Rate hike has Naperville drivers rethinking their routes
By Susan Frick Carlman and David Sharos Sun-Times Media January 26, 2012 10:18PM
Photo illustration for story on rising toll costing drivers more money and possibly changing their driving habits.
Updated: February 28, 2012 8:02AM
Toll hikes that took effect Jan. 1, virtually doubling the cost for everyone who travels on the Illinois Tollway system, have left some Naperville residents plotting new ways to get to work to avoid the higher fees.
At the start of 2012, fewer drivers than usual were rolling down the toll roads. Over the comparatively balmy week after the New Year holiday, the tollway documented a 4.5 percent decrease in use of the roads relative to previous years.
That didn’t surprise DuPage County Board and public transit committee member Jeff Redick, who was appointed to the Tollway board last fall after Naperville Mayor A. George Pradel’s term was not renewed.
“We anticipated about 6 percent of a drop,” Redick said when the committee met Tuesday in Wheaton. “That coincided with the holidays.”
As the upward price shift drew near, the Tollway did see an increase in its income from I-Pass accounts, which offer a chance to pay fees that are half the cash rate.
According to Wendy Abrams, the Tollway’s head of communications, more than 42,000 I-Pass accounts had been opened between Nov. 1 and Wednesday. The agency also distributed nearly 127,000 new transponders in that time, a 27 percent increase over the same period a year ago, she said.
“The annualized forecast predicted a 41.8 percent increase in toll revenue in 2012 (both trucks and cars) and we saw a 45.7 percent increase,” Abrams wrote in an email to The Sun. “As we see additional migration to I-Pass in the coming months, we expect this revenue increase to level off.”
Roads less traveled
Naperville residents have been compelled to either pony up and watch more cash flow from their pockets or make alternate plans. Many drivers, including Heather Pontious, believe “there’s no good alternative” if you want to try to get to work some other way.
“I work at the Kellogg plant in the area and leave at 5:30 in the morning,” Pontious said. “I don’t know as there is a good alternative to using I-355. Many of the people I talk with at the plant are very upset about the toll increase and are planning to use the side streets, but that can be annoying. I believe avoiding the tollway to save money is an ‘inelastic curve’ — it doesn’t have much give to it. The traffic might be lessening right now, but in a short time, people are going to come back to using it.”
Pontious doesn’t believe there is a lot of accountability in terms of tangible “improvements” emerging from the money coming from the increase.
Dennis Noble of Lisle, who said he travels to Joliet on business, called the toll hikes “outrageous” and plans to use Route 53 instead of I-355 when he travels south.
“There’s no question you’re going to using up your I-Pass account a lot faster,” Noble said. “If I can, I’m going to try to avoid the tollway. I’m still upset because I thought the idea was these roads were supposed to be self-funded. They built some of these roads with two lanes and now they have expanded them to four — they should have built them big enough in the first place.”
Some users like Dave Wells and his wife Cassie, who live in Naperville, are developing a hybrid sort of strategy by entering the tollway system at another junction in order to avoid at least one toll each way.
“I’ve changed the route that I’m using to go to work, and I find that if get up 10 minutes earlier, I can use side streets and skip at least one of the tolls,” Cassie Wells said.
Paltry payoff?
Dave Wells said he pays anywhere from four to six tolls per day and that while he was already avoiding the tollway whenever he could, he plans to be even more aggressive about finding an alternate route. Like Noble, the Wells couple said they’re unconvinced about where the extra toll money will be going.
“I realize there is a budget crisis, but I’m not sure a lot of us will see the outcome of the rate increase,” Cassie said. “As far as whether there is more traffic on the side roads, it’s hard to gauge. Sometimes the side roads are busy because of the construction zones on the highway.”
Another issue concerns local residents who host out-of-town guests, like Kevin and Renee Schell. The pair said they travel from Naperville to Indiana to see family, but also have visitors come here from Florida. They said the toll increase is particularly stunning to the uninitiated.
“People that come to visit us here are shocked by the cost of using the highways,” Kevin said. “But the fact is, if you’re driving in northern Illinois, you’re going to be using the tollway. I’m not happy about the increases, but I see this as the cost of doing business. Compared to roads like the Kennedy or the Eisenhower, I always said the tollways are the best expressways.”
Naperville’s Sue Buschman, who works at Anderson’s Bookshop, said she drives along the Veterans Memorial Tollway as well as Interstate 88 at least every other week. Paying the extra tolls is something she’s resigned to, she said, because she wants to stay in her comfort zone.
“I could get maps and figure out another way to do this, but it’s easier to keep the same habits and not look for detours,” she said. “In the end, I want the comfort level and to know where I’m going.”
For some who live in Naperville, the cost increase is just one budget pinch too many.
“The rising toll costs were the final straw that helped us decide to move closer to my husband’s work. The cost to commute from Naperville to Frankfort is outrageous!!!!!” Holli Detlaf wrote on The Sun’s Facebook page.
Mass appeal
Some say the added cost of using the tollways, coupled with predictions that gas prices will approach $5 per gallon later this year, might prompt increased use of the Metra train and Pace bus networks.
Currently Pace is considering the possibility of cutting routes, although a significant rise in ridership would likely prevent that.
DuPage Public Transit Committee member Dirk Enger wants more focus on building the bus system’s routes and promoting the existing options.
“The best-kept secret in DuPage is Pace,” Enger said.
After attending a public meeting Metra hosted Jan. 10 at the Naperville Municipal Center to update the status of the proposed Suburban Transit Access Route commuter rail line, Enger was not encouraged about its prospects for fruition.
“My impression of the STAR line personally is that it’s dead,” he said. “We’re told we’re looking at at least a decade before it’s up.”
The long-discussed line would outline an exurban corridor that arcs between south Plainfield and the eastern edge of O’Hare International Airport. The project’s Alternatives Analysis Phase has found that inter-suburb links via public transportation are in big demand and short supply. The study also notes that air quality is poor in the far-west and northwestern suburbs, but finds that there’s no way to pay for the $2.74 billion undertaking right now.
“The bottom line out of this is we believe the commuter rail alternative is the best long-term vision for the corridor,” Metra spokesman Michael Gillis said Friday. “At this point, however, we do not have funding to move beyond this Alternatives Analysis Phase.”
That frustrates Enger, particularly in light of the prospective cuts in bus service.
“How can we implement this in 10 years, at the pace we’re going?” he said.
But County Board member JR McBride, who chairs the public transit committee, suggested it may be only a matter of time before a lot more commuters leave their cars parked and hitch a ride in response to driving’s drawbacks — the sharp toll hike among them.
“You just have to wonder how many people in DuPage will start using public transportation, because is it quite an increase,” McBride said.
Redick said it will take time to gain a full picture of the higher tolls’ impact. He noted, for example, that inflated gas prices in the past have triggered temporary dips in use of the pay-to-ride roads.
Also complicating any reliable assessment of the fee hikes this year will be construction projects on Routes 53 and 59, which could send more drivers onto the tollways, Redick said.
“I think we need to monitor and see what the long-term impact will be ... before we have a knee-jerk reaction to it,” he said.
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