CSNbbs

I-88 tolls double starting January 1, 2005 for non I-Pass users. I guess I'll get my butt over to the Jewel and fork over the $50.00.

Do it. Getting an I-pass is like getting a cell phone for the first time; once you get it, you can't believe you were able to get along without it.

Is it just me, or do other people feel that this whole toll increase is a crock of ******. I don't use the tollways that much, and now I must either pay double or get an I-Pass. I just hate to be forced to do something.

News story on channel 9 tonight saying how I-Pass usage is increasing, with no mention that if you don't get an I-Pass you will be paying double tolls. Gee I wonder why usage is increasing, nice spin Channel 9. :mad:

you aren't being forced to do anything. there is no gun to your head that will kill you if you don't take the tollway. If you don't want to pay to take the (usually) faster way, then don't. I'm so sick of people complaining about being "forced" to pay tolls and that since we pay taxes we shouldn't have to pay tolls. Realize that teh tollway does *not* get tax money. If the tollways were made free teh maintence of several hundred high traffic miles of road would be added to the IDOT. They would have to increase the already insanely high gas taxes we already pay to cover the new maintenece they would have to do. If you dont want to pay take a different road.

And no I do not work for the tollway. And I rarely use it, which drive my wife nuts because she wants to go that way since its usually faster.

I'm from wisconsin...so im biased...maybe its because i like nice roads...and wisconsin has good roads..and our roads in illinois suck ******....or maybe its because many many people die every year in toll related deaths (uh, lets me smart and put a big friggin road block up on a 65mph road) BUT

Tolls are the stupidest idea known to man.
Increase taxes a little bit and get rid of these road hazards.

If you could pay a little bit more in taxes but save a life would you? How bout if you could save hundreds?

Only a moron would chose the hundreds of lives lost to save a few dollars....

Please show me the hundreds of deaths that occur each year becasue of the tolls themselves. There actually was an accident at a booth recently that did kill two people, but that is *extremely* rare. Yes there are fatal crashes on the tollway, but they almost never are at a toll booth, they are on the road section and would have occurred if it was a tollway or freeway.
I'll agree that WI has better roads than IL in general, but I'd say thats more due to a better government not wasting its money than we have here in IL. If our gov't wasn't so corrupt and inefficiant they might be able to afford to fix the roads with the money thay already have.

i believe that the tollway was set up so that they tolls would pay for the original cost of building the roads then be abolished after the cost is recovered. please correct me if i am wrong on that. but i do believe the tollways have been around for long enough to recover that cost.

It's all politics and graft. When the tollways were built over 40 years ago, the tolls were established as a way to pay off the construction bonds. The roads were paid for many, many times and we still have the tolls. For those of you who favor tolls, ever get caught in a five to ten mile backup at a toll booth? You'll change you tune pretty fast!

Tolls are a way to stuff pockets and reward politically-connected contractors. Stop in at the ISTHA headquarters on Ogden Avenue and tell me that was a prudent expenditure of government monies. You'll marvel at all of the opulent glass and marble in that building.

More money is spent on road repair and construction than any other social program. Politically-connected construction firms are getting fat and giving tons of money back to the politicians. How many times do we see the same road section repaired year after year after year? If they wouldn't use substandard materials this would not be necessary. Some roads are repaired even if they don't need it. Witness the section of I-80 at the Indiana border, continuing as the Borman Expressway in Indiana. I have travelled that area for the past 30 years. Not a year has gone by when this area was not under construction/repair. This is no exaggeration. Every stinking Spring, the road crews descend on that area and the traffic backs up for miles and miles.

Politics and graft at its best, folks!

isnt the toll on the skyway like $2.50 just to hope on?

got to love city of chicago

huskie 99 Wrote:isnt the toll on the skyway like $2.50 just to hope on?

got to love city of chicago

It's $2.50 to use the whole Skyway. You pay the toll once. Of course, that's each way. Wait till it REALLY goes up in a few years!!

You don't want more taxes, you get tollways.

