GrayWolfNOrlando's Blog

When travelling  major roads here in Central Florida, whether it be I-4, I-95, Beechline,  when coming up on exit ramps and a driver sees those large signs hanging over the road way, there's one in bright yellow  that says "Exit Only" whether it be in the far right lane or far left lane.  What does that mean? Does it mean it's the only exit for that particular direction and that lane doesn't end. I think not. The sign means you must exit, but I guess people need to have it spelled out for them.  I was on I-4 earlier today and I was in the 3rd right lane of 4 lanes and almost got taken out because the driver that was suppose to exit at the last second decided to switch lanes into the lane I was in.  It wasn't like he didn't have enough time to make his mind up. There were two signs over the road indicating this, exit only with an arrow below it.  I guess people now days are oblivious to things beyond the boundries of their vehicles.  The driver of this vehicle did have Orange County tags on his vehicle. Needless to say, I was just a bit ticked off because I have no idea how the driver behind me kept from rear ending me. But I see this just about every day.

I was out yesterday with the family and was exiting my subdivision from the back end onto Apopka-Vineland Road.  As I made my turn onto this road, I noticed a road construction sign, in my opinion, if no work is going on at the time, signs should be turned around or layed down, but any way, I noticed that there is repaving being done to Apopka-Vineland Road. Why I ask? The entire road has either been repaved or has been widened to 4 lanes in the last couple of years. There is nothing wrong with this road, no pot holes, no ruts, absolutely nothing wrong with this road.  Now if they wanted to repave something, it should be Dr Phillips Blvd., but then there's really nothing wrong with this road either except for the patch up work due to excessive watering of the road way by sprinklers. This repaving of Apopka-Vineland road is a waste of tax payer dollars for unecessary road work.

i was on I-4 today for the first time in months and as I was jumped on I-4 West heading towards Tampa, I noticed a sign that stated  "No Trucks In Left Lane For The Next 60 Miles". Now, I was outside of Lakeland where the speed limit is 70mph and I got behind a car pulling a trailer doing 50mph in the left lane. The state of Florida should had gone a step further and prohibited vehicles with six wheels or more from using the left lane. This includes vehicles pulling trailers, boats and so on. I find it's not so much the 18 wheelers holding up traffic in the left lane it's cars and pickups pulling a trailer. If you're going to ban a large truck from using the left lane, then you ban all vehicles pulling trailers, boats and so on from using the left lane.

Over the last several years, there's been postings on the internet including the one a few weeks ago to boycott big oil for one day because of the high prices.  Now, I for one believe that this wouldn't effect oil companies at all because it's for one day. But, if everyone and I mean everyone from coast to coast would boycott the same oil company for 30 days starting  with Exxon/Mobil on June 15, 2007. The reason I say Exxon is that they are making huge profits at the expense of the consumer. The other companies are making profits too, but nothing like Exxon. If no one is buying gas from Exxon/Mobil, prices would have to come down. Then on July 15, boycott Shell for 30 days and on August 15 boycott BP for 30 days and so on. I think it's time that consumers start banding together to combat high gas prices.  One day boycotts aren't going to work, but a 30 day boycott of one, maybe two oil companies for 30 days may just get their attention.

I would like to know, if you are driving on a four lane road and you are going the speed limit and passing slower vehicles that are in the right lane, where is it written that the driver in the slow lane can turn on their turn signal indicator and just switch lanes right in front of the vehicle passing causing that driver to hit the brakes and cause a rear end collision. I see this all too often here. This happened to me today where I almost got rear ended becuae I was less than a car length from the car switching lanes and the driver had one of those convex mirors on the outside mirror so he had to know I was there. I talked to a friend of mine who is a native of Florida and he said I would of been at fault if there had been an accident. If this is true then this law needs to be changed.

With all the complaining of energy consumption in this country, price of gas at the pumps & so on, why hasn't someone in the State or Local Government haven't come up with a plan to time traffic lights. Yeah, a few months ago, County Commissioners were going to pay a consulting firm big bucks to study traffic problems on Conroy-Windemere Rd by the Millinia Mall. You don't need to be a Rocket Scientist or pay some firm to figure out the problem. It's the traffic lights. Not a one is in sequence with the other. You catch one you catch them all. Same with Sand Lake Rd at I-4. And there are others. 436 and I-4 in Altamonte Springs, S.R 414 in Seminole County. I've called numerous times wanting to complain about the situation on Sand Lake Rd and I-4 but no one returns my calls. Typical of the Local Government. They don't care. Problem on Sand Lake Rd is, if you're travelling on I-4 East and want to get off at Sand Lake Rd & make a right turn you aren't permitted to make a right turn on red, even with the short exit ramp, But if you're travelling West on I-4 getting off at Sand Lake Rd. one is permitted to make a right turn on red even with a mile long exit ramp. The problem here is that people are making right turns on red blocking the travel lanes of Westbound Sand Lake Rd. by people wanting to make an immediate left onto Turkey Lake Rd. The other problem is from International Dr to Turkey Lake Rd. there is 4 traffic lights within a half mile of each other & not a one is in sequence. Common sense would tell someone in charge of this mess, to keep traffic moving, traffic lights need to be in sequence. Could this be why so many people in Central Florida run so many traffic lights.

I thought the purpose of these electronic boards were to inform a driver of road conditions and or traffic accidents on the expressways. I really don't care how long it's going to take me to get from the East/West Expressway to Sand Lake Rd. on I-4. I want to know where the traffic accidents are so a driver can avoid the mess. A week or so ago I got caught in one of the biggest parking lots on I-4 East bound between the Bee Line and Sand Lake Rd and the electronic board was giving the travel times to the main routes through Orlando. If I recall correctly it stated the travel time to the 408 was 10 miles with a travel time of 11 minutes but here I was stopped on I-4 halfway between the Bee Line and the Sand Lake Rd exit ramp where it took me almost 20 minutes to travel one mile. It's apparent that if there was an accident, that accident didn't just occur at that particular time when I was stopped. Now, if the people in charge of this electronic board system can't operate it right, then why was this put in. Of what I have seen with it, it's not being utilized right. At times I've seen them not even on. My opinion, if these devices aren't going to used right, then get rid of the people and put someone in there that will, but that's just my opinion.