I really do understand where all the complaints are coming from. I changed jobs so I would no longer have to commute an hour and a half. I live in the city so I don’t have to drive to the city.
That said, I don’t get these vows to never go to Chicago or Illinois again. It seems like that would be a better arrangement for all parties yet it’s being tossed around like some kind of threat. Am I misunderstanding?
I kind of liken it to the winters here; if you can’t deal with it, it’s your loss. Chicago is a magnificent city with some serious problems, just like every other city. If driving is your big beef, then by all means stay away. Just one less driver on the road.
Ah! So I’m unqualified to bitch thoroughly and properly, as a native would. That I will gladly grant you. You have (thank Og) far more experience than I with the nuances of Chicagoland traffic hell.
Wait, this just doesn’t make sense. How far west did you start? Most people coming or going into Wisconsin do it either by I-94 or I-294, both of which are by Bristol (yes, I’m a Rennie). Both of those just swoop around and take you around Chicago, then spit you out east at Indiana. Hardly “the whole state”. The north end of Chicago is 50 miles away from the Wisconsin border. There’s a whole bunch more to the state south of us!
Really, it’s like driving around the outskirts of London and saying you went through “the whole of England”!
I see what you’re saying, and I apologize for being overly-dramatic. Tends to happen when I get irked.
It was 94, I think, that we took from Wisconsin to Chicago, then 90 the rest of the way. I’m not the navigator (thank God), so I’m a bit fuzzy on the exact route numbers. On the return trip, I left from Bloomington, MN, drove through Wisconsin into Illinois.
Again, seconding the whole, “what you experienced doesn’t sound like Open Road Tolling” thing. I drive on a particular stretch of I-90 (Rockford to Elgin) every weekday. Open road tolling reduced the number of tollbooths that I encounter each way (from two on the highway and one at the exit to one on the highway and one at the exit). Also, now that it’s operational, I don’t have to slow down and creeeep through the IPass lane; I can breeze through at a nice 45 mph.
Now, when it was under construction. . .yeah, it really, really stank. Grr.
When I woke up at 10, it was 85, and currently, it’s 88 with 66% humidity, heat index of 98. This afternoon, it’ll sneak up to 92 with an index of 101 or so… Overnight, it’ll be 79. You see, this is how it is every day from late April until mid September / early October.
But it’s a wet heat, so it’s not so bad . And we reap the benefits of our struggle in the “winter”, when it’s a rare day that gets down to 40, and the low-70s are our normal high.
I laugh at your slowness. Our open road toll facilities make us drop our speeds to 60, because we don’t have time for this 45 mph nonsense.
Ah the concept that the IPass is a great idea-,with half tolls and fast driving- but it is not practical for non-residents- makes it seem like Il has come up with a way to tax out of state transit through their state. Which is UnConstitutional, but they did it pretty tricky, so that it looks legal. Assholes.
No offense intended, but I am astounded that anyone likes the idea of IPass or EZ-Pass, or whatever it’s called in your neck of the woods.
Sure, it’s better than paying a toll the usual way. But how about…
NOT HAVING TOLL BOOTHS OR EZ-PASS??!!
Why do we applaud when it is made more convenient to pay an onerous fee that shouldn’t be there in the first place?
The roads benefit everyone, even those who don’t themselves drive. They should be completely funded through taxes. And there are big drawbacks to tollbooths or IPass.
Tollbooths mean we have to make roads stop their basic function (letting people drive quickly with few interruptions) in order to make them work. That’s just absurd.
And tolls in any form, even through a quick IPass system are just plain unfriendly, and discourage travel *. One of our great freedoms is the (supposed) ability to travel freely in our country. These fees tinge the travel experience with beaurocracy.
Finally, the EZ-Pass technology could too easily be used as a tracking system for several kinds of bad purposes.
I hereby volunteer to pay double the taxes I currently pay. The only two things I want that we don’t have now are universal health care for everyone and toll-free roads.
Ah, but you say the roads are already too crowded. Different problem. “Solving” that problem by having tolls to thin out the driving herd seems to me just punitive. I mean, come on, is that really the best idea we can come up with?
Realism. I know full well that they have no plans to eliminate these tolls, so I might as well be happy about them making it easier to pay for them. It’s the best I can reasonably hope for.
I have no problem paying tolls when they’re located at the exits. It’s a very quick stop and the fee is usually negligible. What I object to, strenously, is the idea of having to come to a stop on the freeway itself.
The very concept seems ill-planned. I really don’t see what the benefits of this new system would be over traditional exit-tolling. Yeah, you wouldn’t have to man every exit, but it seems like you’re going to have to have an equal man-power to staff all of the booths in the toll lanes. (If that was the issue, they could have just used the automated baskets.) They don’t have to print the tickets, sure, but is that really such a huge cost as to inspire creating a system which totally negates the intended purpose of the freeway (i.e smooth traffic flow?)
Just like those millions of people who are deathly afraid of working in high rise office buildings today? :rolleyes:
I can imagine nothing short of a uninhabited cornfield that would act as a less effective terror target than a toll plaza. Yes, several dozen people would die. Not hundreds, the concentration of people in a congested road still doesn’t reach that level unless there’s a dozen full buses parked side by side. In reality most people are driving alone, inside a car which offers not insubstantial protection from blast and debris. However no lasting damage would be done, the road would be essentially unharmed and the debris could easily be cleaned up withing a matter of days. It could be done overnight if you disregard the forensic process. A month later you’re likely to be completely unable to tell anything happened there.
Hundreds and hundreds of people die on the roads every single day from a variety causes. That’s in no way terrorized people or caused anyone to hesitate to use highways. Why would you think some truck bomb would have more impact? Statistically it’s utterly insignificant.
. And we reap the benefits of our struggle in the “winter”, when it’s a rare day that gets down to 40, and the low-70s are our normal high.
