Posted on 11/29/2017 5:56:23 AM PST by Tolerance Sucks Rocks
Is that toll collector in the booth an endangered species? Not quite with 387 collectors working for the Illinois tollway in 2018, but the numbers are dwindling as the agency moves toward an automated system.
Through attrition, toll collector jobs will drop by 32 next year, which accounts for nearly 60 percent of the 55 eliminated positions agencywide, according to the proposed budget recently released.
Other budget highlights include an estimated $60 million spike in revenues and a $269.7 million increase in capital spending from 2017. Overall the operations and maintenance budget, which includes salaries and equipment, will rise by 5 percent to $353 million in 2018 related to higher pension costs, growing credit card fees and spending more on collections and technology.
Officials said they are not filling vacant positions, a trend that's most noticeable with toll collectors who numbered as high as 532 in 2010, for example.
The conversion to I-PASS lanes is responsible for the drop in toll collectors as well as a shift to all-electronic collection on new interchanges and roads like Route 390.
Currently, the agency is at 88 percent electronic. Chairman Robert Schillerstrom said the ultimate goal is 100 percent.
But "it will be a while before we're completely automatic. It's slightly frustrating we're not moving along at a quicker rate but we want to do it right," he said.
The bound in revenues comes as more people use Route 390 and return to driving on the recently widened Jane Addams Tollway (I-90). In addition, tollway coffers will benefit from a truck rate hike linked to the Consumer Price Index and financial penalties for I-PASS customers who don't use transponders in 2018.
The capital budget sits at $1.18 billion.
Next year, engineers expect to spend about $238 million on plans for a revamped Central Tri-State (I-294) between Rosemont and Oak Lawn. And almost $376 million is budgeted for design work on a ring road on the western side of O'Hare International Airport (I-490) and on the final segment of Route 390. Route 390 will connect with I-490 at the airport.
Drivers can also expect reconstruction work on the Reagan Tollway (I-88) between I-290 and York Road next year. Another 2018 project involves widening Veterans Memorial Tollway (I-355) between Butterfield and Roosevelt roads in 2018.
Tollway directors have authorized Schillerstrom to negotiate a memorandum of understanding with the Union Pacific Railroad over access to railway property needed to complete the Route 390/I-490 work. The agency is in talks with the Canadian Pacific Railway. on the same matter.
One likely issue at stake is how much to pay the railroads for access. "We think there will be some money expended to close this up," Schillerstrom said.
The best of all worlds, for the state:
Toll collectors down, toll collections up.
Here in MA, legislator critters are itching to collect tolls on many more roads, especially ones to which toll collection booth construction would be untenable. This is just a few months after a massive pay raise that they gave themselves.
"Right "would be shutting down the world's most archaic and stupid way of collecting road money. Put it in the reg fees or gasoline taxes or both. That way they could rip out all the toll booths. Think of all the millions of hours drivers have waited in those toll lines over the decades. What a waste of human capital!
Actually toll roads are the most libertarian idea currently being practiced in the US. People who use the roads pay for them. Those who don’t use the road aren’t forced to pay for them through taxes.
Here in Texas there are no toll booths or human toll collectors. There are ‘gateways’ that collect tolls electronically without drivers needing to slow down.
Lots of truth to what you argue, especially true because electric cars don’t pay gasoline tax.
The other alternative is tracking miles driven by every vehicle per year and paying tax on that. Of course, if you drive a lot in other states, you are getting screwed.
People generally don’t like the privacy implications of tracking devices whether at toll stations or non-stop government trackers on your vehicle.
The Golden Gate Bridge went fully automatic a few years back. If you don’t have a transponder, they take a pic of your license plate and mail you an invoice. Cheaper to print the invoice and mail it than pay the toll attendant.
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