/mark
Once thought to be the lasting legacy of Governor Rod Blagojevich.
So ask for a reduction on gasoline taxes since the money is not being equitably distributed by the Feds.
And how will people fund the rail system? Wave an electronic rider card at the gates?
I don’t mind this - as all pay the same toll.
However, once mini-minded libs begin to apply their warped logic - we’ll soon have means by which certain folks can pay less than others.
Wanna bet?
Well I have to confess - as a convienence, this setup works pretty well. In GA you can optionally purchase your ‘cruise card’ to cruise through toll booths at full speed, in special lanes...it gets scanned when you drive through and works like a debit card that you can reload.
It’s not mandatory, so you can wait in line and just pay the toll like everyone else if you don’t want to buy the cruise card. They don’t force you to carry a transponder if you don’t use the card.
What I’d have a BIG problem with is if they were making it mandatory statewide to have the transponder, just to drive on ANY roads...toll or not.
Opens the door for movement tracking, taxing your mileage, taxing you for ‘excessive travel’ etc...
And ... it has the added benefit of tracking ALL of the cars coming and going!
And God help you if your credit card expires and you go through open road tolling. One friend of mine had this happen to him, and when he challenged the fine and surcharge, they upped it to $3,000 and threatened to pull his license. Don’t challenge IDOT’s authority.
I thought the open road tolling project started under George Lyin’ Ryan.
I still use coin to pay (and pay double for the priviliege). You have to register your car with the transponder so it can’t be moved easily from car to car. I won’t be very interested in this approach until the transponders are as anonymous as a prepaid phone card bought at the 7-11.
You should try the E-470 system around Denver, Colorado. Last October I was driving through there (from Ohio). In December I received a bill ($5). They use cameras to read License Plates and send the bill to address of the owner. I’m glad I wasn’t speeding - they way I read it, I think they could have sent me a speeding ticket also though nothing was “posted” on the road about that (other than the speed limit signs).
The funny(!!) thing, I just received another bill today (7 months later) for an additional $2.5 for what I guess is another segment on the loop from Oct 4th, 2009. Who knows why it took so long.
Pretty soon they’ll just plant a GPS chip in your a*s and toll you every time you drive, ride, run, walk, breathe, sneeze, swivel your chair, take a d......