Posted on 08/25/2004 1:29:31 PM PDT by Rutles4Ever
Governor wants to overhaul toll system, change rates
Gov. Rod Blagojevich proposed a major overhaul of the state's tollway system Wednesday that would eliminate congested toll plazas and rebuild 274 miles of roads but also raise rates for truckers and drivers not using an electronic I-PASS.
Blagojevich said the 10-year, $5.3 billion plan would reduce traffic jams for the tollway's 1.3 million daily users, saving commuters time and money.
(Excerpt) Read more at chicagotribune.com ...
GRRRRR....
500 mil a year to do this?
How much does the state subsidize this I-PASS system?
I paid $50 for my IPASS unit. I pay 40-50c every time I go through a terminal. How the heck does this cost come to 500 million a year?
Drop the 274 miles of roads. Just make more lanes with IPASS. Let private vendors sell the units so they can compete thus lowering the costs of the units. Allow enterprises to add features to them like tracking your tolls, miles, etc.
...And then add a 1$ surcharge per month because the I-Pass (Sounds like EZ Pass) computers and administration systems don't work right.
The solution should not be to make it easier to pay the toll the solution should be to stop having to pay the tolls.
They've been saying that the tollways would eventually be eliminated for 50 years.
I've had an IPASS for at least 10 years, geez, I don't think I paid $50 for it.
Tearing down the Deerfield Toll Plaza was a huge step in the correct direction! The Tollway Authority is corrupt (but so what is new in the Chicago area politics?!).
Although building them, and tearing out the old ones, will cost God knows how much, plus the usual, or, I don't know, 30% to 50% Illinois Corruption Assessment.
And as far as the Hillside Strangler goes; yes, you're right. For those people travelling on I-290, all they did was shift the traffic jam closer to Chicago. However, for those of us who commute on I-294, what that did was to pull part of the traffic jam off of I-294, speeding up traffic on it. Since I rarely travel I-290, I can't answer for what it did to that traffic. But if it didn't increase total travel time on I-290, then it seems to me that it was an overall benefit.
I absolutely refuse to get the Big Brother I-Pass.
A royal pain in the butt for out-of-staters who won't buy an I-Pass (and shouldn't have to).
Has Willie Green weighed-in on the loss of these toll-collector jobs?
Fair enough to call for the elimination of the tolls altogether, and putting these roads into the rest of the Highway system. But it's my subjective belief that the toll roads are better maintained, summer and winter, than the freeways. We're not getting our money's full worth, but we are getting something for our money.
rebuild 274 miles of roads
Rebuilding 274 miles, while keeping traffic more or less moving, and paying union wage scales? Does't sound way out of line to me. Of course, there will probably be ample "cost overruns" to cover necessary graft and corruption.
Believe it or not, most toll collection system cost between $60-200K per lane. Much of this cost is for sensors, computers & installation, but there is also a pretty good chunk for software and administration.
Even at that cost, $500M sounds high (I doubt we are talking about 2000 lanes).
The $50 you paid for the Mark IV transponder barely covers the cost of the device though.
The tolls were not supposed to last forever. They were supposed to end some time ago. The solution is not to be happy that they are better maintained, but rather to demand that the gasoline taxes actually go towards road maintenance.
Toll roads are ideal for long stretches of rural highways where the volume of traffic is too low to justify spending substantial amounts of general tax revenue on roadway maintenance. The real problem with toll roads is that they never work properly in densely-populated metropolitan areas, because the toll collection process is a major impediment in the operation of the roadway system.
I'm not sure which one I have - mine has the digital display. I paid less than $50 for sure, since I got mine through an American Express card deal.
I can't see it being that expensive considering the costs of the components cannot be all that much.
The problem is that in many states (as with the Federal government), gasoline taxes cannot be used for roadway maintenance -- they are specifically intended to be used for capital projects, not ongoing maintenance.
Unless somethings changed recently, the $50 includes $40 in tolls, the device is $10.
damn crooks. BTW, the head of the toll booth department makes $100k/year and no one knows what her job is.
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