Routing around Orlando Rush Hour Traffic

[tigger1972]

Does anyone have a great alternative to driving on I4 thru orlando in the event of bad traffic?

We are from Richmond, VA, and were making GREAT time on our trip to WDW right until the moment we hit Orlando. Our minivan has real-time FM traffic and I watched our arrival time literally increase by 40 minutes, right as we approached Orlando, due to a combination of rush-hour traffic and 2 accidents.

Up to that point, we had only been driving 11 hrs 45 minutes, and our 10 mo old was doing great! When we hit the stop-and-go traffic for 45+ minutes, DD got more and more upset. I tried everything to console her, but she finally "lost it" and got soooo upset, she literally threw up all over herself and totally soaked her carseat, right as we hit the exit to WDW!!

It made for a very tough start to our vacation. She was literally soaked through- clothes, hair, carseat, everything just covered in a yucky mess. Fortunately, we stayed in a 2BR at BCV with a washer/dryer.

Does anyone have a better alternative if this happens in the future? We were afraid to use the reroute function on our GPS. It was a brand new car for us, and we were uncomfortable the GPS may route us into a bad area of town, as we know nothing about the city of Orlando.

Thanks!!!

-April

 

[sharadoc]

Yes, you want to use Route 417, Central Florida Greenway. It's the greatest!

It's a toll road that you pick up WAY before you hit Orlando, then you can exit right at Disney World. It's wonderful - no traffic to speak of vs. TONS of cars in Orlando.

You need about $7.00 in tolls, and I recommend getting rolls of quarters so you can go through the exact change lanes, rather than go to a person in a toll booth.

I don't have them in front of me now, but hopefully tomorrow I'll get you the exact exit off I-4.

I also recommend using the second Disney Exit, rather than the Downtown Disney one - no matter where you're staying. The lights cause a lot of bumper to bumper traffic and you have to make a left onto Hotel Boulevard which is pretty annoying. If you take the second WDW exit, you go in the main entrance with the big sign.

On a side note, we also love using 295 around Jacksonville. It's much calmer.

 

[dudspizza]

something like this.. you pick it up near Sanford way north of Orlando..... it ends up being more mileage, but is way faster...

a larger picture can be viewed here http://www.terrificfloridarealestate.com/

 

[seashoreCM]

Toll 417 (Greene's Way) is clearly marked after you get off I-95 onto I-4 and long before you get to Orlando. It's named either Airport or Tamps, I forget which. It takes you around the horn south of the (MCO) airport. Past the airport, get off 417 at the exit labeled 535 or 536 (It's labeled just one or the other but serves both routes and you want to follow the 536 signs thereafter.

Note that some toll plazas require that you take an "exit ramp" to pay tolls in cash, then you merge back on. EZ-passes used on the northeast toll roads and bridges are not honored.

Route 536 corresponds to the second (Epcot) exit off I-4 to dISNEY. (535 is the first when coming from the north)

 

[IlovePiglet]

417 is a favorite for us locals, too. So much better than I-4.
But anyway
The Disney exits are exit 6 and exit 3. Exit 6 is the 536/535 exit, no ramp toll on that one. Exit 3 is Osceola Parkway. That one does have a ramp toll, .50 I believe, at the end of the ramp you'll take a right onto Osceola Parkway then straight into Disney property.
All the major Disney entrances have archways welcoming you so you'll know when you arrive

 

[jpeppers]

I am blown away when I read about Orlando traffic. I will be on my 13th trip this year and have never faced anything that I considered traffic (and often drive to Tampa). I live in the Seattle area and it is a nightmare compared to Orlando and the traffic stretches from Olympia to Everett (probably about 80 miles). I love driving in Orlando!

 

[goofy4tink]

I am blown away when I read about Orlando traffic. I will be on my 13th trip this year and have never faced anything that I considered traffic (and often drive to Tampa). I live in the Seattle area and it is a nightmare compared to Orlando and the traffic stretches from Olympia to Everett (probably about 80 miles). I love driving in Orlando!

I've been in Seattle traffic..you're right, it's no fun. Much better to take my brother's boat down from Everett. As long as there's room to dock the boat anyway.
The Orlando rush time traffic can be a nightmare. I've been in it and was quite happy I was in a Mears vehicle and not driving myself. I will be driving this coming spring though. I'll keep 417 in mind when we land at Sanford and head to US/IoA. Thanks.

 

[bumbershoot]

I am blown away when I read about Orlando traffic. I will be on my 13th trip this year and have never faced anything that I considered traffic (and often drive to Tampa). I live in the Seattle area and it is a nightmare compared to Orlando and the traffic stretches from Olympia to Everett (probably about 80 miles). I love driving in Orlando!

