Free Republic

Police in Maryland say this was just the start of it: A 1997 Ford Crown Victoria, traveling in front of an officer early Friday morning, veered off a highway and struck a large traffic sign in Montgomery County. Next: A wooden support post from the sign became impaled in the Ford’s front windshield, sticking up and back more than five feet, like a misplaced lance. Yet the driver kept going, refusing to stop even as lights and sirens flashed behind him. “He was lucky no one was killed,” said Officer Rick Goodale, a Montgomery police spokesman. The driver, Omar Rasharn...

They say there are two constants in life: death and taxes. However, if you live in Montgomery County, there’s a third: traffic congestion . Unfortunately, some Montgomery County politicians seem almost to scoff at any real solution to that last constant. Take Montgomery County Council candidate Ben Shnider’s recent critique of Gov. Larry Hogan’s (R) proposal for Interstate 270. Shnider, a Democrat, is correct to point out that Hogan’s proposal does not go far enough. But Shnider argues for policies that would, ironically, make traffic only worse. Meanwhile, his Democratic primary opponent, incumbent council member Sidney Katz (Gaithersburg-Rockville), has shown...

A bill bringing possible relief to Maryland motorists who face thousands of dollars in fines from unpaid E-ZPass tolls passed the Senate unanimously last Thursday and gets a hearing in a House committee next week.Bill sponsor, Sen. Roger Manno, D-Montgomery, made fixes to his bill that died last year in committee, conf0rming it to a bill that passed the House last year.Senate Finance Committee Chairman Thomas “Mac” Middleton, D-Charles, told Manno at a March 7 hearing that he spoke with transportation officials last year and requested improvements. The Maryland Transportation Authority had a year to evaluate how it handles escalating...

WASHINGTON — Maryland State Police want the public’s help bringing to justice a pickup truck driver who stabbed a man this week on MD 200 — the Intercounty Connector. The victim was a passenger in a white Chevy Silverado which was heading eastbound on the ICC, Wednesday afternoon, around 3:30. The incident began with a dispute between the drivers of the Silverado and a gray Ford pickup. The suspect then drove his gray truck on the shoulder to get around the white truck, according to police. On the ramp to northbound Interstate 95, as the Ford truck blocked the path...

Is fighting sprawl still a goal for those who decide the fate of transportation funding at the federal, state and local levels?Transportation planning is deeply connected to economic development, but there in any agreement about transportation funding among government leaders often ends.Parag Khanna, a senior public policy analyst in Singapore and author of “Connectography: Mapping the Future of Global Civilization,” summarized the political divide over transportation planning like this: “America is increasingly divided not between red states and blue states, but between connected hubs and disconnected backwaters.”But division that stymies transportation planning goes further. Government leaders have always been divided...

It’s hard to know whether Maryland’s Intercounty Connector, also known as the ICC and Route 200, will ever become informally known as Ehrlich Highway or the Ehrlich Connector, but it now has a shot. On Thursday, Maryland Gov. Larry Hogan (R) dedicated the 18.8-mile toll road to his Republican predecessor and onetime boss, former governor Robert L. Ehrlich Jr., whom he credited with reviving and championing a road mired for decades in political controversy. “It wasn’t until Governor Bob Ehrlich made it a top priority of his administration that the Intercounty Connector project finally moved forward and became a reality,”...

Montgomery County Board of Education President Patricia O’Neill asked the county’s state legislators Wednesday if they could help eliminate tolls for county school buses that drive on the state-operated Intercounty Connector. A Montgomery County Public Schools spokeswoman said in an email Friday the school system spends nearly $18,000 per year on ICC tolls. Buses that typically use the ICC include those for cross-county special education routes and sports trips, according to spokeswoman Gboyinde Onijala. “It would help us a great deal to make a more efficient transportation system for the 100,000 students we transport every day if we could use...

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...

Attorney General Douglas F. Gansler, running for the Democratic nomination for governor, proposed Friday that the state give commuters a break on the tolls on the Intercounty Connector in the Washington suburbs. Gansler's campaign issued a statement and a video in which the candidate asserted that ICC traffic and revenue are well below projections because of high tolls. According to the Gansler camp, usage is 20 percent lower than expected and revenues are 20-45 percent below projections. The attorney general said his plan for a 50 percent discount for commuters who make at least 15 trips a month on the...

Driven on the Intercounty Connector lately? No? You’re not alone. Many haven’t. The 18.8-mile highway—the first stretch of which opened two and a half years ago after great hype and amid great controversy—is the road less traveled. Traffic counts are well below early projections, and revenue from tolls—needed to pay off the bonds that were sold to build the road—is far less than originally anticipated. The initial estimated cost of $1 billion has ballooned to $2.4 billion—or as much as $4 billion if you include interest payments. Consequently, all tolls on Maryland highways, bridges and tunnels have been raised in...

LAUREL, Md. - Since the Intercounty Connector opened, nearly 7,000 speeding tickets have been issued, according to documents obtained by WTOP. While most tickets are clearly violations, some raise questions for drivers. Police issued nearly 200 tickets to drivers going less than 65 mph in a 55 mph zone. On Oct. 6, 2011, a driver was ticketed for going 59 mph. "That's crazy. I've never heard of that before and I don't understand it," says Sergio Gutierrez of Laurel. He says it's confusing, especially with the recent story of Maryland State Police ticketing a woman for driving 62 mph in...

WASHINGTON - The Intercounty Connector, a highway that stretches between Gaithersburg and Laurel in Maryland, could see an increase in its speed limit this year. An engineering study found the speed limit of the highway could be raised from its current limit of 55 mph to 60 mph. The ICC, which opened in 2011, gives commuters a quick way to get from Interstate 270 to Interstate 95. "We wanted to have one year of actual operating experience before we looked at speed limits at all," Maryland Transportation Authority Executive Secretary Harold M. Bartlett tells WTOP. Bartlett says he thinks there...