Posted on 02/24/2012 1:29:59 AM PST by Tolerance Sucks Rocks
The Intercounty Connector, the new toll road that connects Gaithersburg to Laurel, was envisioned and created to alleviate the traffic headaches that have plagued local roads and the Capital Beltway for decades.
While some trips for commuters have been cut in half, though, some officials and commuters have been left to wonder why the $3 billion highway looks so empty.
Maryland Transit Administration officials say that the average ridership on the ICC - which is hovering around 21,000 cars per day - is exactly where they want to be. That's a stark distinction, though, from preliminary traffic and revenue studies, which pegged daily driver numbers as high as 71,000 cars per day.
"On the east end, we are slightly below projections, but in aggregate, we are above projections," MTA Executive Secretary Harold Bartlett said.
Changing projections?
Local transit specialists affirm the idea that average traffic volume on the new highway has been far lower than originally projected.
"The state has been grading itself on a curve for years on this project," transportation researcher Greg Smith says about the nearly 18-mile long road. "In multiple other projects done by the transportation authority, they were looking for and hoping for much higher numbers than I have now."
The MTA responds to that criticism by pointing out that the ICC was built in a highly-populated residential area and was never designed at interstate standards.
Drivers say that two other factors - the 55 mph speed limit and the toll itself - are negatively affecting perception of using the Intercounty Connector. The toll currently sits at 25 cents-per-mile during rush hour.
"When you live in the state and have to pay $4 just to get home, that's a lot of money," Maryland resident Theresa Hewlett said.
Tickets for everyone?
Meanwhile, many drivers are also noticing a heavy police presence on the highway. Since the first section of the ICC opened in early 2011, authorities have issued more than 3,700 tickets on it. Meanwhile, local lawmakers are pushing officials to consider raising that speed limit.
Hewlett says that even while driving over the speed limit, as high as 63 miles-per-hour, cars are flying past her, despite the high number of cars being pulled over.
"Every time I've been on it, I've seen police," she says, adding that she herself had never been pulled over on the ICC.
Bartlett argues that raising the speed limit won't do much in terms of actual commute time saved.
I can't drive 55
"Even if you traverse the entire 16 miles, going from 55 to 60 is going to save less than a minute off your travel time," Bartlett said.
AAA Mid-Atlantic says that the problem with the speed limit doesn't have as much to do with time saved as it has to do with perception. Currently, the ICC's speed limit matches the one on the Capital Beltway and on the Montgomery County portion of Interstate 270.
"In all probability, the state will increase the speed limit on the road and I think the road will become more attractive to motorists," AAA spokesman John Townsend says.
Meanwhile, studies done by the state reflect that the ICC may not ease congestion on neighboring roads; in fact, it may go up. State numbers show that surrounding roads like Georgia Avenue and Route 29 will still see an increase in traffic of about 4 percent over the next two decades.
Some of the comments below the article are pretty funny.
Maryland “Freak State” PING!
The pigs in metropolitan DC take great care of themselves, spending vast money we don’t have on things they don’t even need.
I have no idea what this road does and why it was built (yes, I read the article) but why would I want to pay $8 a day to drive slower than the non toll road?
The road does nothing but lay there.
I live in D.C. (Capitol Hill) and, thanks to a recent office relocation, I am back to riding a bike to work. Takes 10 minutes. Gives me time to post in the morning while everyone on 95, 270, and the beltway is tied in the morning auto shows.
I pay the private school tax to live in the city, but there are compensations.
I may be off base since I don't pay overmuch attention to suburban politics, but my perception of the ICC is that it was always driven by the planners' long-term obsession with an outer beltway. If they can't get the whole thing, they'll settle for bits and pieces. From my perspective, however, an outer beltway would just draw the sprawl further out. No thanks.
The reason? They jacked the tolls up so high that few commuters can afford to pay them on a daily basis. Laffer curve, and all that.
Meanwhile the people who live in Southern Maryland get no new roads and cant even get the ones we have repaired so they are fit to drive on.
Rt’s 4 and 5 are so worn out that the last repaving has worn through in spots to the old paving beneath, and potholes abound.
Mean while our dipstick Governor screams for more money because he stole all of the Highway money and put it in the General Fund. Registration for boats,trailers doubled and he wants to add a 6% sales tax on gasoline to the already 20 cent tax he has on it.
