ORLANDO, Fla. — Jose Velazquez, an Uber driver, knows firsthand the dangers of wrong-way drivers. Three years ago, he caught one such driver on his dash camera as they were heading straight toward him on Colonial Drive.
“All of a sudden, not even thinking about it, I had to avoid what’s coming in front of me,” Velazquez said.
He reflects on that moment, still in disbelief.
“I’m still thinking about it, and either way you look at it, I don’t know if you believe in that, but it was not my time,” he said.
Velazquez spent seven years driving for Uber and Lyft, encountering several close calls, including seeing overhead signs warning of wrong-way drivers on the highway.
“It automatically gives you the red flag, like, ‘Oh no, that’s bad,’” he said.
That wrong-way detection system is expanding across the Central Florida Expressway Authority system, which includes State Road 408, State Road 417 and more.
To date, 66 sites are active, 38 are under construction and the remaining three sites are in the design phase. The ultimate goal is to have 100% coverage on all ramps.
Brian Hutchings from the Central Florida Expressway Authority explained that the system’s progress is on track. When asked when it would hit 100%, he replied, “We’re looking at early ’26, so just in about six months.”
The system, which has been in the works for over a decade, has already recorded more than 2,400 wrong-way drivers. Of those, 2,118 turned around before ever reaching the main highway.
“That’s 88% effectiveness of folks that were detected going the wrong-way and turned around. So that’s pretty good, but we’re aiming for 100%,” Hutchings said.
Last year, Channel 9 reported on a new feature: pavement lights that activate when a vehicle enters the wrong direction. According to CFX, wrong-way reports have already decreased on those ramps, signaling the system’s success.
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