Luddites Pay Double To Use IL Toll Roads
from the and-so-it-goes... dept
theodp writes "Effective Jan. 1 at midnight, drivers on Illinois toll roads who refuse to or are unable to shell out $50 for an I-PASS are charged twice as much to use the tollway system as those who use the transponders to pay their tolls. Critics say the charge-$1-to-process-$1 scheme amounts to extortion." Northern California is pushing something similar to get more people to use what they call FastPass here, offering discounts to users. To be honest, it was a bit surprising that such systems weren't more popular out here when I moved from New York, where the EZPass system is ridiculously popular -- to the point that the majority of tollbooths on the major bridges and tunnels seem to be EZPass only. It also makes some sense that tolls manned by humans would cost extra -- as it is more costly for the government to pay for workers. It's not that different than when some banks started charging people to speak to a human teller rather than an ATM. Of course, there are some questions about privacy when it comes to these RFID-enabled tollbooth systems, but that's not the issue that's being discussed here. The one area where the Illinois rule is troublesome is that it requires $50 down to get one of these devices, which may be a bit steep for many on limited incomes. Also, it's still quite annoying that the various electronic tollbooth systems don't all work together. Some of them can work across multiple states, but there are at least four different systems that don't appear to work together.
Thank you for reading this Techdirt post. With so many things competing for everyone’s attention these days, we really appreciate you giving us your time. We work hard every day to put quality content out there for our community.
Techdirt is one of the few remaining truly independent media outlets. We do not have a giant corporation behind us, and we rely heavily on our community to support us, in an age when advertisers are increasingly uninterested in sponsoring small, independent sites — especially a site like ours that is unwilling to pull punches in its reporting and analysis.
While other websites have resorted to paywalls, registration requirements, and increasingly annoying/intrusive advertising, we have always kept Techdirt open and available to anyone. But in order to continue doing so, we need your support. We offer a variety of ways for our readers to support us, from direct donations to special subscriptions and cool merchandise — and every little bit helps. Thank you.
–The Techdirt Team
Reader Comments
Subscribe: RSS
View by: Time | Thread
What about visitors?
It's not because of the cost, but because of the sheer hassle involved. Many of the smaller exits only take coins, and only take bizarre amounts (15 cents or 35 cents, for example). This means that instead I'll have to come up with 30 cents or 70 cents - gee, guess I'll round up, unless I don't even HAVE any change on me because I just got off an AIRPLANE and didn't feel like carrying any through SECURITY.
So very lame.
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
What about poor people?
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
au tollroads
can buy 'credit' on it in $40 amounts. so who gets to keep the interest on the $40 ? certyainly not the consumer....
sydney airport now also has a $2 toll for taxis since its been privatised. why ? because they can ...
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
I have never regreted moving out of IL
they further increase their revinues by mailing
speeding tickets to people who's elapsed time
between toll booths exceeds the posted
speed limits?
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Thieving pricks
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re: Thieving pricks
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
No Subject Given
$50 to get a unit. $10 of that is 'deposit' that you will in theory get back when you turn in the unit after you're done with it. $40 in prepaid tolls that is charged an additional $40 when you reach a balance of $10. So that's an average of $10 deposit + $30 balance per ipass user in the government coffers collecting interest...
And if you don't buy into their scheme, you pay double as a passenger car driver (and you pay triple regardless if you're a commercial driver).
I'm also waiting for the tickets based on times from toll plaza to toll plaza. It's just a matter of time.
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
No Subject Given
clone the I-Pass transponders?
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
No Subject Given
Tolls have certainly gone beyond the original purpose of just paying off the road and now are used to pay for future expansions. This isn't the worst way of doing it I guess, it beats higher taxes. In the case of someplace like Chicago it makes more sense since there is all kinds of traffic passing through from out of state - its not really fair to put the full financial burden of building those roads on the local residents (not to mention the rising commute times which can be absolutely brutal).
I am an IL resident and use the toll roads every day. I have had an IPass for a long time, so for me this change works out wonderfully. I agree that the $50 buy in is pretty steep though and is probably one of the big reasons that IPass was not more popular prior to this. It is certainly going to be rough on visitors though, and for exits like the one near my house that is unattended and now requires 70 cents if you don't have an IPass - maybe their next step will be to accept dollar bills as payment :)
Another issue that has not been mentioned here is that the Trucks had their tolls as much as quadruple for rush hour times (it is still normal for them during off hours). In the Chicago/Gary area there is a huge amount of truck traffic and this will certainly help ease up the rush hours if a decent amount of trucks are pursuaded to move to off hours to drive.
As was mentioned though, it sure would be nice to have a national standard for these electronic passes so that they could be used anywhere.
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
THEY DON'T WORK !
We have 10 of them in our delivery vans.
@ least once a month I get a bill for a supposed run SppedPass.
After giving the transponder # I am then charged the correct amount.
In each case, its my responsibility to do their bill keeping which was to be simplified.
And for the privilege of using these faulty devices I get to pay a separate deposit on each box, am responsible for sending them in for " software " updates, & I get little to no benefit from them except not having to continually giver our drivers petty cash for such tolls.
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re: No Subject Given
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Commercial vehicle tolls
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
popularity?
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re: popularity?
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Its Extortion
[ link to this | view in chronology ]