Jeez! now you tell me after 25 years of doing it with my trailer in tow! never knew that.
Got me worried now ;o(
Bob in wis.
No worries - just get it in gear and be ready to take off!
Thanks Mike,
I've been fussing with a complicated system of typing in e-mail and then copying and pasting here. This works much better.
David
For those who have been following this saga, it is another win in our equality for setting a uniform toll in the United States, a battle we have been waging since 1977. In the latest battle we were fortunate to meet not the standard beaucrat but a thinking person, Jamie Montgomery, Toll Plaza Manager of the Chicago Skyway in Chicago, IL. This is not part of the IL Tollway system.
Theirs is a truly thankless job. For researching this and for granting this it would be very grand for several of us to send an e-mail to Jamie and say we appreciate it. It will really make their day and cost us nothing. Makes our task that much easier for next time.
Here is the contact address: JMontgomery@chicagoskyway.org
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Mr. Kendall, Thank you for writing me and informing me of the situation of the person you are representing. I apologize for the manner of which the whole situation was handled.
I am sure you know that the Chicago Skyway is no longer owned or operated by the City of Chicago and is in fact operated by my company, Skyway Concession Company, and we took over operations back in late January of this year.
When I set the standards for the definition of an axle, I followed the true dictionary definition of an axle and we charge as such. When Dr. Duke traveled the Skyway I, as well as my boss, were there to catch the end of what had happened (as he drove off).
We chose the dictionary definition only because there was no nationwide published standard of what an axle is and all toll roads charge differently, some go by weight, some by height, some axle counts, some by commercial or private, and many based on combinations of all the above. Here at SCC charge strictly by the number of axles. I have found very few toll roads to list on their website how they handle motorcycles with sidecars.
1) http://www.massturnpike.com/pdf/cmr/703.pdf#search ='motorcycle%20sidecar%20toll%20rates'
2) http://www.dot.ca.gov/hq/traffops/hwybrdg/tollbridge/Schedule/BayArea.html
I have spoken with 11 states that have tolls and none of them stated a set standard but have told me that they leave it up to the collector or whatever their treadle counts. I was very surprised at the wide variations from state to state on how they handle this rare occasion. If you do have something released by these states I would love to see it as I did not get much help from them. I did however find cycle groups that stated that this seems to be a problem and that changes need to be made to have a blanket rule for all states (and now privatized roads) to follow, most of them included quotes from you.
When the Dr. Duke traveled the Skyway that day it was the first time that we knowingly had a cycle with sidecar. Our collector did what they were supposed to do based on the definition of an axle that we used for determining our classifications but after reviewing and considering how infrequent this occurs, I have decided to make an exception for sidecars on cycles. I revised our classification system to define a class 2 vehicle to include a motorcycle (a vehicle with a saddle or seat for the rider) with a sidecar. A motorcycle with a trailer will however get charged for that axle in tow.
I have sent memos to my collectors and supervisors stating the change and hope that this will minimize this event from happening again. I wish I could eliminate it completely but I am sure you know that it is still up to the collector as I can not be in every booth for every transaction. If this does happen again I hope you will let me know so I can right it.
Please send my apologies to Dr. Duke for me. And thank you for assisting me with righting a wrong here on the Cintra-Mig Chicago Skyway.
Mr. Jamie Montgomery, Toll Plaza Manager
Skyway Concession Co. LLC
773-356-5532 office
773-356-5570 fax
jmontgomery@chicagoskyway.org
-----Original Message-----
From: Hal Kendall [mailto:hkendall1@houston.rr.com]
Sent: Monday, July 25, 2005 2:31 PM
To: Jamie Montgomery
