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From: Pholkie on 8 Jan 2008 12:53
Brent P wrote:
> In article <e1hc55-009.ln1(a)remote.clifto.com>, clifto wrote:
>
>> way, unfortunately.) Before that I took it one really bad snowy night when
>> I *thought* the tollway would be plowed and salted, or at least a modicum
>> more passable than surface streets, but I was very, very wrong.
>
> The days of the toll roads being better plowed and salted than the other
> roads was over at least 10 years ago.
>
> Only the city of chicago and the expressways going through it seem to
> have good response snow clearing wise these days.

If Gov. Blowzabitch, just for once, got his nuts hammered (a la Mayor
Bilandic in 1979) for not plowing the tollways -- ya know, the ones with
his name plastered all over them -- you'd see thousands of plows and
bare concrete from border to border once the snow starts.

The only reasons Chicago streets are passable during a snow event are 1)
no sitting mayor wants to be the next Michael Bilandic, and 2) woe
betide the head of Streets & San if he makes the mayor look bad.
From: Chicago Paddling-Fishing on 8 Jan 2008 13:28
In chi.general necromancer <55_sux(a)worldofnecromancer_nospam_noway.org> wrote:
: Chicago Paddling-Fishing:
: > That said, i'm not sure why the state feels compelled to bankrupt people over
: > it. I can see that they want to make it so people will think twice, but one
: > would expect that the state, especially since the fines for some are so high
: > because of the states failure to send out notices, that they would show a bit
: > of compassion since they are at least partially responsible for the size of
: > the fines...

: If I read the article correctly, its a private company that is running
: things on behalf of the state. As such, all they care about is making as
: large a profit as possible for their (most likely foreign) investors.

Well, they might just receive a flat fee... those fines may still go to the
tollway instead of them...

Hard to say but sticks might know since he's a tollway insider...

--
John Nelson
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Chicago Area Paddling/Fishing Page
http://www.chicagopaddling.org http://www.chicagofishing.org
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From: Chicago Paddling-Fishing on 8 Jan 2008 13:52
In chi.general clifto <clifto(a)gmail.com> wrote:
: Chicago Paddling-Fishing wrote:
: > In chi.general Brent P <tetraethylleadREMOVETHIS(a)yahoo.com> wrote:
: >
: > : or it could cost you thousands....
: >
: > : http://www.dailyherald.com/story/?id=106951&src=3
: >
: > : <...>
: >
: > : Pay up in two weeks, the papers say, or owe the tollway $15,739 and
: > : eventually lose your driver's license.
: >
: > : Boudreau says she didn't know her I-PASS ran out of money last year
: > : because she thought her credit card automatically refilled it.
: >
: > : That doesn't matter to tollway officials. She is just one of hundreds of
: > : thousands of drivers who did not get violation notices for more than a
: > : year because of a computer glitch.
: >
: > Well, we got a bill but it worked out ok. When trading in the vw, we got new
: > plates on the new car, we updated the tollway website with the temp plate but
: > forgot to update it with the real plate when it arrived. I don't check our
: > account all that often and I don't know where the kids go with the ipass, I
: > just expect it back on top of the fridge at the end of the night...
: >
: > $15 in vtolls was about $460 with fines added... after calling them when we
: > received the notice they eliminated the fines and just billed my ipass account
: > for the tolls in November... it appears the ipass doesn't work on the dash in
: > that car (works fine in the Ford) so we asked them to mail us velcro.
: >
: > I don't know if they verified with the SOS that the temp plate number we had
: > in our account matched the passenger plate that racked up the violations or
: > if they just took our word for it. It was pretty painless I thought.
: >
: > That said, i'm not sure why the state feels compelled to bankrupt people over
: > it. I can see that they want to make it so people will think twice, but one
: > would expect that the state, especially since the fines for some are so high
: > because of the states failure to send out notices, that they would show a bit
: > of compassion since they are at least partially responsible for the size of
: > the fines...

: Especially in the cases where people had a reasonable expectation that
: the Authority would renew their passes using an auto-pay method that
: was prenegotiated by both parties, the Authority and only the Authority
: is to blame. I'd personally swear out arrest warrants for everyone
: involved up to the head of the Authority, for fraud and conspiracy to
: fraud and for anything else I could find that applied, and I'd be in
: civil court for breach of contract.

I didn't realize you could have one without autoreplentish... I guess I
didn't read the entire article but I just figured she changed credit cards
or moved (and the billing address didn't match) and the new charges were
bouncing and the state was slow on figuring it out...

--
John Nelson
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
Chicago Area Paddling/Fishing Page
http://www.chicagopaddling.org http://www.chicagofishing.org
(A Non-Commercial Web Site: No Sponsors, No Paid Ads and Nothing to Sell)
From: Geoff Gass on 8 Jan 2008 15:27
clifto <clifto(a)gmail.com> wrote:
> Especially in the cases where people had a reasonable expectation that
> the Authority would renew their passes using an auto-pay method that
> was prenegotiated by both parties, the Authority and only the Authority
> is to blame. I'd personally swear out arrest warrants for everyone
> involved up to the head of the Authority, for fraud and conspiracy to
> fraud and for anything else I could find that applied, and I'd be in
> civil court for breach of contract.

They never got into *why* the replenish failed. Since they didn't, I'm
guessing it was the woman's fault. Probably something stupid like
didn't update CC expiration date. Of course, the fact that it went for
so long undetected due to no notices being sent is another matter.
From: Brent P on 8 Jan 2008 16:08
In article <slrnfo7n50.iqr.glg(a)ftupet.ftupet.com>, Geoff Gass wrote:
> clifto <clifto(a)gmail.com> wrote:
>> Especially in the cases where people had a reasonable expectation that
>> the Authority would renew their passes using an auto-pay method that
>> was prenegotiated by both parties, the Authority and only the Authority
>> is to blame. I'd personally swear out arrest warrants for everyone
>> involved up to the head of the Authority, for fraud and conspiracy to
>> fraud and for anything else I could find that applied, and I'd be in
>> civil court for breach of contract.
>
> They never got into *why* the replenish failed. Since they didn't, I'm
> guessing it was the woman's fault. Probably something stupid like
> didn't update CC expiration date. Of course, the fact that it went for
> so long undetected due to no notices being sent is another matter.

Which is the point. If the toll authority said, your card info is bad,
pay the back tolls and this $10-30 'stupid' fee, it wouldn't be a news
story. It's a news story because they didn't do anything for several
months and said pay this $30 per toll penalty as if you were criminally*
(intentionally) avoiding paying.

*it technically may not be to streamline the system, but penalty wise
there is no functional difference, especially with DL suspension etc.

That said, when my card neared expiring the toll road authority sent an
email and a letter...


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