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Illinois To Increase Truck Tolls
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I have seen toll rates climb over the years Mr. Hemphill. I will say that I dont buy the Illinois Govenor's explaination that "trucks cause more damage than cars" <br /> <br />I have a fist wrapped around a hot cup of coffee as I ponder how best to explain my postion. <br /> <br />I remember that Chicago has rebuilt the Interstates in the Gary Indiana to Oak Forest area. Speicfically the I-80 corridor from the I-57 to I-65 south. I spent alot of time on the I-294 between Oak Forest to Desplaines as some of my loads orginated and terminated at the FFE yard in that area. Other times it was thru traffic to Schaumburg and beyond to Wisconsion. <br /> <br />The toll roads are rather well maintained. I believed that they probably had to go over it several times a decade. But mostly it was crack fixing and pothole patching. I also experienced alot of IDOT salting (there are modern compounds in use but all understands "Salt") in winter. <br /> <br />I used to enjoy sliding on the ice because the salt they use would just melt the ice briefly. Other states would either wait for the wintry blast to pass to plow/salt or apply sand/salt on the bridges. <br /> <br />The highways in that area are usaully gridlocked somewhere from dawn to dusk. The constant stopping and starting to pay toll every few miles and the exits usually went into surface streets which sometimes "Backed up" <br /> <br />At night time the trucks roll. It seems all the world goes thru there at one time or another. The regular interstates are being rebuilt from the pounding. The toll ways are in good shape. <br /> <br />The worst thing about that area is I-55. From Below I 80 all the way into Calumet is very bad. It seems that they have not finished the work started many years ago. Or is literallly rebuilding a project that is supposed to be completed sometime ago. <br /> <br />I dont think a big truck (18wheeler) that spends time in traffic at 20 mph or less causes any damage more than usual. 8 times out of ten it is worth a few hours stopping and going thru the Chicago Greater area. Rarely do I breeze thru at cruise speed with a convoy of other trucks all intent on leaving town while the traffic is not yet awake and going to commute. <br /> <br />What I do remember that I have to check the truck twice. Before Chicago for food, fuel and money (Quarters, dimes and nickels for the tolls) and after chicago for spilled coffee, broken freight, loose wheel nuts and in general damage cleanup in the cab. It gets very bumpy there. That has not changed much over the years. <br /> <br />What did change is the use of the "electronic toll" where one had a transponder in the cab that would communicate with the toll booth and not stop. This removes the need to carry toll money in some cases. With it also the need to worry about toll charges since it is billed directly to the company. <br /> <br />They are welcome to raise rates and charges onto the big trucks as they have done for many years. Eventually it will get too expensive to haul cargo and still make a profit. The paperwork involved in tracking business expenses as well as the amounts of monies tied up in the trip itself eats at the profit. <br /> <br />Drivers worry about tolls because they must draw a "Comcheck" so they can use the company money to pay the tolls. Or they need to pay the toll using own personal money and contact the company with the reciepts and paperwork to recover the money from the company. These two alternatives to electronic tolls are a burden in both the company and driver. <br /> <br />The Governor needs to do nothing but count the number of trucks and cars that use the tolls to get to where they need to go. And use the money to get the roads built right the first time. <br /> <br />I base this on a personal observation that it is cheaper in the short term to pave 4 inches of "Blacktop" onto a crumbling and failing concrete roadway. Eventually the cracks show up in the blacktop and it too fails. Another layer is applied until the substructure is ground down as not to be able to support anykind of weight. Then the entire section all the way to bare dirt must be ripped out and repaved. <br /> <br />No wonder the Gov sees that the highway dept is constantly asking for money to fix the roads (Again) <br /> <br />I see airport runways are very thick and strong. They are enormusly expensive to build but I have yet to see a "orange barrell" on any of these at O' Hare and other major airports. Build em big and strong one time and they will hold up. <br /> <br />I also base my position on the weight of a tractor trailer on 18 wheels. A fully loaded and properly scaled truck works out to about 12,000 pounds on the steer, 34,000 on the tandems and 34,000 on the trailer. <br /> <br />I think that works out to about 4,500 pounds per tire on the road. Of that tire there is approx a square foot of material that is on contact with the road. I think the ground pressure is not much more than what is exerted by a Human foot. Hence the old saying "If you can walk on that you can drive on it" Most of the time trucks are not fully loaded. They come close but the sheer numbers of delivery trucks hauling bread, newspaper, pallets etc etc etc that do not weigh very much and not much bigger than pickups as Chicago goes about it's daily business. <br /> <br />The rest of Illinois seemed to be ok to me. The problem of the split speed limits and spotty traffic problems are not revelant here. <br /> <br />So. If the Gov wants his new toll rates he can have em... but use the &^%$ money to build big strong highways that will stand up to the traffic than simply paving a layer of Blacktop to soothe angry car commuters whose coffee get's spilled on the bigger bumps and cracks. (Some trucks today actually ride BETTER than most cars =) <br /> <br />I am editing this post to include something he said in the linked article: <br /> <br />"One semi truck does more damage than 10,000 cars," said Gov. Blagojevich. <br /> <br />Funny. 10,000 cars adds up to 375 big trucks. Take a car at 3000 pounds, multiply it by 10,000 then divide the result by 80,000 pounds per truck. <br /> <br />Now, I like to figure out how much toll revenue he would have taken in with them 10,000 cars and one truck. I figure it will be a nice sum of money to fix the road.
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