Category Archives: I-Pass
Tips, Tricks & Alternative Routes To Avoid Illinois Tollway Rate Increases
Is the Illinois Tollway’s brand new, nearly doubled rate increases punishing your wallet?
Can’t afford to use your I-PASS anymore?
Both the Chicago Tribune and the Daily Herald offer insight into alternative travel routes to help drivers to save some money by avoiding the tollway.
In most cases, these routes extend travel times–often increasing driving times significantly.
One Herald reader explains while one alternative route saves him on tolls, the extra expense on gas and wear and tear on his vehicle aren’t worth it, so he’s stuck with paying the more expensive tolls.
Judge Tosses Lawsuit To Stop Toll Hikes
Jim Tobin is mad.
Last week, judge Rita Novak dismissed a lawsuit filed by Tobin and others on December 20th, that questioned the Illinois Tollway Authority’s ability to raise toll rates and declined to issue an injunction to stop the 87% toll increase slated to go into effect on January 1st.
“The hearing was a spectacle,” said Tobin. “Tollway users were represented by noted attorney Andrew Spiegel, and State Attorney General Lisa Madigan (D) must have been worried, because she had six — that’s right — six of her taxpayer paid staff there to represent the Tollway Authority.”
Tobin is the founder of Taxpayers United for America (TUA) , a non-profit group that had just celebrated it’s 35th year of fighting higher taxes.
4500 I-PASS User Accounts Hit By Software Glitch
Have you seen some crazy transactions on your credit card or on your bank account from I-PASS Friday?
Not to worry, says the Illinois Tollway Authority, it was just a software glitch.
In a statement Friday, the Illinois Tollway says some customers scheduled for automatic balance replenishment may have seen a series of charges and refunds to their accounts.
“As a result, I-PASS customers may notice unnecessary charges and refunds from the Tollway on their credit and debit cards,” the statement said. “We are currently working to ensure that all I-PASS automatic replenishment accounts have been correctly refunded. We are also working with our banks to ensure that customers do not incur overdraft fees as a result of this computer problem.”
Illinois Tollway Authority Whacks Drivers With Painful Toll Price Increase
Board Approves Plan That Nearly Doubles Toll Prices
This one is going to hurt.
On Thursday, the Illinois Tollway Board of Directors approved the $12 billion, 15 year capital plan which not only makes infrastructure improvements to the tollway system, but nearly doubles the cost of toll prices for most drivers.
This price boost will cost motorists using I-PASS transponders an additional 35 cents per toll, jumping the current 40 cent toll to 75 cents–an 87% increase. This is the first toll increase for I-PASS users in 28 years.
After a series of 15 listening session meetings around northern Illinois of the state, the board approved the plan on a 7-1 vote based on the overall positive response that came in from the over 1,900 attendees, letters, emails and the Tollway’s website. The Tollway Authority says over 85.5% of the response was positive with only 9.5% of attendees opposing the plan.
Quinn Signals Support Of Tollway Price Bump
A few weeks ago, the Illinois Tollway Authority proposedincreasing the cost of tolls by nearly double.
According to WBEZ Radio (91.5 FM), Governor Pat Quinn has not shown his hand on his feelings on the price increase, until Friday.
The radio station reports Quinn made it pretty darn clear he’s behind most tolls paid using I-PASS, would go from 40 cents to 75 cents in most cases.
Illinois Tollway Drivers May See Price Hike
Toll Authority Proposal Nearly Doubles Toll Cost
Get your wallets ready motorists, it may cost you more to drive the Illinois Tollway starting January 1st.
The Illinois Tollway Authority unveiled a $12 billion, 15-year capital improvement plan on Thursday. But this ambitious plan comes with a cost to I-PASS users, nearly doubling the current cost of a toll using an I-PASS unit.
It’s been 28 years since toll rates were last increased to the current 40 cents per toll, most tollbooths charge. The Toll Authority’s plan calls for bumping up the price 35 cents to 75 cents per toll. Of course, drivers paying with cash will pay twice that.
Tollbooth Scofflaws Can Now Fight Violations Online
Illinois Tollway drivers now have a new way to dispute violations for not paying their tolls–online.
According to an informative piece in today’s Chicago Tribune, the Illinois Tollway Authority quietly unveiled this internet based option to contest tollway violations at the beginning of April. Previously, much like parking tickets, motorists only had two ways to fight back–by mail or at an in-person hearing.
The problem with an in-person tollway violation administrative hearing, there is only one, inconvenient location for hearings. Drivers have to travel all the way out to west suburban Downers Grove to fight a tollway ticket.
Illinois Toll Authority Considering Rate Hikes?
If you believe a story Monday morning in Crain’s Chicago Business, the Illinois Toll Authority, facing severe financial pressures, will be forced to increase the cost of tolls to I-Pass users on its’ 286 miles of expressways.
In an excellent, in-depth and well researched piece on the current state of the toll authority, writer James Ylisela Jr. lays out a compelling argument that essentially gives the organization no choice but to bump up toll rates.
But not so fast according tollway Chairman Paula Wolff, quoted by Daily Herald transportation writer Marni Pyke in a story late in the day on Monday.
“There is no proposal on the table for a toll increase,” tollway Chairman Paula Wolff said Monday. “Currently, there is no discussion going on about a toll increase.”
‘Zombie’ I-Pass Transponders Invading Illinois Cars
Many I-Pass transponders are passing to the great beyond according to Daily Herald reporter Marni Pyke.
In Pyke’s recent In Transit column, she reports that an estimated 200,000 I-Pass units went dead in 2009 and more expected to kick the bucket in the near future. The Toll Authority thinks over 1.2 million units will go bye-bye in 2013.
It seems I-Pass units have only an 8 and half year life expectancy before the battery goes dead. The Illinois Toll Authority is going to start sending letters to drivers who first got their I-Pass in the late ’90s to warn them of the issue and give them a chance to exchange it for a new unit at either Jewel or a Tollway Oasis customer service center or at an Tollway Authority office.
If they don’t hear back from you, your unit may be deactivated.
The good news is, even though your unit may be dead, if your account is still active, the Toll Authority uses photos of your plate when it goes through tolls to debit your account. So it’s not like you’re getting fined because your unit is pushing up daisies.
Pyke suggests the next time you go through a toll, check the blue and yellow status lights. If they don’t light up, your unit may be DOA.
Here’s Pyke’s full column, “Tollway transponders in your vehicles don’t last forever.”
Thanks to Barnet for the tip.
