Illinois Tollway -- pay attention to pay tolls

Drove the Tri-State Tollway south from O'Hare the other day, and I see
they've been going great guns with the high-speed I-pass toll
collection. I guess it's great for the regular commuters, but if
you're an out-of-twner like me, you have to be very careful, or you
could miss some tolls.

What they have is instead of a toll barrier across the whole highway,
they have 4 lanes each way in the center where you can drive through
at full speed and have the toll charged to your I-Pass (what we folks
in the east coast call and EZ-pass). That's fine if you have an I-
Pass, but visitors like me, driving a rental car, don't. So for us,
we're supposed to move right and go through a conventional toll
barrier. The only problem is that half of the toll barriers are for I-
Pass only, which means you really have to move to the right or you're
going to inadvertently run the toll. Of course, in today's Big
Brother world, cameras will get your license tag number, with a nice
fat hefty fine being charged to enrich the coffers of the state, or,
apparently, the private company to which the state has turned over the
tollway. Oh, and did I forget to tell you that they don't bother to
post the toll rates, except in very small print right at the toll
booth, so you have to come to a complete stop and fiddle around to get
the toll, delaying traffic further.

Well, we were so confused by the poor signage and road layout (way to
got Illinois department of Transportation!) that we rann two of those
tolls. Fortunately, a native told us about the web page where you can
pay the tolls without getting fined.

http://www.illinoistollway.com/porta...=133,140795 0
http://www.illinoistollway.com/porta...chema=PORTA L

http://www.illinoistollway.com/porta...=133,140795 4

Which I did.

So if you're visiting the Chicago area, be careful out there!

(By the way, is it my imagination, or have Chicago drivers started to
take lessons from New Jersey drivers? It's been a few years since the
last time I was driving around Chicago, but they did seem to be a lot
more agressive this past trip.)

On Wed, 18 Jul 2007 19:01:30 -0700, Abe Kouris wrote:
Drove the Tri-State Tollway south from O'Hare the other day, and I see
they've been going great guns with the high-speed I-pass toll
collection. I guess it's great for the regular commuters, but if
you're an out-of-twner like me, you have to be very careful, or you
could miss some tolls.

This happened to my brother (traveling from Michigan to Milwaukee) last
winter. Found himself in what would become an I-Pass lane, and aggressive
speeders wouldn't let him out of the lane. He decided running the toll
was safer than stopping in middle of the Tri-State...

The other caveat, if you're a tourist on the Illinois Tollway... is that
some exits are exact-change, coins only. There is no attendant to accept
bills or provide change. These exits are not marked, you have no way of
knowing which ones are exact-change until you get to the tollbooth. Be
sure to have plenty of change in a variety of denominations before getting
on the Tollway.

(I will give you the heads-up that the exit from southbound I-90 to
westbound US-20, on the southeast side of Rockford, is an exact-change
ramp. This is now also where I-39 splits from I-90.)

After learning that I-Pass users are no longer required to slow down at
tollbooths, I've concluded it's no longer safe for tourists to use the
Tollway. Luckily I've found other ways to get to Wisconsin.

Doug Smith W9WI wrote:

The other caveat, if you're a tourist on the Illinois Tollway... is that
some exits are exact-change, coins only. There is no attendant to accept
bills or provide change. These exits are not marked, you have no way of
knowing which ones are exact-change until you get to the tollbooth.

I've encountered those in Texas and Florida as well. In Texas I had no
change so I just went through, and nothing ever came of it (a lot of
places give you one freebie in situations like this). When I fly I used
to leave all change at home because it's one less thing to empty out of
pockets for security. Now I keep a film canister or bag of coins in the
carry-on for this sort of thing.

On 2007-07-18 22:01:30 -0400, Abe Kouris said:

(By the way, is it my imagination, or have Chicago drivers started to
take lessons from New Jersey drivers? It's been a few years since the
last time I was driving around Chicago, but they did seem to be a lot
more agressive this past trip.)

Mean driving is pretty much universal now, especially in congested
urban areas of which Chicago is one of the best (?) examples.

On Jul 18, 7:01 pm, Abe Kouris wrote:
Drove the Tri-State Tollway south from O'Hare the other day, and I see
they've been going great guns with the high-speed I-pass toll
collection. I guess it's great for the regular commuters, but if
you're an out-of-twner like me, you have to be very careful, or you
could miss some tolls.

What they have is instead of a toll barrier across the whole highway,
they have 4 lanes each way in the center where you can drive through
at full speed and have the toll charged to your I-Pass (what we folks
in the east coast call and EZ-pass). That's fine if you have an I-
Pass, but visitors like me, driving a rental car, don't. So for us,
we're supposed to move right and go through a conventional toll
barrier. The only problem is that half of the toll barriers are for I-
Pass only, which means you really have to move to the right or you're
going to inadvertently run the toll. Of course, in today's Big
Brother world, cameras will get your license tag number, with a nice
fat hefty fine being charged to enrich the coffers of the state, or,
apparently, the private company to which the state has turned over the
tollway. Oh, and did I forget to tell you that they don't bother to
post the toll rates, except in very small print right at the toll
booth, so you have to come to a complete stop and fiddle around to get
the toll, delaying traffic further.

Well, we were so confused by the poor signage and road layout (way to
got Illinois department of Transportation!) that we rann two of those
tolls. Fortunately, a native told us about the web page where you can
pay the tolls without getting fined.

http://www.illinoistollway.com/porta...1395981&_dad=p...

http://www.illinoistollway.com/porta..._schema=PORTAL...

