We have a road in Chicagoland called the Northwest Tollroad, I-90. On all of the tollroads, they recently instituted open-road tolling, using the I-pass toll collection system. So far, so good. Now, they recently converted the toll plaza on the Eastbound Northwest Tollroad to the open-road tolling system, increasing the lanes for those who use I-pass, decreasing cash lanes. Now, with the first holiday test of the new configuration underway, there are MILES and MILES of back-ups into the River Road toll plaza. It has become painfully evident that not everyone on the planet has I-pass, which is causing everyone to slow down as back-ups occur into the toll plaza. The kicker is, if you don't have I-pass, you have to pay DOUBLE the toll. If I could figure out that a delay like this would happen, why couldn't any of the multi-million dollar engineers or, better yet, politicians? HA! I know I am Christmas dreaming now!

Come on, that's right up there with the poor designs that CalTrans (the California Department of Transportation) comes up with for the freeway system, especially down in Southern California. In order to stay on some freeways (the 57 or the 215 going south), you have exit the road you're on in order to stay on the road you're taking. Yes, CalTrans is infamous for their wonderful freeway designs here.

Perhaps your state's highway authority is deliberately sending the message: "get a transponder or face this again next year."

About, oh, 5-6 years ago I drove past Chicago on its southern edge where I-90 and I-80 merge (what a mess!) but what really ticked me off was a short -- 5 miles, max -- stretch of freeway that the state of Illinois felt it absolutely needed the revenue from. The toll -- 35 cents. It took longer to fumble around with the change than it took to drive the road.

Welcome to Illinois, you filthy out-of-stater. Give us your nickels and dimes, and get out!

Argh, I know what you mean. A friend of mine lives right along I-80 at the Indiana/Illinois border, and I've driven that path many times. It's so frustrating getting through the ONE tollbooth there and the resulting traffic crazineess around there.