Everything Else

Illinois is working on getting trains running from Rockford to Chicago. Here in NW Indiana we can't even get a train to go to Valporaiso or Lowell. Illinios has a plan, Indiana does not.

In Northwest Indiana most of our rustbelt brownfields are located up near Lake Michigan. Some of that land will eventually be reclaimed for residential or entertainment uses, but a lot of that land will never be used for decades. Why can't some of that land be used for wind farming?

1. You have a ready market for power close by with Indiana and Chicago.

2. Nipsco, our local power company gets all their power from coal and I'm sure they could use some non-polluting generating capacity.

3. You have land that is lying vacant and which nobody really wants to build upon.

4. You have a source of wind with Lake Michigan.

If we can put wind turbines around the edges of farmers fields and pay them a lease fee, I would think we could also put wind turbines on a bunch of vacant unused industrial land for a decade or two until somebody figures out how to detoxify that land and reclaim it for other uses.

I'm trying to see the downside here and I can't. Maybe somebody should tell NIPSCO?

Christopher Hedges has a good post: Northwest Indiana Transit Brain Storming.

My hat is off to Christopher for coming up with some innovative ideas. I particularly like his idea for a people mover or monorail running down Broadway in Lake County, I would not mind seeing the same sort of thing running from the South Shore in Chesterton to Valparaiso. (I read in the paper that Valparaiso is looking at scheduled bus service between that city and the South Shore which would be a great idea to start.) Christopher's article points out the need for public transportation not only to get to Chicago but also to get from point to point within Northwest Indiana. Not only is this part of making the Region more livable but it also lets our workforce commute to jobs from one town to another within Northwest Indiana. I think that might attract more businesses to locate here and not in Chicago. We need that badly.

This is the kind of discussion our state and local political leaders should have been having for a long time. No one highway, like the Illiana is going to solve NW Indiana's traffic problems. It needs a well thought out and comprehensive plan, involving the local governments, the regional transportation authority, Indiana and Federal governments all working together. It might mean some highways need to be built, but they must be part of an overall coordinated effort at the transportation problems of the whole region and a combination of transportation methods: bike trails, busses, light rail, inter-urban rail, roads, highways and even just sidewalks that actually go somewhere and link up with each other (are you listening Merrillville?).

I suspect dedicated right of ways could be acquired in the old north county cities fairly cheaply. Indeed there are some old rail road right of ways that are still mostly intact and still not too badly encroached upon or being used for bike trails. Parts of the old Nickel Plate RR ROW come to mind in Gary. These could be used for light rail or a people mover branch line.

Northwest Indiana, in the 1910's had a very extensive traction (streetcar or light rail) network for both passengers and freight. The Gary Traction system once linked to Hammond in the West, the square in Crown Point to the south in Lake County, to Chesterton in the East and from Chesterton south to Valparaiso. (The line may have gone even further east to connect with Michigan City but I'm not sure of my facts on that part.) The rise of the automobile and the subsequent paving of roads led to it's decline, which is a shame because now the glut of automobiles and traffic gridlock have us wishing we had a working traction system today.

Additional Reference: Post Illiana: We still need to talk about (mass) transportation.

UPDATE: I found this Chesterton Tribune article about electric street car trains in Chesterton and Valparaiso 100 years ago.

Even though the Illiana privatized toll road has been downsized we still need to talk about transportation policy and mass transit in NW Indiana and in Indiana in general. Here's my thoughts on the matter:

1. Extend the South Shore rail road to both Lowell and Valparaiso. Frankly this is years overdue and needs to be addressed.

2. Bus service - both fixed route and flex route needs to be expanded. I am not a big fan of busses, but they have their place. Outlying towns (like Hebron) that are not on one of the rail lines need fixed schedule bus service to take them to a rail line, market town or other transportation hub. It is important that all bus-stops be clearly marked and routes and timetables published. Right now the bus stops are not well marked, if they are marked at all, and this discourages adoption of mass bus transit use by the public. Every bus stop is an advertisement for the bus service, but people will not use what they do not know about. This is also the problem for flex route (or bus on demand) service, it is a good idea but publicizing it is going to be difficult. I see bus service as a stop-gap measure with the goal being light rail along heavily used corridors. 100 years ago we had light rail connecting the whole region but that got killed off by the automobile.

