Is Over!
Posted on 11/28/2014 6:07:01 AM PST by Tolerance Sucks Rocks
Welmoed Sisson’s drive between her northern Montgomery County home and her business clients across the Maryland suburbs often includes a trip on the Intercounty Connector, a toll highway with so little traffic that Sisson can’t recall ever tapping her brakes.
Almost 19 miles of pavement with no one in her way. Ever. Not even at rush hour.
“It’s not an empty wasteland,” said Sisson, 54, who owns a home inspection business with her husband. “But it’s certainly nowhere near the volume of the free roads in the area. . . . It’s nice, but then again, you’re paying for that quiet.”
Sisson said the 20 minutes or more she can save and the stress-free drive are worth the $50 in ICC tolls her company typically pays every month. But the amount of open asphalt that remains on the ICC nearly four years after it first opened is prompting some to urge Maryland Gov.-elect Larry Hogan (R) to cut toll rates, particularly for regular commuters.
They say the Washington area’s traffic congestion is too severe to allow a six-lane highway to go significantly underused. The ICC, they say, could absorb far more traffic from heavily congested local roads in Montgomery and Prince George’s counties until the growth the highway was built to accommodate arrives. Tolls could be increased again over the years, they say, to keep it free-flowing as traffic builds.
Using the entire 18.8-mile highway between Interstate 270 in Gaithersburg and U.S. Route 1 in Laurel during rush hours costs $4.40 each way for passenger vehicles and $32.90 each way for the largest tractor-trailers.
(Excerpt) Read more at washingtonpost.com ...
Maryland “Freak State” PING!
That’s not how it works. Lower traffic calls for higher tolls. When the traffic decline is even steeper then the tolls have to be doubled to make up for lost revenue.Etc. Government work.
Sounds like a profit maximization problem. It’s quite likely that lowering the tolls would in fact bring in more revenue than they are currently receiving. Sort of a Laffer Curve exercise.
It amazes me about that cash cow outer ring toll road outside of Denver costs. That toll road is almost like a payday loan place, a title pawn ripoff, or a pawn shop......
If you EVER approve a temporary toll road for ANYTHING, government will get so used to the income, they will fight tooth and nail to keep the tolls and NOT live up to the conditions of the initial approval. Liars, one and all.
Around Raleigh there is a toll road that can be inadvertently entered with out paying toll.
Weeks later, you get a toll bill in the mail. The camera took a photo of your license plate, went to the Tennessee DMV, looked up your address and then spent $.48 on postage for a $.41 toll
How’s that for government work?
I had a small wholesale business in Florida in the 80s. Some of the retailers I supplied had that same approach. When business was down they raised their prices. Nothing I could say would change their minds.
Tried that here in Georgia on 400 and Governor got his ass bit. It’s gone now
I believe it. Government and government created ‘entities’ are all crooks. They should be lined up against a wall.
In a case like that where the options include a "free" road and a parallel toll road, it really comes down to how much people value their time. If people are spending an extra 30-45 minutes in traffic to save a $4.40 toll, then that sounds like a miserable trade-off to me.
I drive it whenever it makes sense. That’s when there is heavy traffic on Beltway and I am headed to Montgomery Co.
When the Great and Glorious Illinois tollway’s bonds are paid off it will become a freeway! Opened in 1958.
But!
“A promise was made that once the bonds used to build the original 187 miles of the Illinois Tollway were paid off, the roads would become freeways. The promise was well-intentioned, but shortsighted.” http://www.illinoistollway.com/tolls-and-i-pass/toll-information
Screwed again.
Too bad, so sad.
N.B. The tollway commission needed their very own helicopter and many expensive toys.
I live in the Bethesda area and I take it when I am coming south on 95 and 495 is backed up or when traveling to Philly or NY from home and 495 is locked. It’s great for me...lower tolls always appreciated esp. in this state/county where they suck you dry.
It won’t go away. The children and grandchildren of the Tollway political denizens depends on its perpetuation.
In Illinois we have mostly hereditary positions reserved for the aristocracy.
Exactly! This is the socialist / Marxist paradigm. Government sponsored theft until civil society collapses. Then the thugs and looters are free to once again become the new, albeit grimier lords of the realm and the rest of us are once again serfs, vassals and slaves.
The traffic volumes on the Denver E-470 tollway reminds me of the DC ICC traffic volume: practically deserted at all times. And for the same reason: the round trip toll cost on E-470 is nearly $34.00 for those without transponders.
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