Central Florida/Tampa Bay: the capital of wrong way superhwy. driving? Why?

[ixnay]

It seems there is a lot of accidents lately on the superhighways of T/StPete and Orlando.

http://506sports.com/forum/index.php?topic=3523.1500 (registration required for that forum, and I post as "ixnay" on there as well) is a magnet for such reports.

What is it about the air in central FL that makes folk drive on the wrong carriageway?

ixnay

[DeaconG]

Snowbirds?

[xcellntbuy]

It seems there is a lot of accidents lately on the superhighways of T/StPete and Orlando.

http://506sports.com/forum/index.php?topic=3523.1500 (registration required for that forum, and I post as "ixnay" on there as well) is a magnet for such reports.

What is it about the air in central FL that makes folk drive on the wrong carriageway?

ixnay

It ain't just central Florida.  Try the wackjobs driving in south Florida.  Glad I do not drive there anymore.

[ixnay]

It seems there is a lot of accidents lately on the superhighways of T/StPete and Orlando.

http://506sports.com/forum/index.php?topic=3523.1500 (registration required for that forum, and I post as "ixnay" on there as well) is a magnet for such reports.

What is it about the air in central FL that makes folk drive on the wrong carriageway?

ixnay

It ain't just central Florida.  Try the wackjobs driving in south Florida.  Glad I do not drive there anymore.

Is this a major phenomenon somewhere besides Florida?

ixnay

[ixnay]

Snowbirds?

How can thawing out make someone drive weirdly?

ixnay

[jeffandnicole]

"Be careful Harold: the news said someone's driving the wrong way on the highway."

"No, Margretta, EVERYONE'S driving the wrong way!!!"

[cpzilliacus]

What is it about the air in central FL that makes folk drive on the wrong carriageway?

Drunk or impaired drivers? 

Or in some cases, (usually elderly) drivers with cognitive impairment (Alzheimer's disease or other forms of dementia) that should not be driving a motor vehicle.

[dfwmapper]

There were a lot of problems with wrong-way drivers on the Dallas North Tollway, enough that they actually studied the problem. Short answer is that almost all of them were drunk, and the solutions generally involved making it stupid obvious that you were driving the wrong way: additional signs, flashing LED lights around the wrong way signs, a curb to block left turns onto an exit ramp at a particularly bad location, reflective pavement markers that show red when going the wrong way, and better pavement marking on cross streets.

[Brian556]

Yap, I though of the Dallas North Tollway myself. These accident have happened regularly on other Dallas area freeways, too, but the Tollway has seen more than it's fair share.

They haven't come to a conclusion as to why the Tollway has more than it's fare share, but it does have a much narrower ROW, so drunk drivers might be more likely to confuse the frontage roads for regular city streets.

As far as I'm concerned, this and striking a house are inexcusable driving mistakes hat no one should make, and should result in permanent loss of license.

[FLRoads]

The ones that occurred earlier this year were both alcohol related, with the first wrong way driver purposely doing it as he had a death wish. The later ones were elderly. And of course all of these happened during late night or very early morning hours.

Of course their solution is to just put up larger WRONG WAY signage right at the on-ramp merges to the freeways. I happen to see two sets of these on Friday.

What no one has really pointed out is the origin of some of these wrong way drivers stems from Exit 275 (FL 56). I recently drove along that arterial and I could see why someone might (and I stress might) get confused and enter the freeway from the off-ramp.

https://goo.gl/maps/lLkdX

The turn lanes for I-75 south begin in advance of the first traffic signal which facilitates movement from the off-ramp. Even though there are signs posted at ground level and on the mast, someone might see those painted left turn arrows and conceivably make a left turn onto the off-ramp, traveling onto either the northbound lanes of I-275 or I-75. That is of course they are intoxicated or otherwise impaired and are not really paying attention to their surroundings.

[hotdogPi]

What about England?

[english si]

What about England?

We drive the right way (save The Savoy, and the occasional old person on the motorway)...