There's a way you can avoid the 55 and 40 cent tolls on Annie Glidden & Peace Rd., though it is a bit illegal. If you are driving westbound on 88, go into the DeKalb Oasis and pull a U-turn by the Mobil Gas station. Come back Eastbound on 88 and pick up Peace Rd. I did this a bunch of times even when I had I-PASS and saves you a butt load of money. With all the money your saving, you can buy more important thinks like beer!!!!

Since I disagree with calvin12 so much, I have to change my avatar appropriately.

The Illinois Tollway Authority, has to be the biggest scam/slush-fund in the state. And that's saying alot, considering Chicago is in this state.

Illinois roads suck, and you can't blame it all on the weather. Iowa, Wisconsin, Ohio and every state in the northeast have better roads than Illinois.

Putting up a road block in the middle of a 65 mph highway is a very stupid idea. I have been involved in a tool booth accident myself. It shows that the tollway authority is more concerned with finding ways to trap motorist, so they can extract money from them, than they are with safety or efficiency. While I did not appreciate the much higher tolls in the Northeast (almost $30.00 in tolls alone to drive from Massachusettes to Maryland) they at least have the right idea of ticketing you when you enter, and charging you when you exit, so they do not cause a traffic jam in the middle.

The Tollway Authority tried to sell their building, but they had trouble finding a buyer, because any non-government enterprise concerned with their bottom line would not want to throw money away on a building like that.

:mad: What really has me steamed now is this idea of charging non-IPASS users twice as much as IPASS users for the same service. So much for equal representation. Here's a great idea. How about if the state sells special state flags to home owners. Youi can buy them at Jewel. Those who chose not to hang the flag over their door will pay twice as much property tax as those who do.

Quote:you aren't being forced to do anything. there is no gun to your head that will kill you if you don't take the tollway. If you don't want to pay to take the (usually) faster way, then don't. I'm so sick of people complaining about being "forced" to pay tolls and that since we pay taxes we shouldn't have to pay tolls.

Exactly. Under my final solution, you are not being forced to buy a flag and you are not being forced to buy a house or live in Illinois. At least not at first.

Here's my prediction. I base this prediction on three principles.

1) Governments do not make budgets based on the money they have, but on the money they anticipate receiveing.

2) Politicians are horrible economists.

3) Politicians create their own crises, so they can "solve" them by raising taxes, fines, or fees, and fatten their wallets

The Tollway Authority has already set their budget based the assumption that the half of the drivers who have not bought an IPASS will fork over twice as much tolls. They also assume that there will be as many or more people taking the tollway in 2005 as there were in 2004. They figure that the drivers who get IPASS will pay enough in the price of the IPASS, that it will make up for less tolls.

However, the stubborn drivers who refuse to get the IPASS (that calvin12 claims that no one is forcing them to buy) will take alternate routes, rather than drive on the tollway. The state will not take in as much money as they thought they would, and this will bring about a "budget crisis". Time to raise the tolls.

Here's my solution (my previous solution was just sarcasm, in case you did not get it). PRIVATIZE THE TOLL ROADS!

Quote:There's a way you can avoid the 55 and 40 cent tolls on Annie Glidden & Peace Rd., though it is a bit illegal. If you are driving westbound on 88, go into the DeKalb Oasis and pull a U-turn by the Mobil Gas station. Come back Eastbound on 88 and pick up Peace Rd. I did this a bunch of times even when I had I-PASS and saves you a butt load of money. With all the money your saving, you can buy more important thinks like beer!!!! 

NIUFitz, it is because of the spirit of innovative people like you that America still remains a mostly free country. :bighat: Of course, you still pay an inflated tax on the beer (Thanks George Ryan :cuss: :cuss: :cuss: ), but it's still a savings.

I do not see how it is illegal, and what police officer is going to waste his time monitoring cars entering and exiting the Oasis? :cop:

That also sounds like a good down and in play. If you can scale it down to within 50 yards, NIU's receivers could run that patern on the field.

I know people that have received tickest for using the "back way" of the tolls... Here in Des Plaines and in Belvidere (which is where I'm from).
Yes, the tolls should be Illeagal. They were supposed to be lifted when the original project was paid off. Just like the lottery scam... We'll use the money for schools.... yeah rrrrright.

