ORLANDO, Fla. — After Orange County's decision to suspend a sales tax initiative, Mayor Jerry Demings said the county simply can’t fix larger transportation projects with the lack of funds. 

He said that in the meantime, current tax funding will be used for smaller transportation projects within a five-year period, as part of an initiative called the "Accelerated Transportation Safety Program."

What You Need To Know

  • Orange County officials say current tax funding will be used for smaller transportation projects as part of the "Accelerated Transportation Safety Program"

  • They say about $45 million of the program's $100 million will go toward public transit, specifically for improvements to the Lynx bus system

  • Orange County Mayor Jerry Demings said the county has more than 240 projects in the works and that about 58 of those are in either the design or construction phase

About $45 million of the program's $100 million will go toward public transit, specifically for improvements to the Lynx bus system.

Resident Austin Mosby, who often uses Winter Park’s SunRail stop, said dedicating funds to public transit is a step in the right direction, but believes all public options need to be worked on, including SunRail.

“There needs to be more public support for that in order for it to work,” he said. “The way it is now, you have to imagine a better system, and if people don’t have that imagination, they’re not going to be able to see something better than what we have now.”

Lynx is set to see an improvement to five existing routes and 264 new bus shelters. Demings said the county will add more buses to run between job centers to help cut down on commute times.

“Many residents have said that’s a priority," he said.." It’s taking them too long to get to and from work."

Demings add that in the fall, leaders will look at ways to improve the commuter SunRail system.

Mosby said he hopes leaders look at ways for SunRail to operate on the weekends, and to make sure the Lynx bus system has offerings that benefit everyone.

“There’s a lot of fear of transit in Central Florida, because so few people use it here, and things that we don’t know can be scary,” he said. “But what we need to do is look at other cities and other places where transit works, where it makes people happy, where employees can take it and get to work on time.”

Mosby added that there are small but impactful ways the county can utilize these funds to ensure people want to use public transit.

“Keeping transit facilities clean and free of trash is really important,” he said. “We need to have trash cans to discourage people from just throwing their trash anywhere. They can at least be able to put it in the can. Nobody wants to wait at a train station where there is trash everywhere. So that’s something really basic, just better maintenance.”

Demings said the remaining $55 million in the program will be used for lighting sidewalks and safety projects.

He said the county has more than 240 projects in the works, and that about 58 of them are either in the design or construction phase.