Which I did.

So if you're visiting the Chicago area, be careful out there!

(By the way, is it my imagination, or have Chicago drivers started to
take lessons from New Jersey drivers? It's been a few years since the
last time I was driving around Chicago, but they did seem to be a lot
more agressive this past trip.)


Did your rental company offer you an I-Pass option? I did that when I
was in Toronto and was able to drive the toll ways. Much easier.

"Abe Kouris" wrote in message
ups.com...

Well, we were so confused by the poor signage and road
layout (way to got Illinois department of Transportation!)
that we rann two of those tolls. Fortunately, a native told
us about the web page where you can pay the tolls without
getting fined.

Wouldn't it be a lot easier to run all the tolls and then use the website to
pay after?

Richard

On Jul 18, 10:01 pm, Abe Kouris wrote:
[snip]
What they have is instead of a toll barrier across the whole highway,
they have 4 lanes each way in the center where you can drive through
at full speed and have the toll charged to your I-Pass (what we folks
in the east coast call and EZ-pass). That's fine if you have an I-
Pass, but visitors like me, driving a rental car, don't. So for us,
we're supposed to move right and go through a conventional toll
barrier. The only problem is that half of the toll barriers are for I-
Pass only, which means you really have to move to the right or you're
going to inadvertently run the toll. Of course, in today's Big
Brother world, cameras will get your license tag number, with a nice
fat hefty fine being charged to enrich the coffers of the state, or,
apparently, the private company to which the state has turned over the
tollway.
[snip]

'Round these parts, the occasional toll cheat isn't pursued.
They even have signs telling folks NOT to stop in the automated
lanes. But the speed with which these things are spreading,
on conjunction with "congestion zone" charging, I figure some sort of
toll taking device may soon become standard on autos.

"me" wrote in message
ps.com...
On Jul 18, 10:01 pm, Abe Kouris wrote:
[snip]
What they have is instead of a toll barrier across the whole highway,
they have 4 lanes each way in the center where you can drive through
at full speed and have the toll charged to your I-Pass (what we folks
in the east coast call and EZ-pass). That's fine if you have an I-
Pass, but visitors like me, driving a rental car, don't. So for us,
we're supposed to move right and go through a conventional toll
barrier. The only problem is that half of the toll barriers are for I-
Pass only, which means you really have to move to the right or you're
going to inadvertently run the toll. Of course, in today's Big
Brother world, cameras will get your license tag number, with a nice
fat hefty fine being charged to enrich the coffers of the state, or,
apparently, the private company to which the state has turned over the
tollway.
[snip]

'Round these parts, the occasional toll cheat isn't pursued.
They even have signs telling folks NOT to stop in the automated
lanes. But the speed with which these things are spreading,
on conjunction with "congestion zone" charging, I figure some sort of
toll taking device may soon become standard on autos.

I use the NYS Thruway almost daily and have EZ Pass. The Thruway uses first
generation technology...you still have to slow to 5 MPH in most places,
though they've installed some 20MPG lanes and 30 MPH lanes on the Tappen Zee
Bridge.

A recent trip south brought me through my first ever 70 MPH EZ Pass in
Delaware.

I was chatting with a friend who was with me on the Delaware trip. He
remarked at how convenient that was. I said, yeah, it sure feels good to
have money automatically taken from me and I don't even have to slow down!

On Wed, 18 Jul 2007 19:01:30 -0700, Abe Kouris
wrote:


What they have is instead of a toll barrier across the whole highway,
they have 4 lanes each way in the center where you can drive through
at full speed and have the toll charged to your I-Pass (what we folks
in the east coast call and EZ-pass). That's fine if you have an I-
Pass, but visitors like me, driving a rental car, don't. So for us,
we're supposed to move right and go through a conventional toll
barrier. The only problem is that half of the toll barriers are for I-
Pass only, which means you really have to move to the right or you're
going to inadvertently run the toll. Of course, in today's Big
Brother world, cameras will get your license tag number, with a nice
fat hefty fine being charged to enrich the coffers of the state, or,
apparently, the private company to which the state has turned over the
tollway. Oh, and did I forget to tell you that they don't bother to
post the toll rates, except in very small print right at the toll
booth, so you have to come to a complete stop and fiddle around to get
the toll, delaying traffic further.


You may not have been aware that the cash toll is double the I-Pass
toll. Accordingly pretty much all locals have I-Pass, even infrequent
users of the toll system. The double standard toll is partly
cost-related (no tolltakers, etc. for I-Pass) but mainly, I think, a
means to force use of I-Pass, while collecting a nice premium from
visitors. This latter factor is in line with many other common
practices across the country, such as very high taxes on rental cars
at airports, enormous tax on hotel bills, etc., etc.

Every state/toll authority seems to have different toll signage.
Living in Chicago, I find our local signage just fine (signs for
amount of toll, location of cash lanes, etc., etc.) and am sometimes
confused in other states. For example, I don't go through the cash
lanes, but the signs for amount of toll at an exit are quite visible.
One gets used to any signage.

On 2007-07-20 22:53:12 -0400, "Bill in Schenectady" said:

I use the NYS Thruway almost daily and have EZ Pass. The Thruway uses first
generation technology...you still have to slow to 5 MPH in most places,
though they've installed some 20MPG lanes and 30 MPH lanes on the Tappen Zee
Bridge.

Also around Buffalo, now. I haven't checked Exit 25 in Albany, but it
might be next.