The I pass lanes are a joke in rush hour also... they need to make EVERY lane an open I pass lane, which I think they are going to do eventually.

Have any of you ever seen a dumba$$' backing out of an I pass lane? I have... the guy actually put his car in reverse! What a moron. Also, I've seen out of state people freak out and make a drastic move over to the right... Like you're going to get arrested or heavily fined. Just stay in you dam lane and drive through the friggin thing. Before I got I pass I did it all the time... never got fined.

Speaking of which... get plate covers that are louvered!!!

I am sure you made every effort to call that 1-800 number the state provides at the change only tolls for those who do not have the change.

I could not type that with a straight face.

I do not think the Tollway Authority really wants you to pay for every single toll. If every driver paid every toll, the police would have no one to pull over (except speeders), so they could not get their cut of the slush fund.

NIUFitz Wrote:There's a way you can avoid the 55 and 40 cent tolls on Annie Glidden & Peace Rd., though it is a bit illegal. If you are driving westbound on 88, go into the DeKalb Oasis and pull a U-turn by the Mobil Gas station. Come back Eastbound on 88 and pick up Peace Rd. I did this a bunch of times even when I had I-PASS and saves you a butt load of money. With all the money your saving, you can buy more important thinks like beer!!!!

How many miles are you driving out of your way to save .50??? When you finally get caught, your fine will be so high that you wan't be able to afford beer for a year.

Huskie_Jon Wrote:Illinois roads suck, and you can't blame it all on the weather. Iowa, Wisconsin, Ohio and every state in the northeast have better roads than Illinois.

I have heard from pretty reliable sources that this is a scam in and of itself. From what I've heard ( mind you I'm no expert on road construction, so this could be pure hokum) the composition of the road-building material used in Wisco, Minne etc.., is different than what it is here. They use materials which have greater breathability, similiar to what's used in parking garages (have you ever seen a parking garage receiving road repairs?) thus they're more durable, and less prone to break apart every two years like they do in Illinois.

The conspiracy theory, such as it is, is that the construction companies who do most of the road work in Illinois have steadfastly opposed the use of these materials as it will ultimately cost them lucrative contracts. Naturally, politicians, who receive generous campaign contributions from these construction firms, are only too happy to comply, at the expense of the taxpayers, of course.

Maybe true, maybe not, but it sounds pretty plausible to me. It'd just be business as usual here in the ol Land o Lincoln... :rolleyes:

NIUHuskie Wrote:

NIUFitz Wrote:There's a way you can avoid the 55 and 40  cent tolls on Annie Glidden & Peace Rd., though it is a bit illegal. If you are driving westbound on 88, go into the DeKalb Oasis and pull a U-turn by the Mobil Gas station. Come back Eastbound on 88 and pick up Peace Rd.  I did this a bunch of times even when I had I-PASS and saves you a butt load of money. With all the money your saving, you can buy more important thinks like beer!!!!

How many miles are you driving out of your way to save .50??? When you finally get caught, your fine will be so high that you wan't be able to afford beer for a year.

Actually I was saving 55 cents and I was only back tracking 2 or 3 miles. I did it a lot during my last year at NIU while I was commuting back from my internship in Naperville. I never got caught and I'm not at DeKalb anymore so I came out ahead. :D

The roads have to be paid for somehow. At least this way the people who use the road pay for maintenance. If you paid for them through vehicle registration or income taxes, people who live down state and never drive on the toll ways would say that it wasn't right too. I agree that the corruption in the toll authority is rampant. At least if you use Ipass you don't allow toll workers to drive home with hundreds of pounds of change in their trunks. (This has happened). It will be harder to embezzle the money.

I guess that is what is so frustrating about government. It is so politicized that nothing gets done. What does get done has so much graft involved that you end up paying much more than you ever should have.

Someone ought to do a calculation of how much of your taxes just get flat wasted through corruption, mis-use and extravagance. I bet it would truly make you sick.