SILVER SPRING, Md. – Calling the tolls “outrageously high,” Montgomery County Councilmember Phil Andrews wants to see the cost of using the the Inter-County Connector slashed in half to encourage more drivers to use it.
He wrote the Maryland Transportation Authority to ask for the reduction.
“Traffic levels on the ICC more resemble an airport runway than a major highway,” Andrews wrote in a letter to Darrell Mobley, the acting chairman of the transportation authority.
An end-to-end trip on the 18-mile highway that connects Montgomery and Prince George’s counties costs $8.
Andrews wants to see lower tolls for at least a year.
Andrews, who opposed the construction of the highway, says “the state highly miscalculated the willingness of the public to pay high tolls to use the ICC.”
“Given its $3 billion-plus cost [including debt financing], cutting the tolls in half would be a common sense, and necessary measure to encourage the public to use the highway,” he says, in a news release.
Commuter Mayra Boyle of Silver Spring likes the idea of lower tolls. She says she believes more people would use the ICC if it had lower tolls.
“As it is now, I think it is a little too pricey,” Boyle says.
“Cut the prices in half, please do.”
Letter to Maryland Transportation Authority from Phil Andrews
WTOP’s Kristi King contributed to this story. Follow @kingWTOP and @WTOP on Twitter.
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