Out of Union Park: Colonial, the 408 and the East Side Web
SR-50 through the middle, the SR-408 minutes south, SR-417 east: Union Park's commute is a corridor community's compensation — everything is a straight line from here.
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Union Park is a corridor community, and its commute is the corridor’s other side: what the strip takes in character it returns in connections. This is the practical map.
The straight lines
East Colonial Drive (SR-50) runs through the community — west to downtown Orlando, east toward Bithlo and the coast. The SR-408’s eastern end lies minutes south, the fast route downtown and to I-4. Dean Road and Rouse Road run north to the university area and University Boulevard; Alafaya Trail, at the greenway’s eastern end, is the north–south spine of the whole east side, with the SR-417 beyond it for the airport and the south. A Union Park resident’s route choice is rarely about distance; it is about which of four good options is moving.
The trail commute
Uniquely among this magazine’s suburban hubs, Union Park also offers a commute off the roads entirely: the Little Econ Greenway’s 7.4 paved miles run from Alafaya to Forsyth Road through the community, a genuine bicycle route across the east side. Not every suburb can offer its residents a river for a road. Union Park, quietly, can.
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