3. Rim connections - The South Shore lines proposed are all spokes leading into Chicago, but there needs to be scheduled mass transit service around the rim of the area: (e. g.: Chesterton/Porter to Valparaiso to Hebron to Winfield to Crown Point and back or something). I guess busses would due for a start but light rail would be even better because light rail need not be dependent on roads or subject to rush hour gridlock and traffic jams.

4. Ring City transit - I still say the E. J & E. railroad line would make a perfect rim commuter railroad around Chicago. See map. It would take Illinois, Indiana and probably the Federal Government working together to set something up but I bet passenger and freight could both use that line.

5. Interurban from NW Indiana to Indianapolis - Probably should go from NW Indiana to Lafayette to Indy, high speed, multiple times daily. Indianapolis needs to make connections to re-anchor NW Indiana away from Chicago's orbit. They really have not done much since Interstate 65 was built in the 1960's. Folks in Indianapolis are not thrilled to have the South Shore feeding people into Chicago, but unless they offer an alternative, nobody in NW Indiana is going to look towards Indianapolis for economic, or cultural opportunity.

6. Land routes around the southern tip of Lake Michigan - frankly this needs to be addressed. I'm not sure building more highways for trucks, like the Illiana, is the best way to solve this. Perhaps dedicated high-speed fright rail corridors, owned by the Feds with private railroads paying trackage rights would be the way to go given our dependence on foreign oil and the pollution problems. The bottom line is that this problem needs a coherent transportation plan from the Federal government and Indiana and Illinois. Right now Washington cannot seem to apply itself to anything but the war in Iraq so I don't see anything happening on this front for years.

The Indianapolis Star reports that Governor Daniels has dropped plans for the Indy Commerce Connector Toll by-pass around Indianapolis and the Illiana toll road East of I-65.

Good news indeed. However he still wants to build the 10 mile section from the Illinois and Indiana state line to I-65 as a privatized toll road. I still object to that. To be sure I think it should be a toll road, because money is tight for new roads but it should be built and managed by the state.

The Indianapolis Star article suggests that because Daniels cannot pawn these two toll roads the proposed I-69 connection between Indianapolis and Evansville is in doubt. I say, Daniel's should revisit the provisions of I-69 with the Indiana Legislature and build I-69 as a publicly owned and operated toll road. Especially if that road is intended to be a NAFTA super highway, I say toll the heck out of it.

(Actually, if they are going to condemn a right of way between Indianapolis and Evansville they should make it wide enough for dedicated high speed freight and passenger rail to run alongside the highway too and not just a highway.)

The other way to build I-69 is to raise motor fuel taxes for the entire state and dedicate that to building I-69 as a freeway. I'm less enamored by that because in my experience once a tax is imposed you never get rid of it and it only goes up never really down. Government's appetite for money is endless.

Rich James and the Post-Tribune try to spin opinion in favor of the Illiana Toll Road. I guess that is an op-ed piece even though it is not plainly marked.

Anyway, Rich James misses the point:

While the land issue is real, all the opposition talk about foreign operators, environmental concerns and the fact that the road would be a toll-way is little more than window dressing. It's like piling on once the tackle has been made.I don't really care who runs the road. And there wasn't a peep when foreign firms bought Mittal and Amoco.

People are wary of a "privatized" toll road. People are still upset about how the Indiana Toll Road was leased to a private company for 75 years and they don't want a repeat with the Illiana. It also does not sit well with voters for the state to take land and then turn it over to a private company. Based on our previous experience with the Indiana Toll Road lease, many people are just not willing to trust Mitch Daniels with the authority to start negotiating lease and construction agreements with private firms before a proper study has been done to see if the Illiana toll road needs to actually be extended east of I-65.

Nobody has looked at other alternatives like a state owned rail corridor that would separate fast freight, passenger and commuter trains around Lake Michigan. Nobody has looked at the environmental impact, water shed impact, and yet Mitch Daniels wants to have carte blanche authority to proceed before any of these studies are done. Why?

People have a good sense when they are getting the bums rush. SB-1 is the bums rush.

I don't trust Mitch Daniels. He pretty much used up any trust I had in him with the Toll Road Lease and the way he tried to sneak SB-1 through the legislature.

Here's my bottom line: if all the studies say the Illiana toll road needs and can be built then it should be built as a toll road, built, run and managed by the State of Indiana for the public good. People might be willing to surrender their property for the common good but not to be coerced by the power of the state for the benefit of a private enterprise.

