IL Governor to Manage Toll Plazas

Illinois Gov George Ryan is a frustrated toll superintendent. He announced Apr 19 that the Illinois Tollway will be “doing a little experimentation” this summer - lifting tolls during periods of congestion. Such moves were not suggested by the Tollway in Exec-Director Tom Cuculich’s 115p report on options for improving tollway operations, but when the report was released there was an allusion to the idea in the Governor’s press release.

Ryan pressed the idea again recently and the Tollway has agreed to go along with it as an experiment. The Governor announced this saying: “We’ve got (money)... that we can use to close gates [he means ‘open’ gates - TRnl] (and) engage in trying different things on certain days. It’s a couple of million bucks is all it is...” The bond covenants on Tollway debt preclude it from any actions which could lower revenue by more than 1.5% or $2.8m.

Officials say the experiments will include allowing toll-free movement through selected toll plazas in morning and evening peak periods, suspension of tolls in construction zones and in segments experiencing congestion, and on holidays. The temporary toll removals will be publicized beforehand. A kind of inverted (or perverted?) congestion pricing?

The Cuculich report said that suspension of tolls generally would increase traffic by about 33%. It emphasized that while congestion is presently most acute at the toll plazas, there are also congestion points in the mainline travel lanes, and predicted a doubling of the mileage with LOS E/F with no tolls.

Officials say that as civil servants they are happy to do the Governor’s bidding and that the experiments with toll removal will be of “great interest.”