Watch: Traffic lights a headache for Lee Road drivers

WINTER PARK, Fla. — Winter park drivers say it takes too long to get onto Interstate 4 from Lee Road in Winter Park because the traffic lights don’t change fast enough.

Drivers told Channel 9's Racquel Asa that the stretch of Lee Road between Interstate 4 and U.S. Route 1792 can be stop-and-go the whole way.

There are three traffic lights in a 500-foot stretch of Lee Road. Officials with the I-4 Ultimate project have changed the times at the two of the lights, but the one at Wymore and Lee roads is the one that has drivers seeing red.

“The traffic lights are set to the best optimal use of the traffic signals. Anytime you take time away from one direction, you add it to another direction,” said Dave Parks, a spokesman for the I-4 Ultimate project.

So drivers who get on Interstate 4 have to wait longer than drivers who get off the interstate.

“The priority is getting people off I-4 from the eastbound and westbound directions. So if we had to choose between the two, we're going to make sure we can keep I-4 moving before we have additional traffic onto I-4,” Parks said.

I-4 Ultimate officials told Eyewitness News that it will be some time before significant improvements are made to the intersection to handle the traffic.

They said it'll at least be a year before more lanes are added to Lee Road.

Part of the project will add additional turn lanes at the Lee Road ramps coming off Interstate 4 and new traffic signals that can better communicate with each other.

Cox Media Group