One aspect of buying a vacation place in Florida that I haven’t discussed yet is the importance understanding nearby traffic. It’s a real consideration. Many of the most popular spots in Florida (or California) are jammed with traffic during snowbird season or in the summer.
I was shocked to learn what a big consideration it is back in 2014. We stayed in Cape Coral, Florida, and wanted to go to the beach in Fort Myers. Our MapQuest app – yes, MapQuest! – said it was a 9 mile drive, but it would take 90 minutes!
I thought the app was completely inaccurate when we left. It couldn’t possibly be that bad. Then, sure enough, it took us the whole 90 minutes to get over the one single lane bridge that connected the mainland to Fort Myers Beach.
I could tell the same traffic jam story about Clearwater Beach, Sanibel Island, or Siesta Key. Traffic is a problem for most beachy places in the Sunshine State – although the Atlantic Coast beaches in FL are noticeably better than the Gulf Coast.
The metro areas aren’t much better. We’ve been stuck on interstates in Miami, Tampa, Sarasota/Bradenton, and Orlando. Our new place is in the hated “I-4 Corridor” which stretches from Disney World to Universal Studios to Downtown Orlando. I-4 is intersected by the equally jammed Highway 192, which is famous only for its stoplights, fast food places, tourist traps, and giant mermaid architecture.
Related: Life Caught In Traffic
If you look at Google Maps, these areas light up as red as a fire truck much of the day. Still, while we are in the heart of the motoring mess, our new vacation town of Celebration is easy to get in and out of, thanks to being part of the “Disney Bubble”.
You see, when Disney designed Celebration in the early 1990s, part of their motivation was to get a big new shiny interchange for their Main Gate on I-4 and the new tollway 417 leading to the airport. They announced Celebration as a reason for twisting on & off ramps in the most advantageous way to help their growing parks & resorts.
As a result, Disney’s World Drive – which starts at the Magic Kingdom itself – ends right at the front door to Celebration. It’s a big, 3-4 lane thoroughfare with no stop lights for the 8 mile ride between the two. While tourists are stuck trying to get onto jammed Hwy 192 or I-4, Celebration residents happily zip by in the fast lane at almost any hour.
In addition, the East side of Celebration is a key entry/exit for the airport toll road. Disney somehow got the state to route it directly into Celebration. The wooded and unassuming entrance ramp is just a block from the old-fashioned, Celebration Water Tower.
There are other ways to get around the area from within the Disney transportation bubble. Walt Disney World is 43 square miles – that’s as big as San Francisco, Paris, or Barcelona. It has five gates that connect it with the rest of the Orlando Metro area. We often drive straight through the Disney World gates on our way to somewhere else.
We have stayed at more than a dozen Florida cities over the last 20 years. We’ve spent enough time in each to get a good sense of the traffic patterns. I think the way that Disney set up Celebration, makes it very unique in the state and a great place for our new place!
How much of a challenge is traffic congestion in your corner of the world?
Images: (c) MrFireStation; Celebration; Google Maps
MrFireStation 
I have lived in the Los Angeles area since 1986. When I first moved here, I had to make sales calls down in San Diego. I would leave at 6:00 AM and get down there in time to eat breakfast by 7:30 AM. There was a strip between San Juan Capistrano and Oceanside that went through Camp Pendleton and we all called it the California Autobahn where everyone used to drive 90 back when the national speed limit was 55. One morning when I was tired and overshot my stop on the 815 and the sign read something along the lines “Mexico – next exit”.
And then Orange County, especially around the Irvine ‘planned’ community and the interior of San Diego County along the 815 got over developed without building any discernable new highways. My son went to UCSD between 10 – 5 years ago, and there was always construction taking place on the 5, so the trip almost always was a miserable 4 hour drive. These ‘planned’ communities already knew what happens when you build a lot of homes without building more freeways. All they had to do is look north to Los Angeles. It used to take an hour to get from Huntington Beach to Santa Ana at the John Wayne Airport, which was around 10 miles. What were the morons thinking who planned these ‘planned’ cities.
I also saw a lot of tearing down of single family homes on large lots and low density commercial buildings such a sound stages to put up huge multi-family apartments and condos. They did put some bus lines and subways. However, those are frequented by the homeless.
My family went to the Orange County Performing Arts Center on January 30th to see K.C. & The Sunshine Band perform. I was expecting a horrible at least two hour drive. I turns out that they had recently completed a Toll Lane that runs along side the 405. The toll lane cut my drive time down to an hour. So if you are willing to pay, you can get there fast.
This is where this gets dark. Check out the World Economic Forum with the lower lip hanging down, drooling fool Klaus Schwab and his cronies calling for 15 minute cities. The idea is get everyone to live in a 15 minute city that will consist of nothing but multi-family housing and people are will be able to get all their needs (not really) met within a 15 minute bike ride or walk. This is the thinking that goes into building without a commensurate increase in highway traveling capacity. This is the condition in many parts of the world.
People seem to be coming to their senses. This morning there was news release about the CEO of Hertz who went full Blackrock to switch their fleet to EVs, having to resign because of all the money he lost.
https://nypost.com/2024/03/18/business/hertz-ceo-stephen-scherr-resigns-after-big-bet-on-evs-goes-bust/
I have encountered some horrible traffic in Florida, such as 20 minutes to exit the freeway when going to an event at Gulfstream. The Atlantic side was developed before the Gulf side, so it must have already gone through its growing pains and increased the road carrying capacity and is past the rampant growth phase.
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The toll lanes make a big difference. I’m not sure how much we’ve spent on tolls since we got here in January, but I’ll gladly pay every chance I get. I also like the idea that the users of the toll road are exclusively obligated to pay for it.
Toll lanes are a big part of their I-4 corridor solution. They have one working near downtown Orlando, they are under construction to Universal, and just approved $ to take it past Disney. That will be terrific.
I’ll have to read about 15 minute cities. It’s a compelling name, but if it came from the WEF, it likely has a huge dose of government tyranny.
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