Chicago Tribune’s editors say, “Regular users of the Eisenhower Expressway know how their days will begin if they wind up in Hades:” listening to a traffic report describing congestion on “the Ike” (I-290). They ask readers to keep the “maddening dysfunction” of the expressway in mind as they evaluate IDOT’s HOT lanes construction proposal. The editors themselves “like the concept of congestion pricing. Giving car poolers a break is one way to reduce the number of cars on the expressway. Other motorists who want to avoid delays pay to use the faster lane, generating revenue to pay for transportation needs. IDOT’s focus now is the Eisenhower, but we hope it will investigate whether congestion pricing can work on stretches of the Kennedy, Dan Ryan, Edens and Bishop Ford.” (Mounting the project as a public-private partnership isn’t mentioned.)
