A new report by TRIP shows that traffic congestion on Maryland’s Interstate Highway System is increasing and the amount of vehicle travel far outstrips the capacity added to the system, with more than 80 percent of Maryland’s urban Interstates labeled as congested.
In the report, Maryland is listed as the second highest state for congested urban Interstate highways, (82%), just four points behind California (86%). While Maryland’s Interstate Highway System only accounts for four percent of all roadway lane miles, it carries 30 percent of the state’s vehicle travel. TRIP reports that from “2000 to 2018, vehicle travel on Maryland’s Interstate highways increased 18 percent” while in that same time period, “lane miles of Interstates in Maryland increased just two percent, from 2,761 to 2,823 miles.”
The report also dove into the condition of Maryland’s Interstate system road conditions, listing five percent of Maryland’s in “poor condition,” six percent in “mediocre condition,” eight percent in “fair condition,” and the remaining 80 percent in “good condition.” In terms of safety, the report lists Maryland’s Interstate highways as “more than twice as safe as travel on all other roadways in the state. The fatality rate per 100 million vehicle miles of travel on Maryland’s Interstate system in 2018 was 0.40, compared to 1.03 on Maryland’s non-Interstate routes.”
