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Maryland Increases Speed Limit On ICC

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Regular ICC commuters may save as much as 90 seconds with the speed limit increase.
Jessica Jordan
Regular ICC commuters may save as much as 90 seconds with the speed limit increase.

The speed limit is going up on Maryland's new $3 billion highway; climbing from to 60 miles an hour on the ICC.  It's 55 now.

"Going from 55 to 60 really only represents a time savings of about a minute and a half," says Howard Bartlett, the executive secretary of the Maryland Transportation Authority. 

He says his agency studied the geometry of the roadway and performed an analysis of all crashes for the ICC s first year of operations between I-270 and I-95, before deciding to bump the speed limit.

Bartlett notes that the average speed is already in excess of 60 miles an hour, but he says an increase in posted speed does not mean you'll be able to go 70, the so-called 10 mile an hour cushion.

"From the transportation authority's perspective, the speed limit is in fact the speed limit," Bartlett says.

The change is expected to go into effect by March 31.

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