Oh: Lets not forget how proud he is that he got the Fag marrioage act passed. Time wasted since it will go to referendum and fail. I contuinue to wonder how any legislature can pass such an act.
It ain't working because of the grotesquely high tolls, and also because of the influx of new government employees who moved into the area to fill Obama's massive expansion of the bureaucracy.
One of the comments to the WJLA article also touched on a benefactor of the highway - Kingston Gould and his big Konterra project in Laurel. The commenter’s description of the road as an 18 mile driveway for Konterra is about right.
The flaw is thinking that the traffic on the Beltway can be convinced to divert onto the ICC ~ but there's this other flaw that there's a lot of traffic going on between Montgomery and Prince Georges counties.
There were early warnings that the traffic projections were too high. They could have built a far more modest road ~ 2 lanes for example ~ with right of way for a wider road later on. Alas, they looked at this project like one might High Speed Rail with a Willie Green eye! They imagined traffic.
Recent analysis of "sprawl" reveals that it's no different today in its form, structure and dynamic than city development ever was ~ dating all the way back to ancient Sumer!
Oh: Lets not forget how proud he is that he got the Fag marrioage act passed. Time wasted since it will go to referendum and fail. I contuinue to wonder how any legislature can pass such an act.
O'Malley is under the delusion that he is Presidential timber for 2016 - despite the fact that a recent poll shows that 70% of Marylanders DO NOT think that he would make a good President ...
He sat on the sidelines last year during the gay marriage debate - saying he preferred "civil unions". This year, however, he charged right in saying he was FOR gay marriage and that his views have evolved.
Yeah. His views evolved all right - RIGHT AFTER Cuomo [whom he considers a rival for 2016] got gay marriage passed in NY.
Considering he wants to raise taxes on 400,000 MD residents making $100K+, wants to triple the "flush" tax, wants to ADD 6% sales tax ON TOP of the current gas tax, wants to turn 50% of the state employee retirement/healthcare obligation back to the counties, wants a $2/month increase in electricity bills for "wind farms", and is facing repeal of BOTH THE DREAM ACT AND GAY MARRIAGE BY REFERENDUM ...
YEAH - HE'S PRESIDENTIAL TIMBER ALL RIGHT ...
While we are at it, lt’s take note of Mike Miller who last year was for the Gay marriage bill.
The black preachers in PG County straightened his ass out, This year he was against it. The wiond blew and he changed his mind.
I am for replacing all of them who voioted for it, Especially Roy Dyson
You have never been in Montgomery County.
Getting anywhere in that weird place is like a nightmare. Not sure why, but the old roads just don’t let you get anywhere fast. Everything fans out like the wheel that DC designed ages ago, and crossing from 1 spoke to another is not real easy.
I’m talking 2-lane roads in the “country” as well as closer in urban, even though there isn’t necessarily much traffic. Something about the lay of the land and the roads makes them difficult to traverse anywhere near the time one could if one could as the crow flies.
It should take me no more than a 1/2 hour to get to Rockville. I can’t get there in less than an 50 min. It just can’t be done in reality. Meanwhile I can drive well past Baltimore in that time the other direction.
That was 1 of the reasons for this road. Bridging the many gaps between all the spokes.
Maybe people don’t want to be taxed for it AND pay when they use it.
If they had just built the "Outer Beltway" many, many moons ago - we would not have the troubles we have now.
Two concentric circles with "spokes" radiating out from the inner circle - I recently saw a map of a city in Japan that was set up this way. Works GREAT!
If they had built the "Outer Beltway", all pass-thru traffic from PA and other points north could have been routed onto the Outer - BYPASSING DC altogether ...
BTW - one thing though, the easements and rights-of-way that they secured back in the late 1950's for the "Outer Beltway" were NOT far enough out away from DC.
I live in Kensington [about 1 mile north of the existing Beltway] and can go north for about 3 miles on Connecticut Avenue to where the easement for the "Outer Beltway" STILL exists today ...
“it was also intended as some sort of short cut to bleed off traffic from I-270 during rush hour.
It ain’t working because... “
They’re not closing enough lanes on I-270- often enough and at rush hour- for “repairs” ...
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.