The Florida Highways Patrol is cracking down on drivers who violate the plastic pole partitions separating regular and express lanes on the I-95.
More patrol officers will be assigned to trap offenders. Those caught may face a $179 fine plus 3 points against their driver’s licenses.
Officers have said problems on I-95 in Miami-Dade usually start when one set of lanes is backed up and the other is free. Drivers who are stopped, whether in the express lanes or the free lanes, seize the opportunity to drive off into the other lanes, which sometimes leads to crashes.
The express lanes are being extended north from the Golden Glades interchange to Broward Boulevard in Fort Lauderdale, where 14,000 more poles with a sturdier design are being installed. In addition, the buffer between the express and free lanes is a little wider, which engineers believe will lead to fewer poles being hit.
The narrow shoulders in Miami-Dade mean if you are caught lane diving, state troopers usually have to follow you to either the Golden Glades park-and-ride lot or downtown Miami to find enough room to safely pull you over.
The campaign, called Drive Safe 95 Express, will continue through June.
