A network of optional express toll lanes will provide a cost-effective way for Maryland to manage congestion, increase roadway capacity, create an expanded regional transit system, and provide an option for relatively free-flowing highway travel - and to do so decades sooner than otherwise feasible. 
Express toll lanes (ETLs) will be considered where they can help ease the impact of congestion by making transportation improvements affordable decades sooner. The primary focus of the Statewide Express Toll Lanes Network Initiative is to add new lanes to some of Maryland’s most severely congested controlled access highways such as Interstates. Express toll lanes are actively under consideration in the Baltimore and Washington regions, including for I-95, I-270, I-495/I-95, and MD 5). Development of an Express Toll Lanes Network will help ease the burden of congestion in the State’s most traveled corridors. To view the Maryland's Statewide Express Toll Lane Network Initiative Brochure, visit this link: Statewide ETL Brochure. To view the Statewide Express Toll Lane Network Initiative map, visit this link: Statewide ETL Network Map. - Express toll lanes will use added lanes (in some instances, in combination with creating new options with converted lanes) to major highways such as Interstates.
- Express toll lanes will give motorists the option of paying a fee to drive in separate, relatively free flowing highway lanes whenever they need it most.
- Options will be preserved for toll-free travel in general purpose lanes for less time-sensitive trips.
- Tolls will be collected 100 percent electronically at highway speeds.
- Relatively free flowing conditions will be maintained by varying toll rates based on demand either by time of day or actual traffic conditions increasing when the lanes are relatively full and decreasing when the lanes have extra capacity.
- Provide a new type of optional transportation service with reliable, relatively free-flowing travel for time-sensitive trips;
- Create infrastructure for regional express bus service in the busiest commuting routes;
- Provide increased roadway capacity in the most severely congested transportation corridors;
- Provide a sustainable solution and long-term congestion relief; and
- Make billions of dollars of congestion relief affordable decades sooner than traditional approaches would allow.
- Offer reliable and predictable travel times and choices by providing relatively free-flowing travel options for transit riders and automobile occupants in the near term, not way off in the future, while maintaining free lanes for less time-sensitive trips.
- Promote transit solutions by providing the infrastructure for a reliable system of express bus routes as well as financial incentives (e.g., splitting automobile operation costs, parking, and tolls) to carpool and vanpool.
- Build sustainable highway capacity sooner than otherwise feasible by providing a new revenue source in the form of tolls and using pricing techniques to manage demand. (Revenue would first be used for maintenance and operation costs on the new lanes with excess revenue used for capital costs to build and maintain the network.)
 - Develop an integrated highway system that optimizes efficiency and maximizes flexibility by pursuing construction and operational strategies that maximize sustainable transit and motorist movements on a system-wide basis and that also would connect seamlessly to neighboring jurisdictions in the region.
- Capture air quality and other environmental benefits by reducing vehicle emissions and lessening the need for future highway widening and associated impacts on residences, businesses, and the natural environment.
- Improve incidence response times by reducing congestion and providing adjacent routing for emergency vehicles.
- Take advantage of technological advances, including collecting tolls 100% electronically, without tollbooths or waits - and to adjust tolls on a real-time basis to manage traffic flow.
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