Opinion
Illinois Toll Highway Authority: highway to hell
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In the unlikely event that Gov. Jim Doyle ever pulls his head out of his ass long enough to recognize the merits of a Wisconsin tollway, system planners will be looking around for a model.
Hopefully, they don’t look down.
It’s certainly been a busy new year for the Illinois Toll Highway Authority. The system opened the month with a wide-scale toll hike, imposed on all users except ones with cars equipped with I-PASS — an electronic sensory device that withdraws money automatically from a registered bank account when the user passes through a plaza lane.
Administrators billed the plan as a way to promote I-PASS and raise funds for a 10-year, $5.3 billion plan to rebuild parts of the Illinois network.
Well, please excuse this ‘Sconnie for being cynical, but something smells foul in the Land of Lincoln.
First of all, if the I-PASS improves efficiency as much as we’re led to believe, then why does Chicago congestion remain as bad as ever? For anyone who loves the luxury these little white boxes bring, it’s a simple step in logic to assume traffic should move faster with more people hopping on board. Simple, but nevertheless erroneous.
Here’s the catch: When the tollway authority says automated systems like I-PASS improve efficiency, the statement rings true — it’s just a matter of definition. While drivers define efficiency as the ease and swiftness of crossing between two points, the authority defines it as the ease and swiftness of exploiting funds from travelers.
Make no mistake, I-PASS does little to curb the notorious Windy City traffic backups. In fact, with more and more commuters migrating to electronic plaza lanes, the rush hour jams have become worse, if anything. Naturally, the authority plans to cut back on the manual and automatic change lanes in favor of more passages for I-PASS users.
Herein lies another problem. Since the inception of I-PASS, toll workers say their occupation has become increasingly dangerous on account of reckless drivers ignoring speed limits in the electronic lanes. With work-related deaths on the rise, the boothminders now have a new gripe as Gov. Blagojevich and the tollway authority plot to phase out jobs in favor of the automated system.
Since the recent initiative to goad drivers toward picking up I-PASS units by hitting their wallet, the toll workers unions are forming picket lines. Soon, they might be joining unemployment lines.
Yet, the increasing danger as a result of automation isn’t restricted to toll workers. Plaza impasses are proving more hazardous for drivers as well. With the melee of lane changes drivers must make when approaching and departing plazas — particularly in bad weather — horrific accidents seem the order of the day.
Most recently, a truck driver skidded and plowed into a family car in Elgin, Ill., killing two-year-old Amanda Santos. The wreck also left three other members of the Santos family in hospital beds — though the status of their injuries has not been released.
With the cost of “efficiency” so high, one must wonder what the State of Illinois plans to do with the increased funding. More lanes to elevate congestion? Increased patrols to protect safe drivers from reckless ones? Not exactly.
The main goal highlighted by lawmakers is an ambitious expansion of Interstate 355 — a southbound route that Blagojevich claims will spark development and create a bevy of new jobs. While his proclamations seem misguidedly optimistic, there’s a chance this expansion could do a lot of good. Regardless, the thinking behind the project constitutes a stark divergence from the original purpose of a tollway.
Once upon a time, people viewed tollbooths as a method of covering the immense cost of freeway maintenance. Now, they see a cash cow birthed to subsidize catalyst projects.
Once upon a time, the Illinois Toll Highway Authority saw the users of their system as customers paying a fair price for use of a state resource. Now, they just see 1.2 million dollar signs a day rolling along at 80 miles per hour.
If one, two or even five succumb to a fatal car wreck … no big deal, still 1,199,995 left to collect on. And why bother adequately patrolling the roads when the authority’s heralded Traffic and Incident Management System (SIMS) can monitor a stretch of freeway for pennies a day?
Apparently lawmakers in the state bear a more favorable opinion of Illinois drivers than the rest of us in the Midwest.
With such a poor role model, it’s no wonder many Wisconsinites scatter when someone rightly proposes a tollway system to help bankroll the rising costs of freeway maintenance.
Last week, the Illinois Toll Highway Authority proudly unveiled the final product of a plan to share live feed from the TIMS system with a local NBC affiliate. Bad move flatlanders — the Fox bigwigs would have paid a lot more.
Just imagine “Gruesome Scenes from the Illinois Tollway” as the reality television breakaway hit of 2005, and rue what might have been.
Patrick Klemz (pklemz@badgerherald.com) is a senior majoring in journalism.
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Actually the IPass has made a world of difference. With an Ipass, driving from Madison to Chicago can at times be up to 20 minutes faster. While that might not seem like a lot its a pretty huge accomplishment just for having a small white box in your car. It insane to think that not having to stop and hand over money would not save time. I use IPass on a daily basis and I could not imagine commuting in Chicago without it.