How you go about building the case for great public works is just as important as the project itself.

I think C.A.P.I.T. should use video to get the point across about the quiet rural life they want to protect against the Illiana Toll road. Here is how to do it.

1. Most digital cameras wil also shoot video. Make a 2-3 minute video.

2. Scene 1. Start out filming documentary style with a host narrating while standing X number of yards away from a quiet, picturesque county road in south Porter County. Pan around to show scenery.

3. Scene 2. Now film next to I-94 during rush hour. Have the narrator talk the same distance away from the interstate as they did in the previous scene. The traffic noise should be horrendous.

4. Scene 3: back to quiet countryside and tell people that this is what we want to preserve.

5. Don't ask me how to do the technical stuff. I'm not sure how to edit digital video but software must be available to do this cheap. It would be great to watermark the video with "no-illiana.com"

6. Post to some place like Youtube.com.

7. Get the link out to people via the news group, website and email. If it is good, then it will spread virally from there.

What you are demonstraiting very graphically to people is that nobody wants to live next door to all the noise, muck and pollution of a superhighway. Sometimes seeing and hearing the difference will help people understand.

My two cents.

UPDATE: I just read my digest of the No Illiana Toll Road discussion group and noticed Dave Canright suggested something similar yesterday only for radio. Great minds...

They should do both.

I noticed a Brink's Armored Car driving around Northwest Indiana with Texas license plates. Seems like they are awfully far from home. Why are they operating locally with plates from Texas? Does not seem right.

I do not like the way Indiana Governor Mitch Daniels and the then, rubber-stamp, Republican Indiana Legislature, leased the Indiana Toll Road (Interstate 80 and 90 in Indiana) for 75 frellin years to a private company: ITR Concessions. Nor do I like the way Mitch Daniels is trying to cram a privatized Illiana toll road down the throats of residents either. To protest I am going to...

Boycott the Indiana Toll Road.


I mainly use the toll road to go East to South Bend or on trips to Ohio and the East. Looking at a map, I think I'll use U.S. Hwy 20 which runs roughly parallel to the toll road and appears to intersect the Ohio Turnpike with an interchange about 60 miles into Ohio at Toledo. Boycotting the Indiana Toll Road is about the only way left to show my displeasure with this 75 year privatization deal since it is over and done with, but I sure do not have to give them my money.


If anyone knows of a better route than US 20 that will join me up to the Ohio Turnpike please let me know. You are also welcome to join me in the boycott.

Update: Link to better version of the map.

I'm hearing a lot about Interstate 69 which Governor Daniels wants to build between Indianapolis and Evansville, Indiana. I hear that they want to make it part of the NAFTA highway plan.

So with global warming and dependancy on imported oil from unstable parts of the globe why are we only building highways for NAFTA trade? Seems very uneconomical to me.

Seems to me we should be building a land transportation corridor. This would mean condemning a right of way large enough for 1. a super highway, 2. a fast passenger (Interurban plus high speed Amtrak) rail line between Evansville and Indianapolis, and 3. a dedicated fast rail freight line. I guess we couldn't build it all at once but we could certainly condemn the right of way and design the highway to incorporate rail lines running either alongside or up the middle.

This should be done with any new long distance interstate highways. In fact a modified version should be done for shorter super highways around urban areas, plan to add a commuter rail line to the right of way.

The fact remains that driving trucks from Mexico to Canada and back is a huge waste of fuel. All that freight should run in containers on trains. But if you really have to build a superhighway you should plan for the future.

Source: No Illiana Toll Road Discussion Group

I finally got around to emailing all the Indiana House members from NW Indiana expressing the reasons why I oppose the Illiana toll road. I don't think it was too long for an email, but I felt they deserved some reasons rather than a short one line note saying I am against it but not saying why.

I guess I will email the Governor too, although frankly I doubt he is listening.

There is an anti-Illiana Toll Road email discussion group. The posts look good so far, worth joining. www.no-illiana-tollroad.com

Source: Chesterton Tribune

The Chesterton Tribune has both a poll and a comments section about the proposed Illiana Toll Road.

Also they have a good article about the opposition point of view.

The opposition has a couple of good points:

1. The Illiana Tollroad will only help the proposed Peotone airport to be built as the third Chicago airport, to the detriment of our own Gary Airport, talk about stabbing ourselves in the back.

