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I too live in the Orlando area and the rottenness is far worse than most people realize. The root of the I-4 mess is that Orlando's business leaders got LBJ to change the intended route from west of Orlando to go directly through downtown, thereby isolating the nearby Black area from the central business district and connecting downtown to Seminole County to the north in order so spur real estate development there.

For similar business reasons, Orlando's real estate interests and Disney blocked various mass transit initiatives and used their influence over the local quasi-independent Expressway Authority to provide road service to development projects outside the urban core. The result was many fortunes from real estate development -- and local governments now ravenously hungry for ever more cash to deal with road and infrastructure backlogs to service those far flung developments.

The area on I-4 once you pass Princeton leading up to and past Colonial going west/Michigan to Fairbanks going east drive was designed purposefully to be a bottleneck to steer people into using the toll which is the “cost of doing business”. Just shook my head when I heard that from a city worker who is “up there” in position. Even on Saturday and Sunday it gets backed up which was never an issue before "the enhancements".

Also they make it confusing, on purpose again, for unsuspecting drivers to accidentally get on the turnpike after John Young or Kirkland via from the toll. Double-back from the mistake cost around $25 dollars. Really shady stuff due to the fact it was designed to do so.

Could have easily just added 4 lanes or a toll way but without the bottlenecks.