We were only in rush hour traffic in Orlando once, and I totally agree with you! We thought "oh yeah, rush hour, well add a few minutes" and that was the only worry we had.


OP, I would make a bet that your daughter had a problem with the start/stop of the traffic. So I'm not 100% sure that getting on a toll road, where you're going then stopping and going and stopping, would be the absolute best idea.


I *would* highly recommend getting a really good map of the area. We had a GPS and it was nearly useless in the WDW area. It would route us some way, we'd do it, then a day or so later we'd be off to another place and see where we had been, and realize that there was a MUCH better way of getting there. I mean, Whole Foods is RIGHT near Universal, but GPS just wanted to take me on side streets instead of hopping up I-4 for a few miles... A proper map would have helped with all of that.

With a really good map, and perhaps a peek at city-data dot com to see if anyone mentions bad areas of Orlando, you could route yourself on the non-highway streets.

 

[NotUrsula]

The problem in Orlando on I-4 isn't really rush hour per se -- it is wrecks &/or breakdowns. Because of the volume of traffic and the way that the highway is built, it is extremely difficult for emergency vehicles to get up there and clear out stoppage situations. Once a wreck or breakdown happens, it is almost guaranteed to cause a major jam at any time of day. (Also, there are a LOT of wrecks on I-4 in Orlando; many of them attributable to exhausted and/or confused tourists.)

The last time we got stuck on I-4 was on Christmas Day four years ago; we were headed from Universal to MCO at about 10 am. Two miles from the on-ramp traffic stalled because of a wreck, and I had to take the choice to either miss the flight or do a u-turn in the median and risk getting stuck in mud in the process. I figured that I would be stuck either way, so like dozens of other motorists, I went for it and did the huey. Thankfully we did not get stuck, and we made it to MCO via the land route in time to board the flight. (Of course, that was the year of the Xmas tornados, so we ended up sitting on the tarmac for two hours before we could depart, but that's another story.)

I second the suggestion to take 417, either when driving in from the NE, or when driving from MCO to WDW. (There are some other alternate routes when coming from different directions, including the Fl. Turnpike.) I-4 between Tampa and WDW is rarely a problem, the jams almost always seem to happen north of 192.

 

[tigger1972]

Thanks for all the input! I will definitely take your advice to avoid I4 through Orlando. We are also thinking about possibly staying overnight somewhere in Georgia/South Carolina to break up our 13 hr drive from Richmond to make it a little easier for the baby next time.

Thanks!
-April

 

[OrangeCountyCommuter]

And if there are two accidents on the Greenway....??

Honestly, OP just hit a bad day and there's no gurantee that ANY of the "alternate" routes would have helped when something like that happens. (The locals all know them)

I don't consider "rush" hour something Orlando has, but then I work in Southern California!

 

[NotUrsula]

And if there are two accidents on the Greenway....??

For the most part the Greenway has very little traffic at any time (probably because so many people are opposed to paying tolls), so it doesn't back up in the natural way of things, and it also is primarily a route that is on open ground and that has wide shoulders that allow plenty of room to move an accident out of the traffic lanes (unlike I-4 which has had as many lanes as humanly possible added to it, so that there is very little shoulder available for that purpose.)

PS: A survey published in September that rates traffic on total hours of delay per year rated Los Angeles worst at 70 hours, but Orlando was tied for 6th place (with San Jose and Dallas metro) at 53 hours.

 

[goofy4tink]

And if there are two accidents on the Greenway....??

Honestly, OP just hit a bad day and there's no gurantee that ANY of the "alternate" routes would have helped when something like that happens. (The locals all know them)

I don't consider "rush" hour something Orlando has, but then I work in Southern California!

You may not be the typical driver. Many, many guests that are driving around the WDW/Orlando area come from places that have nothing close to Orlando rush hour traffic. I deal with rush hour traffic here in Mass (128/Pike) around Boston...no, not the same as southern CA but pretty impressive none the less. I don't have a huge issue with the rush hour traffic in Orlando. But...when you don't know the area, you aren't familier with the exits, or potential trouble spots, then it's easy to get nervous. If you take someone from Idaho, who has never seen that many cars in one place, then to them, that rush hour traffic is going to be a nightmare. (I do apologize to those from Idaho for making the assumption that you have no busy highways..you probably do).

 

[sharadoc]

You may not be the typical driver. Many, many guests that are driving around the WDW/Orlando area come from places that have nothing close to Orlando rush hour traffic. I deal with rush hour traffic here in Mass (128/Pike) around Boston...no, not the same as southern CA but pretty impressive none the less. I don't have a huge issue with the rush hour traffic in Orlando. But...when you don't know the area, you aren't familier with the exits, or potential trouble spots, then it's easy to get nervous. If you take someone from Idaho, who has never seen that many cars in one place, then to them, that rush hour traffic is going to be a nightmare. (I do apologize to those from Idaho for making the assumption that you have no busy highways..you probably do).

