No surprise here: Everyone likes a free ride.
The first day of numbers are in and drivers don’t seem to like to pay to drive the new InterCounty Connector.
Only about 8,500 vehicles traveled on the first 5.6-mile leg of the new highway that runs from Interstate 370 in Shady Grove to Georgia Avenue in Olney on Monday, according to Maryland Transportation Authority spokeswoman Kelly Melhem. It was the first full day in which the state started charging tolls on the cashless toll road.
That’s far below the average 30,000 vehicles per day that traveled the road during a week-and-a-half test period when the state let riders drive it for free.
But it’s also well below the 21,000 car per day total that officials estimated for the leg. Officials have said they expect it to take a while for normal traffic patterns to begin.
It does assure drivers, though, that toll rates won’t increase for a while. The tolls are intended to help regulate traffic, and the state can raise the rates within a preset range, given 10 days notice, to even out the flow of cars. Currently the tolls vary by time of day from an overnight low of 60 cents to $1.45 during peak rushes each way.
