Take a look at these comments, which were under the article about Jim Tobin’s court suit against the Toll Tax hike:
Cindy says:
This was a really stupid move.
I don’t know anyone that uses the tollway anymore.
People cannot afford this robbery. Now they get ZERO dollars because they got greedy.
Traffic jam before the Toll Tax hike. The sign says, "Open Road Tolling." That seems to be more true now than before the 88% hike in tolls.
Jim says:
I always listen to the traffic report and the old “20-30 minute travel times” are now “traffic is flowing nicely.”
They basically took away our roads away from us by increasing the costs.
With the insanely high gas tax one would think that there would be sufficient funds there to fill a non-corrupt budget.
I guess the corruption needs some serious cash!
As I drove to Schaumburg Thursday afternoon, I was glad to use Route 62 and not the Tollway.
Same thing, coming home.
From Route 62 and Hwy. 53, it would have been easy to hop on the Tollway and take it west to Huntley.
Instead, I enjoyed Route 62 westbound and got home in mid-evening with no hassle and no tolls.
Thanks for a place to vent! My experience with the Illinois Tollway is simple. While visiting the state for work, I inadvertently missed a few tolls, but called within seven days after I learned what to do as a concerned citizen. The tollway system online had no record of my tolls, but asked me to identify which exits! Ridiculous! Who can remember when your new to the city and you’re trying to safely navigate through the maze of exits and onramps. I’m closely following my iPhone for directions!
So I contacted the Tollway. The lady there was kind enough, but she stated my tolls were not showing up. “How can I pay them within seven days then?” “YOU CANNOT”, was the response. I bought an IPass. I tried to pay for any violations, there were none. One month later I get a bill for $107.06. This to me is government approved crime on a large scale. The tolls amounted to less than a few dollars. There was no way to pay them within seven days.
I see this system has taken away thousands of drivers registrations. People who are simply trying to commute. Some like me who were not aware of the system and had no recourse.
I want to declare this system is illegal. It must be run by criminals. It is offensive, it is unethical, it is dangerous. The goal of transportation is not to make criminals out of commuters. The goal is safe commuting. Has anyone considered that these tollways are ACCESSIBLE FROM PUBLIC HIGHWAY SYSTEMS? While commuting, if you have no prior knowledge of what highway is a tollway, and your electronic map is guiding you to use roadway, not informing it is a tollway, then there is a MAJOR conflict that is OVERLOOKED. The customer is becoming a customer not by choice, but by ignorance. This is called a trap. Any government that allows citizens to become TRAPPED has got to be criminal. The object of governance is nurture of citizens. Safety of citizens, not creation of violators.
I paid the fine and requested I be refunded. What about people who do not have the time nor inclination to defend themselves?
Who is defending these people? This is not a lawyers role, it is governance role. DO YOUR JOB.