ORLANDO, Fla. – Smooth, easy and painless: words you don’t normally associate with rush-hour traffic on I-4 through the Orlando area, but they accurately describe the drive on the new I-4 Express lanes Monday morning, drivers say.
Drivers said for the most part everyone followed the marked exit and entrance signs and traffic flowed smoothly.
[TRENDING: 101 mph driver among 77 ticketed in first weekend of I-4 Express opening, FHP says | Front coming to Central Florida. Here’s how it will affect the forecast | Become a News 6 Insider (it’s free!)]
One driver, Alicia Hage, said she was cut off when a car suddenly moved across four lanes of traffic to get onto the toll lanes. She slammed on her brakes.
" I almost got hit, someone veered off,” Hage said. “I was just driving, on my way to Disney and this car just swerves four lanes over and I slam on my brakes and I was like where is he going. And he’s going in the Express lanes. He wanted to get over.”
[RELATED: Ask Trooper Steve: Speed limits and the new I-4 Express lanes ]
Around noon Monday, a driver pulled over in the toll lanes in the center of I-4 for a medical emergency but paramedics responded quickly and placed a fire truck and ambulance to block one lane and tend to the driver. Meanwhile, traffic flowed by in the open lane.
FDOT trained for weeks on how to respond to emergencies in the Express lanes.
FHP said drivers were still speeding after a weekend of warnings and tickets. FHP Lt. Kim Montes said she pulled over a driver Monday morning doing 85 in the toll lanes where the speed limit is only 60 mph, the same as in the general lanes of I-4 through downtown Orlando.
The Express lanes are free until Thursday.