For whom do the tolls toll?
They toll for area motorists, who are threatening to avoid the toll plazas as the state continues to propose substantial fee hikes at its bridges and tunnels.
Maryland Transportation Authority officials came to Severn River Middle School yesterday to hear how Anne Arundel County residents felt about a plan to raise $77 million by increasing the tolls at the Bay Bridge and other crossings.
Passenger cars at the Bay Bridge would pay $5 by October and $8 by 2013. Vehicles with three or more axles would be paying $24 to $60 at the crossings by 2013. A decision is expected by the end of the summer.
Jim and Shirley Dvorak said the toll increase would cut into the money they've saved for travel during their retirement. The Severn couple pays a $12 toll for its four-axle camper, a fee that would rise to $23 in January and $36 by 2013 if the current plan is adopted.
If the tolls rise that much, they said, they'll get more creative in their travels.
"I'm going through the city," Jim Dvorak said. "I can go up (Interstate) 95 and take Route 1, so I would miss every toll I would have to come through. If that's what they want, they'll have a big traffic jam in the city with big campers and trucks."
Roughly 60 people came to yesterday's hearing, the sixth of 10 the MdTA is holding around the state. The final public hearing is scheduled for July 14 in Ocean City, but the state is collecting testimony about the plan through Aug. 1.
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Maryland Transportation Authority officials came to Severn River Middle School yesterday to hear how Anne Arundel County residents felt about a plan to raise $77 million by increasing the tolls at the Bay Bridge and other crossings.
Passenger cars at the Bay Bridge would pay $5 by October and $8 by 2013. Vehicles with three or more axles would be paying $24 to $60 at the crossings by 2013. A decision is expected by the end of the summer.
Jim and Shirley Dvorak said the toll increase would cut into the money they've saved for travel during their retirement. The Severn couple pays a $12 toll for its four-axle camper, a fee that would rise to $23 in January and $36 by 2013 if the current plan is adopted.
If the tolls rise that much, they said, they'll get more creative in their travels.
"I'm going through the city," Jim Dvorak said. "I can go up (Interstate) 95 and take Route 1, so I would miss every toll I would have to come through. If that's what they want, they'll have a big traffic jam in the city with big campers and trucks."
Roughly 60 people came to yesterday's hearing, the sixth of 10 the MdTA is holding around the state. The final public hearing is scheduled for July 14 in Ocean City, but the state is collecting testimony about the plan through Aug. 1.
More
7 comments:
This is, literally, highway robbery......
Just wait until they decide to go "up and around" the bay and come down RT. 13. DE residents are in for a real treat!
5:04 PM
Good. Let them have the traffic and non-driving tourists.
So they will drive up and pay the susquehanna toll then the toll on route 1 and drive an extra hour at $3.50 per gallon to save $2.50 at the bay bridge? Let 'em its less traffic for me.
They stopped the toll on rt one last i knew. I could be wrong, been couple years I been up that way
Raise the tolls! This is a USER fee. Why should the entire state subsidize bridge and tunnel users?
@ 8:38
It’s the other way around. Toll revenue is being used to cover the costs in other state programs. The late governor and former mayor of Baltimore used MTA toll revenue to cover part of the contraction cost of the first phase of the Baltimore Central Light Rail (Camden Station to Timonium ).
Sand Box John
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