Thompson pushes for toll roads

County commissioner hopes to convince state lawmakers to allow toll collection on Interstate 270, U.S. Route 15

Thompson refers to his legislation as the “Appian Way Plan,“ after a famous toll road in Roman history.

“Most [highways] were designed and built in the decades of the 1940s, 1950s and 1960s,“ Thompson said. “Most were never designed to handle the congestion created by the current levels of traffic. We need money, not words, to solve the traffic congestion problem.“

Thompson has long talked about a toll system to help pay for county road improvements.

So for the first time, commissioners included a “position statement“ in support of electronic tolls in the legislative package of bills they sent to the Maryland General Assembly this year. However, a written statement declaring the county’s position on an issue holds little weight in Annapolis, so no action was required from the General Assembly.

Thompson is now proposing two bills for the legislative package.

The first bill asks the Maryland General Assembly to support a new federal law that after Jan. 1, 2014, all new vehicles manufactured and sold in the United States must be equipped with an electronic toll collection device. This system would avoid the use of toll collection booths.

The second bill asks the state legislature to give the commissioners the authority to impose electronically collected tolls on state and federal highways in Frederick County. The money collected would go toward road improvements.

“... Our elected officials at the national and state level are apparently not up to the task of obtaining the funding necessary to make major improvements to the network needed to solve the traffic congestion problem,“ Thompson said. “Solving local traffic congestion problems does not appear to be a priority for our national and state elected officials ...“

It’s unclear at this point whether Thompson will find support for his bill in Annapolis.

“Commissioner Thompson has been incredibly prolific with the number of bills he has proposed in the legislative package, in the 12 years I’ve known him,“ said Frederick delegation Chairman Richard Weldon Jr. (R-Dist. 3B) of Brunswick. “Unfortunately, his success in getting his legislation in the package is not as [great] as the number of bills he has proposed ... This one will probably go nowhere. So I intend not to spend a lot of energy on it until two other commissioners vote to support it.“

In the mean time, the State Highway Administration and Maryland Transit Administration will continue studying a 31-mile stretch of Interstate 270, from Biggs Ford Road in Frederick County to Shady Grove Road in Montgomery County. The purpose of the study, which dates back to 1994, is to find ways to relieve congestion and improve safety along Interstate 270 and Route 15.

“[Toll roads] is one of the alternatives being discussed in the ... study,“ said James A. Gugel, chief planner with Frederick County’s Planning Division.