Dr. Gridlock's traffic, transit tips: Finding midday parking at Metro stations Their problem is, they don't have any way to tell if the lot or garage will be filled with commuter cars by the time they arrive. But Silver Spring is easy: Montgomery County provides so much parking downtown near the station that a rider won't be shut out. They may need to drive to the highest levels of the garages, but they will find something. The garages closest to the station are Bonifant Street and Dixon Avenue and at Cameron Street and Ramsey Avenue. Tolls due I heard from a driver who escaped some congestion by using the Intercounty Connector between Route 29 and Interstate 95. The driver didn't have an E-ZPass and was getting nervous because he hadn't gotten a bill for the toll after many weeks. The ICC uses a video tolling system that records an image of the license plates for a vehicle without E-ZPass. A "notice of toll due" is sent to the registered owner, but the Maryland Transportation Authority says that can take a month for a vehicle registered in Maryland and 80 days for an out-of-stater. A shortcut: The registered owner can call the E-ZPass Maryland Customer Service Center at 888-321-6824. The customer service representative can retrieve the information with the license plate number and take payment. Metro on Twitter The transit authority has split up its Twitter feeds to target travelers who need different types of alerts. Judging by the distribution of followers, it looks like people may be slow to catch on to the switch. The one for train riders to learn about delays and service changes is @metrorailinfo. Bus riders who want alerts should follow @metrobusinfo. Updates on transit police investigations go out through @metrotransitPD. The feed that used to do all those things is @wmata, but now it's being used for general information and major announcements from Metro. Priorities plan The region's Transportation Planning Board is inviting public comment on the draft of its Regional Transportation Priorities Plan, featured on the Commuter page July 28. You can comment online by following this link: www.mwcog.org/transportation. There's a phone line for public comment: 202-962-3262. Or write to National Capital Region Transportation Planning Board, 777 North Capitol St. NE, Suite 300, Washington, DC 20002-4239. The deadline is Aug. 23. Why "adjustments"? An Orange Line rider asked why Metrorail makes "service adjustments" toward the end of the line. In Metro-speak, a "service adjustment" usually means the train is going to hold its place or skip a station. The goal is usually to balance the distance between trains. This case is different. Holds at West Falls Church, near the western end of the line, are most likely to occur late in the evening rush because of train congestion at Vienna, the western terminal. When there are trains on either side of the platform, a westbound train has no place to go until one of the trains already at the platform starts its eastbound trip. A waiting train is most likely to be held at West Falls Church or Dunn Loring rather than on the tracks near Vienna. Annapolis meters Annapolis has installed 384 solar-powered parking meters throughout the historic downtown that take credit cards as well as coins. These are similar to the meters that drivers are getting used to in downtown D.C. The meter parking fee in Annapolis is $2 per hour, which is a lot of quarters to haul around.