"While drivers define efficiency as the ease and swiftness of crossing between two points, the authority defines it as the ease and swiftness of exploiting funds from travelers."
Good fucking point. When the tollway was first built decades ago, the tolls were implemented as a TEMPORARY measure to pay for construction. Once they were in place, however, they were harder to get rid of than a $100 a day heroin habit.
All politicians are slimy fucks. You know goddamn well the tolls were such a revenue source they wouldn't get rid of them. Now they're used to support renevation of toll plazas and pay the tollbooth workers!! WTF? Let's create a fine for something, pay someone to enforce said fine, and negate any possible gain? The next step will be a searchable computer databse recording where you have been and when, with photographic evidence. Do you really want your ex-wife's lawyer to be able to get his hands on the records of your daily travels? Or how about your boss or church? Why don't they just implant satellite updated, GPS tracking chips in everyone's neck? Way to go asswipes, so much for civil liberties. The government isn't there to take things away from its people, it's there to protect its people from having their rights and property taken away.
You've got some problems hombre. One, you make a wide, overreaching statement, that deadly traffic accidents are becoming a more common occurrence due to I-PASS and use one example of an accident that killed a little girl. Of course, you give no evidence that this was caused by the toll booths, and no evidence that this was more than a single, tragic, anecdotal occurrence.
Two, as of right now the I-PASS only speeds things up for I-PASS users. Why? Because not enough people and not enough lanes are committed to I-PASS. Sooner or later, you will see tollbooths with 8 I-PASS lanes and 2 manual lanes, or something close to that.
I-PASS speeds things up for I-PASS users. And as more people use I-PASS and more lanes are dedicated to I-PASS users, all but the most foolhardy Chicago commuters who refuse to use the technology will have a significantly easier commute.
He's totally right about the increased danger. There haven't been any studies on it, that's the problem -- but its been a topic of conversation in the city of late.
There's no doubt in my mind the crossover before and after causes more accidents now -- few Chicago natives would.
Maybe more IPASS lanes will fix this, maybe not.
Don't get me wrong, I love my IPASS, but these problems aren't a Wisconsinite's imagination.
Need some evidence? I was involved in a double-fatal accident on the IL tollway as a direct result of an impending toll plaza and spent 9 days in St. Anthony's hospital in Rockford, IL in critical condition with head injuries. Thats all the evidence I need pal. That roadway has long been known as one of the most dangerous toll roads in the nation. Evidence
FUCK THE TOLLWAYS.
FREE HIGHWAYS MOTHERFUCKERS!
Illinois drivers should be forced to buy a WI Pass to drive on WI roads.
We should truck all of the state's sewage to beloit and then just dump it, raw, into the rock river to spite this FIB assfucks. Goddamn, they're like the staten island daegos but dumber (if that's possible).
I prefer the long island chicks...they may be a bit snotty but they do take care of themselves.
Isn't ironic that you can get into Madison for free and have to pay to enter the smelly burgh of Rockford.
Tollways are unconstitutional for several reasons:
1) as pointed out in another post, the tolls were to end when the roads were paid for...we are long past that time
2) the Interstate Highway system is a federal arrangement -- why should any state get to extort money from those passing through?
3) setting one price for I-PASS and doubling it for cash payers is price-gouging.
Tolls on interstates should be illegal. They should also be illegal for getting in and out of airports (hello, Orlando) and they should ONLY be charged one way (you pay to get into San Francisco, it is free to get out).
That whole fucking system should be outlawed; sales taxes are bad enough, tolls are ridiculous
Just a note...
I've been aware of these problems for quite some time but an incident last weekend sparked this column. I was on the way back from covering the Michigan-Wisconsin basketball game when I got into the infamous Gary, Ind. whiteout (you might have heard about it on TV -- in seven years of winter driving I've never seen anything like it).
Anyway, the storm in Indiana might have been the worst, but the Illinois stretch of 290/294 had the most accidents. Why? Because of plaza crossover. Incidents are on the rise, it's only a matter of time until they create a study to link these things together.
-P. Klemz
Herald Sports
I accidentally drove through the Truck IPASS lane on my way to Tampa for the bowl game, because I was looking to see how much the toll was. But the fibs had all the signs covered because they were about to double the tolls. I figured there would be a camera taking pictures of cars or something that would alert the proper authorities that I really shouldn't have been in that lane. But nothing has happened. Anywho, I think i will keep doing that until someone tickets me, because I don't see how I can be punished. Moral of the story: go through the IPASS. It's really the best way Wisconsin can stick it to them.