I-4

[pineranch]

Visiting son in Tampa. Went to ball game Wide World of Sports Sat. and gun show at fairgrounds Sun.
All I can say to you folks that MUST travel on I-4 in Tampa/Orlando area, may God bless you and watch out for you.
Never again for me.
Mike

[nosticks]

Pretty miserable isn't it.

[richfaa]

We winter at Exit 55 I-4.I-4 is a nightmare. Full of tourist on GPS who have no idea were they are. Native Florida drivers who follow as close as they can, change lanes were there is no room to change and drive as fast as they can. I-4 is I think the worst road we have seen anywhere. We avoid it like the plague.

[Phil P]

richfaa

You have that wrong. The native drivers aren’t the problem. It’s the transplants that create the problem. Less than 10% of the drivers in Florida are Florida natives. LOL

Phil P

[richfaa]

quote:Originally posted by Phil P

richfaa

You have that wrong. The native drivers aren’t the problem. It’s the transplants that create the problem. Less than 10% of the drivers in Florida are Florida natives. LOL

Phil P

You do have a point there Phil. We have been all over the country and I-4 ranks right up there with nasty roads. We have folks passing on the berm on the right at 70MPh or better. The road is a constant demolition derby. It is worse in the area of all the attractions.

[Phil P]

richfaa

I agree with that you don’t see that kind of driving often.

It’s even worse on the English motor ways around London. LOL

Phil P

[Tom S.]

Come to Michigan! With all the potholes we have this year, there's talk of lynching the governor. It's great for mixing Martini's though because they're shaken, not stirred.

[DQDick]

What I can't understand is why after you drive I-4, with or without a trailer behind you, people still feel the need to spend a poop load of money for amusement park rides. Why pay to get scared when the opportunity is available for free.

[Art-n-Marge]

I've been on I-4 in Florida and yes, it is BAD even when not trailering. Unfortunately, I drive many roads in the L.A., California area and they are like that too! What's worse in L.A. in that they do NOT widen the overall width of the road, but have added one or two lanes so that each lane is about 11 or 12 ft wide in an effort to handle more traffic. Couple that with the rotten conditions of the roads and driving next to other trailer drivers or semi-truck trailers or other large vehicles and it's not only claustrophic you must also stay highly concentrated to stay centered in the lane or you run the risk of sideswiping. I can't imagine what all you open-roaders could be thinking. It will add some stress when driving and add to the fatigue when there is no stop and go traffic and the speeds are fast so please be careful out there. Somehow in stop and go when traffic is crawling, the amount of vehicles don't seem as bad while driving, so it's a different type of stress.

[Phil P]

quote:Originally posted by Art-n-Marge

I've been on I-4 in Florida and yes, it is BAD even when not trailering. Unfortunately, I drive many roads in the L.A., California area and they are like that too!

Hi

Agreed

But I didn’t mention any names that mite rile up a lynch mob. LOL

Phil P

[richfaa]

We have also driven on the CA interstates abound LA many times. It is also a nightmare.

[Art-n-Marge]

Phil P, there's a difference between fact and opinion. Lynching me about facts just means the mob is a bunch of morons who have never been on the Southern California roads (thanks to Rich for substantiating my post except it is L.A. - Los Angeles, not LA -Lousiana). I didn't like I-4 in Florida, but at least my claustrophobia wasn't challenged. Come to think of it, Louisiana has it's share of rotten roads (like most of I-10).

The only state tax money increases being voted "yes" on in California are road improvement, education or medical, but somehow these funds always seem to cover prisons, undocumented person benefits and lawmaker's pockets. Now that's my opinion. But the facts are, that the roads are getting worse, our schools keep making deep cuts and I still pay too much for medical so where is this money going?

[richfaa]

My first experience with California freeways was my first trip into LAX and a rent a car to the Westwood Campus of UCLA for a seminar. White knuckle all the way. As for I-10 in Louisiana I swear I will go around that State rather than drive that road again as it nearly shook the 06 3400 apart.

[washley1]

Listen, I have been driving on I4 since it was brand new in 1965, and it has always been a challenge. When the snowbirds come down, even worse. But at least it is a well maintained horror. When we hit California in 2012 I was shocked to see that many of the major highways had not seemed to see any maintenance since about 1970! I swear some of the pot holes on Highway 99 were there when I was first stationed there in 1968!

[richfaa]

You are correct I-4 is a well maintained interstate. It is also the East/West interstate between Tampa and Orlando. It is heavily trafficked all the time. It is particularly heavy from about Exit 55 on into Orlando because of all the attractions and tourist. We are here in October before the major Snowbird traffic and it is still really bad. Now we have the snowbirds starting to head back North and we can add Rv's of all sizes and to the mess. The traffic still moves good as anywhere there is room to do 80MPH if only 100 feet the Florida plates are doing it. If there is any room at all between you and the vehicle in front of you the Florida plates trying to get into it. We are now driving the back roads to work at Disneyworld.

The two major problems are the out of town tourist on GPS not knowing where they are and jockeying for position to exit as the GPS is telling then to do and the GPS will put them on I-4 no matter where they are going. Florida also has very aggressive drivers. Weaving in and out of traffic at 70/80 MPH seems to be a major sport. It is very interesting driving I-4.

tell you what tho the big F-350 Dually 6.4 Diesel has a lot of get up and went. I normally need to get up to 80/90 MPH when exiting out of exit 62(the Disney exit) to get into a hole I have picked out of the Westbound stream of traffic. Fun....

[JandC]

I totally agree with I-4 being bad. But really any congested area of Florida is bad. Last week I had a old pickup (ladder racks and rust) cut me off on Summerlin Road in Ft. Myers. I didn't think anything of it since there are tons of aggressive drivers with Florida plates in the Ft. Myers Beach area. But then he switched lanes, slowed down, got beside me, and started yelling out his window "go back to Illinois you fxxxx.....". He has been the worse so far but we have seen plenty of cars and motorcycles passing on the shoulders and doing other stupid stuff and they have all been Florida registered vehicles. Have witnessed 3 accidents in 3 months in this area and again, all the vehicles we could see were all Florida vehicles.

[nosticks]

JandC, sometimes we have to apologize for our local toothless inbread residents for their lack of manners. He was probably just admiring your truck for it's lack of rust. At least he didn't toss a beer can at you.

[pineranch]

Having been an Illinois resident for over 50 years, now a Florida panhandle resident, my guess is they saw the Illinois plates and thought he was another Chicago Democrat. Visit the panhandle, we treat everyone the same.
Mike

[washley1]

Dont let the plates fool you. Too many of our drivers are just transplanted Yankees!

[richfaa]

Right and every rent a car has Florida Plates.