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Maryland residents will have nearly two months 鈥� until mid-August 鈥� to offer their thoughts on a set of proposed tolls for the 鈥渕anaged lanes鈥� that the Hogan administration wants to build along portions of the Capital Beltway and Interstate 270.
It may take the public that long to decipher the Maryland Transportation Authority鈥檚 87-page 鈥渄ynamic-pricing鈥� scheme.
On the surface, the basics appear simple enough.
Tolls on the new lanes would vary throughout the day. The consortium that ultimately wins the right to finance and build the lanes will tweak the price, as often as every five minutes, based on demand. Their goal 鈥� and their promise to the state 鈥� will be to keep traffic in the High-Occupancy Toll (HOT) lanes moving.
Under the rate structure approved for public comment by the authority鈥檚 board of directors on Thursday, a motorist driving a passenger vehicle will pay a minimum of 20 cents per mile.
A 鈥渟oft rate cap鈥� of $1.50-per-mile will be in effect as long as traffic in the HOT lanes remains at or above 50 miles an hour, so in theory tolls will range between 20 cents and $1.50 per mile much of the time.
Under no circumstance, officials insist, will motorists pay more than $3.76 per mile.
Obviously, it didn鈥檛 take authority staffers 87 pages just to convey that. There is much more.
For starters, the base rates (those quoted above) only apply to passenger cars.
There is a separate set of rates for 3-axle light, 3-axle heavy, 4-axle light, 4-axle heavy, 5-axle and 6-axle-plus vehicles.
In addition, the base rates only apply to people who have an active E-ZPass account.
Motorists who prefer to establish an account directly with the state (the system known as 鈥淧ay-By-Plate鈥�) will will pay 1.25 times the E-ZPass rate. 鈥淯nregistered鈥� motorists 鈥� those with no payment system 鈥� will receive a bill in the mail through Maryland鈥檚 鈥渧ideo tolling鈥� operation. They will pay 1.5 times the base rate.
It was in taking those permutations into account that the authority was able to arrive at a 63-field grid of rates, ranging from 20-cents-per-mile for a passenger car using E-ZPass all the way up to $42.33-per-mile for a big-rig trucker without a payment system.
But wait, there鈥檚 more.
All of the rates listed above will increase on an annual basis, due to a set of proposed 鈥渆scalation鈥� provisions.
Tolls can rise 1.1% per year as the number of jobs in the capital region increases and another 1% per year as personal income grows. There will also be an annual inflation adjustment, based on the Washington-area鈥檚 official consumer price index.
In briefing the board, Transportation Secretary Greg Slater hailed the 鈥渟oft rate cap鈥� as a major consumer protection. He said Maryland will be one of just two states with such a system.
鈥淢any states that have these types of facilities don鈥檛 have a soft cap or even a hard cap,鈥� he said. 鈥淲e felt pretty strongly that we needed a set of parameters around the tolling.鈥�
And, he noted, many people will continue to pay no toll when the new lanes open, including motorists who use the existing lanes, those who carpool, people who ride transit buses and motorcyclists.
But the authority鈥檚 Chief Financial Officer, Deborah Sharpless, cautioned that the developer of the toll lanes will be allowed to exceed the soft rate cap whenever traffic on the HOT lanes dips below 50 miles an hour or whenever traffic volume exceeds 1,600 passenger vehicles per hour, per lane.
And according to data the authority provided to the board, it鈥檚 estimated that motorists traveling from Virginia to Maryland between 4 p.m. and 7 p.m. on weekdays will see the soft rate cap exceeded more than 60% of the time.
Ben Ross, the head of the Maryland Transit Opportunities Coalition and a leading critic of Gov. Lawrence J. Hogan Jr.鈥檚 toll plan, charged that the tolls put out for public comment are misleading, because the new lanes won鈥檛 open until 2026 at the earliest.
鈥淎ll of their examples are based on the toll rates in effect in 2021,鈥� he said. 鈥淏ut there are no toll lanes in 2021, so no one will ever pay those tolls. The toll lanes will exist and be subject to this contract from 2026 to 2076.鈥�
The maximum toll rates will undoubtedly be fodder for critics of managed lanes, who frequently refer to them as 鈥淟exus Lanes.鈥�
But Sharpless told the board 鈥渋t is very, very small that we expect to hit the maximum toll rate. We鈥檙e talking about extreme circumstances, major incidents.鈥�
She said that in Northern Virginia, which has an extensive system of managed lanes, motorists pay a per-trip average of $5.40 on I-495 and $8.45 on I-95.
The authority will hold public hearings on the proposed rates, but dates, times and locations have not been announced.
The first public comment period will run until August 12. Staff will make recommendations based on those comments, and a second comment period will run between August 26 and October 14.
The authority board is expected to approve a toll-rate plan at its Oct. 28 meeting.
After briefing the board on the 87-page proposal, state transportation officials conceded that motorists are likely to find it difficult to decipher.
鈥淚t鈥檚 not common,鈥� Sharpless said of the soft rate cap concept. 鈥淎nd it can be perceived as complicated.鈥�
Board member W. Lee Gaines Jr. suggested the public will grasp the system 鈥渕aybe eventually.鈥�
