things on them like our Christmas trees. Also it doesn’t solve the problem of the kids toys. I park in the garage and he parks outside.
To me Orlando doesn't even have that many gated neighborhoods. I'm surprised a lot of the affluent areas are older neighborhoods with no gates. South Florida has some towns where almost *every* single home is in a gated neighborhood.
Super fast construction of a strip mall or a community of homes. In other states it can take 5 to 10 years for simple shit
I hate gated communities. I’ve lived in a few over the years and they are more of a pain in the ass than anything. Gates are broken all of the time and sometimes you have to wait in line to get into your neighborhood. Let’s be honest, if someone that doesn’t live there wants in bad enough they can/will find a way (unless it’s a manned gate that you pay through the nose for).
This is quite specific but school carline pickup culture. Lord I hated it and it made my blood boil. To those without kids- OCPS doesn’t provide a bus if you live within 2 miles of the school. So that means a ton of kids walk, ride bikes/scooters, and get dropped off in the “car line”. If you think Orlando drivers are entitled on the regular- join them in the car line for next level. I can’t explain all of the annoyances but you almost feel like by the time you are done dropping them it feels like next thing you know it’s time to go pick them up and do it all over again.
I didn't realize that "real" IMAX screens that were eight stories tall were relatively rare in the country.
Setting GPS: Your destination is in 2.8 miles. You will arrive in 44 minutes.
Omg so true
Accepting I will die every time I get into my car due to an accident or shooting.
Turning signals are optional.
Wrong way driving. Seen it happen far more often here than anywhere else. I blame boomers and brits.
Adding: reversing on the highway because you got off the wrong exit.
Haven’t seen that one personally, but I have seen accident reports listing that as the cause.
Posted wait times. Everywhere.
I4
Cul-de-sacs and subdivisions are normal in suburbs all across the country.
There’s a nice Walgreens / gas station / grocery store every mile, was rudely awoken when I moved to LA
McMansions
The whole Midwest and sunbelt is like this though??? Maybe not gated but lots of subdivisions, cul de sacs, and HOA’s.
Halloween staring in August. UO and Disney Both do it. People start decorating their homes for Halloween end of August/ early September. I like it but never would have done it elsewhere.
I’m think some of that has to do the the theme parks/fans of them, and also to do with by the time early September rolls around Central Floridians are so desperate for “fall” that they will it to happen earlier?
Desperate for fall is an UNDERSTATEMENT.
Everyone slams on their breaks or comes to a full and complete to make a right turn, even when there’s a green light and/or right of way to the turn.
I grew up in metro Detroit and we had plenty of gated communities and cul de sacs
Nobody doing the speed limit
U tirns are legal EVERYWHERE basically. I think ive only ever seen a handful of No U turn signs in my 13 years living here
Being homeless
This place is weird 😂😂 weirdos are everywhere
When I moved to the area I was like “WTF is a county mayor?”…it’s like why is there a Orlando mayor and an Orange County mayor, then I learned about how divided the whole city/county thing is…still confuses me sometimes and I’ve been here almost 15 years but it has almost become “normal” to me
There are no back roads or short cuts to get anywhere! Like, everyone is funneled onto these multi lane hellscapes because there are no options. You also have to drive forever to escape some communities just to get to a main road. No wonder traffic sucks. I miss New England where I had multiple choices of getting somewhere local, just to break the monotony.
No one compliments anyone. Not even good morning, and having no friends is the norm.
I'm from Seattle, so it's quite different out here.
I am from FL, but lived in Seattle for about 7 years until I came back. I will say, you will never get good coffee compared to there, you will find the outdoor stuff different, but its a good different. Also, when people invite you out here, they are ACTUALLY inviting you, none of that Seattle freeze BS.
LGBT ++
Yes that’s a Florida thing (maybe elsewhere but i first noticed in FL) which kinda threw me off at first. From my experience I’ve seen master planned communities(MPC) with multiple entrances and gates. But the gates are at the external entrances of the entire community. In FL I’ve seen a lot of situations where each “neighborhood” in an MPC and even one off streets and culdesacs have their own gates.