2. There is no proof that trucks will use the Illiana Toll Road, instead of the freeways. There needs to be some careful traffic studies done first and they have not been done.

3. We really need a comprehensive and coherent transportation policy for the entire country - a lot of goods being transported by truck should be hauled by rail. This is something the Federal Government is supposed to do but does not seem to quite be able to grasp any sort of strategic planning. If this road is only for the benefit of the out-of-state trucking industry then we ought to think again about our priorities.

4. No studies as to the environmental impact of the Illiana Toll Road.

5. No studies on the effect the Illiana toll road will have on sprawl.

Nobody from Indianapolis is answering any of these questions.

The Illiana Expressway (good map and article at that link) is to be a privately managed toll road designed to act as a third major expressway to allow East-West through traffic to get around the southern tip of Lake Michigan. The Illiana Expressway is touted, by Indiana Governor Mitch Daniels as an economic boon to the rural parts of the Indiana counties it will run through. I have a lot of reservations about this toll road as it has been described and some things need clarification before I can support such an expensive new highway:

1.) Privately Managed Toll Road: I actually have no objection to this being a toll road. In fact user fee supported infrastructure is a good thing in my opinion. What I object to is the "privately managed" part. Something like a 75 year lease is effectively giving away ownership and control of a public highway and right-of-way for nearly 3 human generations. Sorry that is excessive. Second, I'm willing to bet that any private company will start deferring maintenance on this road for the last 10 - 15 years of the lease. In effect they will hand back to the people of Indiana a worthless hunk of crumbling concrete. If the Illiana Expressway is such a good idea then the State of Indiana should own it and operate it.

2.) Tollways Exclude Local Traffic: As a toll road, the Illaina Expressway will not be used by local people for local travel - mainly because of the cost of tolls but also because of the limited number of interchanges. Sure local people will use it perhaps for daily commute to Chicago and maybe to go to the next county - but lets face it - this Illiana Expressway is being built for semi-trucks and people driving around Lake Michigan. Honestly, it ain't for us locals - it's for the trucking industry to save time and money, yet we locals will be expected to provide police, fire and ambulance coverage on this privately managed toll-road.

3.) I like the Intermodel Aspect ... But ...: I like the idea that the highway could serve intermodal (train to truck) yards.

An intermodal facility is a large-scale center, usually of 2,000 or so acres, where cargo is transferred from one mode of transportation to another, such as from rail to truck. A handout released at a recent meeting of the Porter County Economic Development Alliance suggests three intermodal sites in LaPorte County at Union Mills, Kingsbury and at State Road 2.

Source: Chesterton Tribune

Talk is cheap and I hear a lot of grandiose plans but I'd like to see that the intermodal yards are a sure thing in writing and budgeted to be built along with the road. Otherwise, we'll build the road for the trucking industry and the intermodal stuff will never get built and all the truckers will have their own private road. In these days of global warming we should be insuring that more freight will travel by rail than by truck. Full stop.

4.) Sprawl and Underfunded Public Transportation: Roads beget sprawl. I hate sprawl. Sprawl brings more automobiles and more pollution. The Illiana Expressway toll road will surely bring more sprawl, although it will be slower growth than if it were a freeway. In addition Northwest Indiana has a commuter rail plan to expand the South Shore rail road. That really will help the local residents. But nobody has any idea how that very expensive project will be funded. On top of that the Northwest Indiana region is only just now starting a regional bus service, and again nobody knows how we will find funds to do that right. Here is my simple proposal - No Illiana Expressway until all the South Shore and bus service gets complete funding from the Federal, state and local governments. Build the South Shore to Valparaiso and Lowell and we'll talk about shiny new highways.

5.) Bad Route: The current proposed route runs through some of the best farmland left in Lake and Porter Counties. Destroying good farmland just so a bunch of trucks can spew smoke and noise in our quiet communities is not a good thing. Route the darn road through the worst farmland.

6.) Relief of Truck Traffic on I-94: I am not convinced that this tollway would actually prevent trucks from using I-94. Trucks still resist using the Indiana Toll Road which runs nearly parallel to I-94 right now so I doubt that this route will provide that much relief.


Summary: I think we need to go slowly on the Illiana Expressway. The Illiana should only be built as part of a comprehensive plan that includes planning and funds for 1.) Interurban and commuter trains; 2.) Regional bus lines; 3.) Intermodal switching yards; 4.) study of the best use of land, route and location of interchanges.