"If the general-purpose lanes are free-flowing, by definition congestion pricing doesn't work," said Maryland Transportation Secretary John D. Porcari.
Reflecting the views of Gov. Martin O'Malley, Porcari has shifted both rhetoric and policy away from toll lanes as a means to finance major projects. For instance, the Maryland Department of Transportation eliminated tolls from studies of how to widen the Baltimore Beltway - a possibility that had been raised by the Ehrlich administration transportation secretary, Robert L. Flanagan.
Porcari hasn't ruled out the use of congestion pricing on other projects, however, calling it one tool in highway planners' tool kit.
C. Kenneth Orski, editor and publisher of an online newsletter that follows trends in public-private partnerships such as toll roads, said Virginia motorists will be getting used to congestion pricing faster than Marylanders.
"What Virginia is doing is sort of a portent of what is to come throughout the region - which is a pretty widespread use of toll lanes," he said.
The good news for motorists is that there would be no toll booths.
To use the system, you would have to have a transponder such as the ones used for EZ-Pass or agree to be billed based on photos of your license plate passing through electronic collection stations.
Critics of congestion pricing call it an elitist concept, saying "Lexus lanes" or "Bentley boulevards" allow the well-to-do to cruise while the poor and middle class stew in backups.
But proponents of congestion pricing say it's all about choice. They note that people will be free to make their own economic decisions about what their time is worth.
A middle-class teacher, they say, might decide on certain days that a trip in the express lanes is the price to avoid fines for being late to day care. A high-profile law firm might decide its partners' time is so valuable that it could afford to compensate them for using express lanes.
Supporters of the toll options say they are the only practical way to pay for large road projects in the face of public opposition to raising taxes - especially the federal and state levies on gasoline.
"When you encounter voter opposition to new bonds or new taxes, you turn to the private sector," Orski said. In practical terms, that means using revenue from tolls to pay off the bonds issued by private companies.
