Opinion: Plans to Privatize Maryland’s Highways with Toll Lanes are Not in the Public Interest

Today Maryland’s interstate highways, I-495 and I-270, still belong to the public. Our taxes paid for them, we depend on them, and we expect that any changes to them will be made in the public interest by accountable representatives of the citizens of Maryland. But something new and disturbing is happening. When the Board of Public Works approved private toll lanes for I-495 and I-270, they said ‘yes’ to the idea of surrendering control of our public highways for the next 50 years to a private conglomerate whose mission — to maximize its own profit — may well come at the public’s expense and long-term interests.