Originally Posted By WireCoatHangerForAmy For the non Floridians who have driven around the greater Orlando area: Have you noticed something super remarkable ? Orlando must be one of the collision/car accident capitals of the USA. Car accident lawyer billboards are everywhere. OMG they are on every single blvd in the greater Orlando area, law firm after law firm and they are full sized. And many of the signs depict something close to this: A lawyer client/plaintiff smiling saying "Josh got me $580,000". Now I have talked with maybe 10 locals already about this phenomena but they see nothing noteworthy about it. I guess they have not been outside of Florida much. Yes, law firm signs are in other states too but Orlando and St Pete/Tampa take the cake.
Originally Posted By WireCoatHangerForAmy But seeing so much signage I can only guess car accident/injury is a huge industry in the Orlando and St Pete areas due to the sheer number of accidents. Countless foreigners and tourists drive on the roads and rain comes VERY VERY VERY hard, so hard wipers can't clear the windshield fast enough and creates slippery and dark conditions.
Originally Posted By fkurucz The real question is: does actual driving in Orlando seem any worse than in other cities? Maybe there are just a lot of ambulance chasers in Orlando
Originally Posted By WireCoatHangerForAmy My pet observation(not backed with any stats) is accidents are way more prevalent in the Orlando area compared to so many other parts of USA. I really think the weather and out of state drivers as well as undocumented(unlicensed) drivers from Caribbean and European car renters who don't know the roads well is the reason. Theory only and not backed with any studies to support it. Is Florida sue happy compared to other states? I can't say.
Originally Posted By WireCoatHangerForAmy Yes, Driving here in Orlando is really crazy compared to other places. Broken jeloppies from Caribbean immigrants on the road coupled with the Michigan licence plateted SUV who is about to miss his exit to 192 for magic kingdom cuts through lanes because it doesn't know the area. Happens all the time here. Accidents are crazy common on highway 4 and on the blvds
Originally Posted By RoadTrip I HATE driving in Orlando. Although we have driven to Florida the last three years when on vacation, once we are at our Disney Resort the car remains parked and we rely on Disney transit for everything. I'd rather drive in LA than in Orlando. In LA they all drive crazy fast, but at least they know how to drive.
Originally Posted By WireCoatHangerForAmy So I'm not the only one who has noticed the crazy driving. What a relief! I thought I was alone
Originally Posted By EighthDwarf I drive in Orlando a few times a year - I haven't noticed anything peculiarly bad about it compared to other places. There are some bad traffic areas in the south such as around DtD (with all of the construction right now), I-Drive at night, Florida Mall area, etc. But that can be said about most places. Not sure I've even seen an accident in Orlando...
Originally Posted By FerretAfros I would imagine it's partly (if not entirely) due to the huge number of tourists in the Orlando area. Whenever you're driving in an area you're unfamiliar with, you're more likely to change lanes, turn, or slam on the breaks suddenly. Roads are designed with this in mind for tourist areas, but there's only so much you can do. In an area like Orlando, where tourists outnumber locals in some areas (particularly near the theme parks), it's no surprise that there may be more accidents than elsewhere That said, I've seen no evidence to suggest that there are more collisions in Orlando than in similarly-trafficked areas. It could very well just be that there are more ambulance chasing lawyers there, which would explain all the billboards
Originally Posted By dagobert We've had a car for four days when we have been to Orlando earlier this year and driving was okay. It's just very slow and boring, even on the interstates. We noticed one accident and I think that happened, because in the US it is allowed to overtake on the right hand side. The car on the left touched the overaking car whille pulling into the right lane.
Originally Posted By Goofyernmost I've seen worse in many places, but, it is bad. I would be hard pressed to point fingers at tourists. They are usually the ones that are holding cars up by driving slower then the rest and causing locals to go so crazy that they end up doing some fairly dangerous things. Tourist add to the number of cars on the road, but, without them there would hardly be any on the roads at all, including locals. So, just drive defensively, expect the unexpected and don't let yourself get distracted. The craziest drivers that I have seen are mostly Disney Cast Members. I know that's what they were due to where they were either headed or coming from coupled with the roads that they were on. General tourists don't know anything about those roads. Now the dummy tourist that stops in the road to take a picture of the Welcome sign, well, you can't fix stupid.
Originally Posted By dagobert I'm not surprised that tourists cause many traffic problems. However, I din't find it that bad driving in the US, either it was in Chicago, Orlando or in some other cities. But I enjoy driving over here a lot more, since we can go a lot faster on the highways.
Originally Posted By hopemax In June, my Dad was taking us to the airport via the Turnpike. A car came to a dead stop in the middle lane, turned left, crossed 2 lanes in order to get the exit for the Turkey Lake Service Plaza. My Dad said he had never been so scared, and he's seen a lot of really bad tourist driver moves. ABS breaks are a good thing, but we were worried that the car behind wouldn't be able to stop in time.
Originally Posted By fkurucz >>My pet observation(not backed with any stats) is accidents are way more prevalent in the Orlando area compared to so many other parts of USA.<< After a quick looksie with Google I found that stats do NOT back up your observatrion.
Originally Posted By RoadTrip Yes, I would say driving in the Orlando area falls more in the incredibly frustrating category; not incredibly dangerous. The main problem is from tourists unsure of where they are going. They slow way down looking for street signs, make last minute lane changes, etc. Some of the most potentially dangerous situations I've seen are within WDW. People will suddenly notice the exit they want is right ahead and they will swerve across a couple of lanes of traffic to get there, often cutting right in front of a Disney Bus (which of course are everywhere). I hope Disney pays those bus drivers a ton of money because they really earn it!
Originally Posted By Goofyernmost Just for the record... no bus driver has ever been paid what they deserve. But, especially at Disney where people expect them to entertain them, come up with trivia, and run an obstacle course all at the same time. Nothing makes me angrier than to read a post by someone that is angry because all the driver did was drive. If he/she got you there safely, then that should be all you expect. Many cannot multi-task, are not comfortable with public speaking and are concentrating on the idiots out there that don't have a clue. If you get someone that is able to do all those things safely, then that was just a lucky day for you. It shouldn't be expected and that is why Disney installed the pre-recorded stuff so the drivers could concentrate on the job that they are paid to do.
Originally Posted By dagobert >>>Just for the record... no bus driver has ever been paid what they deserve. But, especially at Disney where people expect them to entertain them, come up with trivia, and run an obstacle course all at the same time.<<< We had an entertaining bus driver twice during our time at WDW. Once we were the only ones on board and he talked to us about Formula 1. The second time we were on our way back from the MK to the POR. The driver did some imitations and voice jokes, but I found them terrible. In my opinion he wasn't funny at all, but many enjoyed the jokes. I guess I'm not made for that kind of jokes, because I didn't like the entertainer at the POR River Roost Bar, I think his name was Bob, either. But he had a huge fanbase.
