Slashdot Mirror

Great idea! Especially considering they charge you double if you want to pay in cash. Illinois Toll Rates by Plaza.

I live in IL and have an IPASS on two of my vehicles (got the units about 6 months ago).

In addition to the ugly little units that you have to attach to the inside of your windshield with adhesive/plastic velcro-like stuff (UGLY), they offer "external" IPASS devices that attach to your front license plate with screws. Called a "License Plate Tag": http://www.illinoistollway.com/portal/page?_pageid=133,1392898&_dad=portal&_schema=PORTAL#mount_transponder

Ostensibly, these are to be used by people with special windshields that block the IPASS signal (no idea what causes that, but maybe some self-defrosting windshields have metallic stuff in them?), but they'll let anyone who wants to order one. The reason I got them is that I like my windshield clean, TYVM.

Of course, they could get stolen off your license plate with a screwdriver, but I haven't had that problem.

Anyway, this takes care of the "camera in my car" issue.

The old models only have a battery because they beep and some (perhaps all) have a display showing your I-PASS balance. The newer models are entirely sealed, and do not require a battery because they work by RFID chips. This post is a bit ridiculous.

If you want the reasoning... go no farther than the I-PASS website (quoted below):

I have one of the old display model transponders that beeps. Can I keep replacing the battery instead of swapping it out for a new transponder?

These older model transponders need to be replaced to ensure customers continue to receive the benefits of I-PASS and avoid toll violations. The Tollway recommends that these transponders be replaced for two important reasons:

The older transponder model is no longer being manufactured and, therefore, is no longer certified by the manufacturer. Our testing has shown that the older transponder model does not perform as well as the new transponders on the new open road tolling system."

Full of tolls? I live south of chicago and travel to the city only a few times a year, but even I know how to get around without paying tolls if I don't want to. A lot of times it isn't even faster to get on the tollways, and they don't always help that much. Here's a map of Chicago's tollways, and I don't see how that is "full of tolls". There are only 4 major toll roads (if you consider 80/294 to be a part of either 90 or 94, which it kind of is), so getting on a road in Chicago does not mean you will be paying tolls. There are also plenty of other highways that are not tollroads. Futhermore, is your complaint about stopping for tolls or paying them? I-Pass pretty much ends the stopping argument. The paying of tolls has already been addressed by a couple other people.

These are all RFID in action saving you money. They save you money because they save truckers money;

http://www.illinoistollway.com/portal/page?_pageid =57,1302257,57_1302270&_dad=portal&_schema=PORTAL

http://www.ezpassde.com/

http://www.sunpass.com/

http://www.prepass.com/

Weight in motion, which usually uses RFID;

http://science.howstuffworks.com/question626.htm

We've been doing RFID since 1996. It's not new technology. We are just talking about new applications.

I can't wait until they create a watch that works with the I-PASS system. You know, the little box that automagically pays your toll as you drive past the toll gates at 20 mph? If I only had an I-PASS watch, I could just stick my arm out while I drive past the scanner like this and AAAAAGH MY HAND!!! THE BLOOD!!! OH GOD THERE'S SO MUCH BLOOD!!! AAAGGGHH!!!

From what I have read and seen about toll roads, they really don't make money for the state or city. The tolls collected basically pay for the cost of toll collection and political crony jobs at the tollroad administration. This explains the use of a $500 million cash register. The Illinois toll road system is a shining example of this. The contractor who originally built the roads is now in federal prison for an embezzlement scandal, and the corruption has been ongoing since then. Recently, the toll authority had to sell their lavish headquarters when the state almost went broke. Considering tax money pays for most of the roadwork anyway, it really would not hurt the average person to eliminate tollroads. It would help them cut a few minutes off their commute, if anything. Toll roads are a good idea in theory, but they usually do not accomplish what they are supposed to.

All the more reason not to have seatbelt laws. If they don't actually help save your life, why should you have to wear them?

Because they cut down on injury. This is a better justification in any case.

BTW, where did you get your statistics?
If I gave specific numbers, I made them up (and I think I made that clear). I don't have a good enough memory to recall the exact numbers.

The information came from an (Australian) government white paper on seat belt related injuries I stumbled across a few years ago. Unfortunately, I can't remember the URL.

A google search on "seat belt injury statistics" gave a few good sites, including this one. Of course, those are guvmint stats, and people so pro-individual as to oppose seat belt laws do tend to distrust the guvmint...

(The exact site I referenced has a flaw in that it doesn't compare similar types of accidents. It finds, for example, that not wearing a seatbelt makes it more likely you'll die in an accident. The Australian study I read implied that fatality rates were pretty even for really bad accidents, BUT that there was a correlation between people who don't wear seat belts and people who drive recklessly (big surprise). This helps explain why 64.5% of people in Illinois who died in car accidents in 1997 weren't wearing seat belts... they self select)