The tollway sleuths were watching Tuesday as a sleek, white Lincoln limousine cruised through the I-PASS Express lane, stiffing the state authority out of 50 cents.
As a state trooper roared off in pursuit, the sleuths’ computer displayed a long list of past violations: Unmanned video cameras had recorded the same limo rolling through toll plazas without registering payments 189 times since March.
As high-tech I-PASS windshield transponders make it easier for motorists to pay their tolls automatically, the open express lanes are making it easier for scofflaws to drive through without paying.
Now, with estimated cheating losses soaring past $8 million annually, authorities are cracking down. The limo was one of 45 vehicles stopped over four hours Tuesday morning on Interstate Highway 355 at Army Trail Road, in one of a series of stings conducted once or twice a month using cameras, computers and chase cars.
On the eve of the tollway’s busiest weekend of the year, officials offer words of warning:
“If you cheat, we’ll catch you,” said Tony Dodaro, who directed surveillance operations by walkie-talkie from a building on the side of the tollway in Addison. “No one gets a free ride–at least not for very long.”
While tollway officials estimate that only 3 percent of the 1.2 million daily drivers evade the tolls, losses have nearly doubled in the last two years as I-PASS Express lanes were added throughout the system.
Unmanned video cameras, in limited use at coin plazas, were upgraded throughout the system with the advent of I-PASS. But under old tollway regulations, scofflaws could be fined only after administrative hearings; if violators did not show up for the hearings, the Illinois State Toll Highway Authority’s only recourse was to try to collect the fine in small claims court. Only a small percentage of violators were ever held accountable under that system.
Last winter, Gov. George Ryan signed a law that gave tollway enforcement teeth. Now motorists who ignore five or more violation notices may have their licenses suspended by the secretary of state. Enforcement began in August, with 24-hour videotaping at plazas and surveillance stakeouts conducted several times a month at different locations.
Thousands of drivers have now been sent notices of violation, demanding payment of tolls and fines. A huge backlog remains, and nobody has yet had a license suspended, although 54 owners of vehicles recorded running tollbooths five times or more could have their licenses suspended as early as next month, tollway authorities said.
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“It’s not a perfect system,” said Joelle McGinniss, the tollway spokeswoman. “We are recording more than we can pursue. We are not keeping up with them on a daily basis.”
The driver of the white limo, Sarah Burns of Glendale Heights, received a $75 ticket for Tuesday’s violation when troopers finally caught up with her, three miles south of the toll plaza. As for the other 189 violations, authorities will give the vehicle’s owners a chance to pay up on their I-PASS account or prove that the equipment was at fault.
Burns told troopers that she had not driven the vehicle before and was simply taking it in to be serviced. She also said the electronic pass, or transponder, was on the floor of the car instead of in the windshield, where it could be scanned by tollbooth readers. The state-listed owner of the car, Fox Valley Limousine of Aurora, did not respond to telephone calls Tuesday afternoon.
As police pulled over other violators Tuesday, few expressed remorse.
“Everybody has a unique story,” said Illinois State Trooper Donald Krause, who was chasing after scofflaws at the I-355 toll stop. “Just when you think you have heard it all, you hear a new one.”
One driver figured he was entitled to a freebie. Another said he was in a hurry. A third expressed befuddlement that he needed a pass.
A fourth, Scott May of Schaumburg, told police he got caught in the wrong lane and didn’t know until it was too late. Instead of going back to pay, he just drove away. Later, sitting in his red Pontiac Grand Am waiting for his ticket, May declined to offer any explanation to a reporter.
Some drivers, however, had concerns police considered more legitimate.
Troopers issued 25 warnings to motorists who may have experienced malfunctioning transponders or problems with their credit cards.
“We try to give them the benefit of the doubt,” said Illinois State Police spokesman Douglas Whitmore.
Tollway records indicated a BMW owned by Marc Ruff of Bartlett–license plate AUTOBN7–had avoided tolls more than 60 times. He was pulled over Tuesday after going through the I-PASS lane without a payment registering.
Ruff protested that it wasn’t right and blamed a new pass issued last summer that does not show drivers whether their toll registered.
Tollway officials determined that their records were in error and were still trying to sort out the details Tuesday evening.
“I use a lot of gadgets,” said Ruff, who spent Tuesday afternoon at tollway authority offices trying to straighten out his account. “When they don’t work, I know it. It really cuts to the credibility and the trust I have for the agency. … All the convenience and time I saved with the I-PASS, I’m about to lose in a couple of lunch hours.”
Although it took Illinois enforcement procedures years to catch up with the new toll collection technology, national surveys show that high-tech surveillance cuts down on cheating in the long run. While national statistics are spotty and inconclusive–not all toll road operators keep track of lost revenues–industry groups say it is getting harder for drivers to cheat the newest high-tech systems.
Gov. Ryan vowed to eliminate the tollway system altogether last year but later backpedaled. A lobbying group is still pursuing the issue, but with little political clout.
“We don’t encourage anyone not to pay tolls,” said Russell Johnson, who leads No Tolls, a group that advocates disbanding the Chicago-area toll system. “No one is above the law, and we are not asking anyone to be.”
But Johnson often hears from toll breakers, some of whom brag that they have not paid tolls for as long as 10 years. And he hears from motorists who must sit in traffic to pay tolls in rush hour.
“People are just so fed up,” he said. “There is a high level of frustration with the traffic and the tolls. So some people feel that they don’t want to give the toll authority a penny.”
By catching scofflaws on camera and setting up stings like Tuesday’s, the tollway authority hopes to send a message to deter cheaters.
At least one came clean after seeing a trooper’s lights in her rear-view mirror.
Debbie Nasciszewski of Des Plaines said she didn’t notify the tollway authority when she canceled the account that funded her I-PASS because she had lost the credit card. She was apologetic after the trooper who ticketed her pointed out that she had racked up more than 20 violations in recent weeks.
Contacted later by telephone, she sheepishly said, “We all have to behave and do what we’re supposed to do.”