Gov. Martin O'Malley would be wise to tune out the loud voices complaining about the State Highway Administration's decision to display projected travel time information, according to a survey of Getting There readers.
As of noon, the tally on the admittedly unscientific survey was 100 for keeping the messages and 18 for taking them down. The prevailing view seems to be that drivers wiill get used to the messages on the SHA's electric sign boards if they give them enough time.
In this case, I suspect the majority of my readers have it right. There's always going to be a vocal minority that resists change. And those are the folks that are first to complain and the loudest in doing so. If the SHA sticks by its guns, and the governor doesn't get cold feet, my guess is that this will be a non-issue by mid-April. Most folks can absord a simple message like "15-17 minutes to I-695" without missing a beat. The rest will catch up.
And the next time you see that go to "20-22 minutes," you'll have the option of cutting over to the Baltimore-Washington Parkway.