Drew Veeneman is just destroying the toll-road pols on the wrong side of the toll booths at the Sam Adams Alliance blog. Once again, since I don’t want to steal his thunder, I’ll point you in the general direction:
– Part 1 starts with the corruption of the 1990s, and ties in George Ryan’s “brilliant” idea to flop on a campaign pledge to dump the Tollway Authority.
– Part 2 runs with the fallacies of the I-Pass system, especially its enforcement of “violators” (read the post to see why I put that in scare quotes).
I’ll keep this updated with the links to additional parts.
As a cheddarhead who occassionally has to go to (or through) Chicagoland, I hate having to choose between trying to time the lights on the Skokie Highway (and inevitably failing) and ultimately going through the heart of Chicago (if I have to go beyond) or hacking off an arm to pay for the tolls (which Rod Blagojevich doubled for cash users immediately upon getting into office) that pay for stuff like a helipad, custom office chairs for all, and marble floors at Taj Mahal Authority Drive. Worse, the special State Police unit designated for the tollways are starting to actually run speed traps (fortunately, I haven’t been nabbed yet).
Steve,
I am also from Wisconsin. I was in Illinois for a training session in November 2007. On my way to and from the Hoffman Estates area, I passed through several tolls. I committed three I-PASS violations because of road construction and inadequate, missing, or misleading signage. I have spoken with several people who committed I-PASS violations during the same period because of the road construction and poor signage. Some of these people live in Illinois and even work for the Illinois government.
I have used the roads in Illinois for more than 30 years without violation. Therefore, I believe that I should not be punished for the Illinois Tollway Authority’s failure to provide adequate signage while the Tollway was under construction.
I have made several attempts to contact Illinois state and federal officials with no response. My numerous calls have neither been answered nor returned. Therefore, I am seeking information and input from others with similar experiences. I plan on taking this information to the proper authorities in Wisconsin.
(Edit/steveegg) – E-mail removed; you’ll thank me later.
Dave