Good point! We HATE I-4 because of the number of lanes, number of cars and idiots who drive there! So many locals combined with so many tourists who have no idea where they're going leads to very hairy moments on the road. Taking the Greenway is so much more relaxing and I don't feel like I'm going to be in an accident at every moment.

No offense, but there always seems to be the "you don't know about .... until you've seen what I've seen....." type responses to a thread like this. We appreciate that folks in major traffic areas don't mind Orlando traffic, but for us and many like us, we want to avoid ANY traffic. Don't put us down for feeling that way

I always want to help folks with their transportation questions, not make them feel like they shouldn't ask it in the first place! That's for other boards on the DIS. Here, we're friendly, helpful and inclusive at ALL times! And non-judgemental too!

 

[joelkfla]

I *would* highly recommend getting a really good map of the area. We had a GPS and it was nearly useless in the WDW area. It would route us some way, we'd do it, then a day or so later we'd be off to another place and see where we had been, and realize that there was a MUCH better way of getting there. I mean, Whole Foods is RIGHT near Universal, but GPS just wanted to take me on side streets instead of hopping up I-4 for a few miles... A proper map would have helped with all of that.

The GPS was right.

The westbound exit for Sand Lake Rd, which is where Whole Foods is at, has a very lon-n-n-ng off-ramp. The Universal entrances to I-4 come on after the Sand Lake off-ramp. You would have had to go several miles past Sand Lake, and then backtrack on a side road, anyway.

There was some controversy about this when the ramps were built. Locals complained that they could no longer use I-4 as a shortcut. DOT said, "Tough cookies!"; I-4 is for long trips, not short hops.

 

[seashoreCM]

The westbound exit for Sand Lake Rd, which is where Whole Foods is at, has a very lon-n-n-ng off-ramp. The Universal entrances to I-4 come on after the Sand Lake off-ramp. You would have had to go several miles past Sand Lake, and then backtrack on a side road, anyway..

This is not unusual where exits are close together. You have a situation where you can go from exit 1 to exit 3 and you can go from exit 2 to exit 4 but you cannot go from exit 1 to exit 2 or from exit 2 to exit 3.

This is done so you do not have an on ramp just before an off ramp causing lots of conflicts between cars getting on and cars getting off all in a very small area.

A similar situation exists between some although not all of the four consecutive I-4 exits near Disney: 192, Osceola, 536/Epcot and 535/Apopka/Hotelplaza.

 

[Lewisc]

I'm responding to this for the benefit of anyone who does a search. You have to decide if you're going to use your real time traffic.
PRO

1. You purchased traffic. Use it and possibly save time.

CON

1. Lag time of up to 20 minutes. In other words traffic could be bad but it might take 20 minutes until it shows up. Conversely traffic may be clear but it might take 20 minutes to show up. If the delay is shown in the next 5 miles (or so) and traffic is moving I'll usually assume the problem has already been solved.
2. GPS tends to underestimate delays from traffic lights on alternate route.
3. GPS might route on alternate routes which it doesn't have any traffic info (good or bad). In other words you might get routed onto a local road with worse traffic.

By the time I listed to my Garmin I was routed onto Orange Blossom Trial S to Central Florida Pwky (W) to Palm Pkwy S.

GPS said said I4 had multiple accident spots and was closed. Re-route didn't seem that quick but desk clerk in the hotel said I4 was much worse then normal. She said all their employees who live N were very late to work.

Had I believed my Garmin when it first complained of traffic I probably would have been routed as suggested by posters in this thread.

Does anyone have a great alternative to driving on I4 thru orlando in the event of bad traffic?

We are from Richmond, VA, and were making GREAT time on our trip to WDW right until the moment we hit Orlando. Our minivan has real-time FM traffic and I watched our arrival time literally increase by 40 minutes, right as we approached Orlando, due to a combination of rush-hour traffic and 2 accidents.

Up to that point, we had only been driving 11 hrs 45 minutes, and our 10 mo old was doing great! When we hit the stop-and-go traffic for 45+ minutes, DD got more and more upset. I tried everything to console her, but she finally "lost it" and got soooo upset, she literally threw up all over herself and totally soaked her carseat, right as we hit the exit to WDW!!

It made for a very tough start to our vacation. She was literally soaked through- clothes, hair, carseat, everything just covered in a yucky mess. Fortunately, we stayed in a 2BR at BCV with a washer/dryer.

Does anyone have a better alternative if this happens in the future? We were afraid to use the reroute function on our GPS. It was a brand new car for us, and we were uncomfortable the GPS may route us into a bad area of town, as we know nothing about the city of Orlando.

Thanks!!!

-April