News 6 traffic safety expert Trooper Steve Montiero answers viewer questions about the rules of the road, helping Orlando-area residents become better drivers by being better educated.
News 6 viewers asked Trooper Steve if there was there anything illegal about people stopping on the side of the highway.
[READ MORE: ASK TROOPER STEVE | WHAT THE HONK]
Here is what Trooper Steve had to say:
Parking or stopping along any limited access highway like SR-528 or I-95 is considered illegal unless it’s an emergency.
A lot of this is because of the speeds and mass amount of vehicles that are on the roadway so it could be potentially dangerous to stop along the road. But when you get closer to the Cape things become more residential and it does become a main road for a local area.
Just east of SR-401 on the north and south shoulders of the roadway there is an area where people do enjoy to pull over and hang out by the water.
This is a parking area, however, during SpaceX’s initial launch attempt there was an excessive amount of vehicles in the area.
This led not only to a double row of parking but up to a fifth row of parking.
The parked cars caused large slowdowns on the roadway to points where traffic was stopped because of other vehicles trying to travel onto the shoulder. Remember this was just in this area.
The slowdown resulted in huge delays once the launch was scrubbed and up to a three hour travel time from Cape Canaveral to Orange County.
Keep in mind, parking along any limited-access highway is against the law. Not only for your safety but for others.
If you plan on looking for a place to watch the launch, remember you don’t need to fight the traffic when you have us. Seriously, we have 20 cameras you can pick from at clickorlando.com/watchparty.