The Illiana Expressway blog is moving from its /noilliana subdirectory to ChristopherHedges.com and will become a part of that Northwest Indiana and national “issues” blog.
Illiana Expressway entries will be tagged and posts here have been “mirrored” there to make searching easier and more convenient. Please update your records and thanks for visiting Illiana Expressway.
The “Blogging Mayor of Round Lake” in Illinois writes about NIMBY — not in my backyard — opposition to plans to build a new major road project in Lake County, Illinois.
The real opposition, the moneyed, vocal opposition, is coming from a different group: the NIMBYs. (NIMBY stands for “not in my back yard.”)
In some ways, it’s understandable. Given a choice, most everyone would prefer not to have a major thoroughfare running right by their neighborhood. If it were possible, we’d all like to live in the peace and quiet of a quaint nineteenth century village, while having all the modern conveniences at the same time. But, of course, that isn’t possible. There are always tradeoffs.
If each sides on the Illiana Expressway issue have to give a little, what should that be?
Can we grow Lake County, Indiana without the Illiana Expressway? (And, that assumes that growth is good — there are some who think otherwise).
How do we solve inevitable east-west traffic congestion on I-80 / I-94 — the Borman Expressway — and US 30 if we don’t build the Illiana Expressway?
Is there a way to build the Illiana Expressway that will be a win-win for all? Or, will it always be a “binary” issue — you’re either for it or opposed to it?
A Illinois news report suggests that the proposed Illiana Expressway’s creation might be influenced by the ability of the Illinois Toll Road Authority to catch toll cheaters who abuse open road tolling lanes. Illinois’ Toll Road officials don’t know how much money is lost to cheaters, according to the Daily Herald.
Writes Joseph Ryan of the Daily Herald:
Tollway officials announced last month that they would look at building a Route 53 north extension, the West suburban Prairie Parkway, the O’Hare western bypass and the south suburban Illiana Expressway.
They also are considering tolls on the Eisenhower Expressway and raising fees during rush hour to discourage congestion.
The success of all these projects hinges on Open Road Tolling, which eliminated backups caused by cars lining up to pay their tolls in favor of electronic charges. If the electronic system that catches toll cheats in I-PASS lanes isn’t sound, experts say, the public may find it that much harder to accept the expansions officials envision.
“This will really erode public confidence in (the tollway’s) ability to carry out what they are supposed to do,” said Joseph DiJohn, director of the University of Chicago’s Metropolitan Transportation Support Initiative.
“It will make it very difficult to get public support” for future projects, he added, if the problems aren’t fixed.
John Greuling, chairman and CEO of the Will County Center for Economic Development, says to watch for a push for the Illiana Expressway in 2008, reports the Herald News.
Don’t be surprised if area officials now start pushing hard for the Peotone airport and the Illiana expressway in 2008, Greuling predicted.
I took a drive on US 30 yesterday from Merrillville to Warsaw.
While I was driving on the four lane road cutting through a large swath of Northern Indiana farmland and undeveloped rural lands, I wondered if there was opposition to build that highway when it was first proposed? I haven’t heard of any, but that doesn’t mean that there weren’t anti US 30 groups rallying during the early 20th century.
Is the difference the private-public nature of the proposal?
Could it be the tolls?
Could it be opposition to anything that could connect into the NAFTA / NASCO highway system?
I wonder if the Illiana Expressway would be more acceptable to people if there were guarantees that bridges or underpasses would be built to allow easy crossing of the highway?
Just some thoughts. Feel free to elaborate and enlighten us with your viewpoints.
Comments Phil Angelo of the Kankakee Daily Journal on the chances of the Illiana Expressway being built in a 2007 end of the year wrap-up:
The year ended, too, with the Illiana Expressway, light commuter rail to Kankakee, and the Third Airport all remaining in the “talk and plan” stage. The most likely of the three is the airport, which will be grounded as long as people remain more concerned over who’s in charge instead of what gets done.
Since Macquarie Infrastructure Group Cintra is likely to be the company that will run the proposed Illiana Expressway — it makes sense that they’d be interested because they run the Chicago Skyway and the Indiana Toll Road — I’m posting some of my gripes in the Illiana Expressway blog instead of over at Region Life.
EZ-PASS Interoperability issues:
Drivers get stuck in the iZoom lanes and not because they are foolish and not paying attention.
There still seem to be some interoperability issues between I-PASS transponders and the iZoom system where it takes time for the Indiana Toll Road’s iZoom system to get word from the Illinois Tollroad’s I-PASS system that there is money in the account.
I’ve had my I-PASS tag read “invalid tag” or “low balance” or something similar even though I know there is money in my I-PASS account because I’ve checked Illinois’ GetIPASS.com website before traveling. I haven’t figured out the lag time, but today my I-PASS account successfully recharged about five hours before I traveled on the Indiana Toll Road and discovered the electronic toll RFID device wasn’t valid on the iZoom system.
Was the delay because of the new year?
I don’t know if it is an issue on Illinois’ or Indiana’s side, but it is something that should be fixed because it would explain why every so often drivers are stuck at a barrier waving their arm I-PASS in hand hoping that it will be read by the iZoom system. Some of those drivers stuck behind the gate legitimately thought their transponders would work properly in the iZoom system.
Also, it was frigid today — I wonder if that could have been causing problems?
I’ll have to see next time I travel on the Illinois Tollway if my IPASS transponder is working correctly.
The GetIzoom.com website requires users to disable all pop-up blocking:
I have several different toolbars that block popups, in addition to Firefox’s own pop-up blocker. Having to go to the option panels of all of those programs to turn off popup blocking before being able to read iZoom’s FAQ is silly when Illinois’ IPASS website doesn’t require the same.
Never fear, I fired up Internet Explorer and disabled pop-up blocking and was able to read everything. But, it was a pain to have to switch browsers so that I wouldn’t have to fiddle around with control panels and options to allow pop-ups where information in a FAQ could just as easily been displayed without pop-ups.
Requiring users to shut off pop-up blocking software is a hassle that could dissuade someone from digging into the iZoom site or force them to give up and call the more costly toll free number.
The Bowling Green Daily News reports that the I-65 corridor is the third busiest in the nation.
Writes Robyn Minor:
Anyone traveling this holiday season can tell you just how busy Interstate 65 is. Carrying between 30,000 and more than 100,000 vehicles a day in various sections in Kentucky, I-65 is speculated to be the third-busiest north-south corridor in the United States.
Opposition to the proposed Illiana Expressway helped propel Lowell town councilman John Alessia, Jr. into office, reports the Post-Tribune.
“One of the big things I will be addressing is the Illiana Toll Road,” Alessia said of his goals for his first term in office. He said he is against a proposal to build a toll road coming through Lowell.
“We (Lowell residents) should have some say. An overwhelming majority are against it,” he said.
Open thread question: How much of a toll would you be willing to pay to drive the Illiana Expressway from I-65 in Lake County, Indiana to I-57 in Will County, Illinois?
Should the tolls be set up like the Illinois Tollway with open road tolling?
Or, should they be set up like the Indiana Toll Road and the Chicago Skyway and be controlled by barriers?
Personally, I’d like to see the tolls and their associated wait times kept to a minimum with open road tolling, but someone might know some advantages to a barrier system — maybe job creation?
