Bad News For BJ
BJ, in his blog Good Year for the Outlaw, has been railing against the “wolf pack” the Illinois State Police frequently run the stretch of I-74 near Morton. This is the same stretch BJ refers to in one of his posts:
You know the stretch I’m talking about, the completely flat, completely straight, pretty much excellent visibility in all directions stretch?
It is mostly flat, but right there at Morton, within a couple of miles of each, you have:
1. The divergence of I-74 and I-474.
2. The confluence of I-74 and I-155.
3. The North Morton Avenue interchange.
That’s a lot of possible lane changes in a short amount of time with cars, trucks, and semi’s zipping along.
But BJ thinks the police are there just to generate cash. He says in another post:
Safety has NOTHING to do with it. NOTHING. PERIOD. This is a sting. A speed trap. A way to make money. Nothing more. As a matter of fact, this crap is ANTI-safety.
They are planning to do some construction on this piece of road. In an article in the PJStar, they say this:
While the bridge project is not expected to alleviate crash concerns on I-74 near I-155, IDOT is planning to line the interstate with a new cable guardrail system that could lessen the impact in what has become a frequent crash site.
Let me repeat that. This stretch of road is “a frequent crash site.”
So BJ, and everyone else, slow down a little out there…please.
Billy Dennis is a former reporter and editor at small daily and weekly newspapers in Illinois and Missouri. He comments on media, news and politics. He also owns and operates 
As someone who takes this stretch every single day to and from work, I can attest to the fact that it IS dangerous. People who never learned to merge like to hog the middle lane at the end of eastbound 474 entering eastbound 74(The left lane of 474 before the merge). This forces the slower traffic in what was the right lane of eastbound 74 to move quickly to the far left, often times at the peril of the vehicles that were trying to pass them. Then, as you head further east, the vehicles entering 74 eastbound from 155 northbound are usually going about 40 when they get on the highway, and once again, the vehicles in the right lane of 74 are forced to move to the left lane, and once again, the vehicles attempting to pass them are put in danger. Not to mention the massive bumps at the beginning and end of the curved bridge that make vehicles with tight suspensions slip sideways about six inches when it’s raining.
This is a simple problem with a simple solution. Going East 74 from East Peoria, all you have to do is maintain the posted speed limit, move to the left lane if you are driving on towards Bloomington so cars entering from I474, I155, and the Morton interchanges can simply merge. After you leave Morton, this is the section of road that BJ is talking about. Not the section of 74 with all the interchanges. It runs East past Deercreek and up to the Goodfield exit as running West from Goodfield to just before Morton. Flat and straight. After you enter Tazwell county from the East, the State Police use Lidar (lazer radar) from atop an overpass to nail you. It is a money maker.
Back to the problem at Morton, I155, and I474, people drive like it is NASCAR. It isn’t driving, it is qualifying. These are the idiots that cause the near death accidents and these are the idiots that are so close to your bumper when you merge left to allow another car to enter that you can see the model of the cell phone they are holding in your rear view mirror. These are the people the police want to catch, not really the casual 70mph driver but breaking the speed law is breaking the speed law. Someday, (I drive this all the time) I am going to look in my rearview and see a painted box of Tide on the hood of the car behind me.
Emtronics sez: “After you leave Morton, this is the section of road that BJ is talking about. Not the section of 74 with all the interchanges. It runs East past Deercreek and up to the Goodfield exit as running West from Goodfield to just before Morton. Flat and straight. After you enter Tazwell county from the East, the State Police use Lidar (lazer radar) from atop an overpass to nail you. It is a money maker.”
I sez: To clarify –
My experience has been that the Trooper sits on the Tennessee overpass shooting radar at WESTBOUND traffic. This is to enforce the speed limit as traffic enters the main crumple zone between the North Morton Avenue and the I-155 interchanges.
Reducing speding in an accident prone zone seems to me to be good police work.
Because of the large volume of semi traffic going 55 in the interchange area, the people in the passing lane are often doing the speed limit, maybe 70. The people moving to the left to allow merging traffic in are the ones causing the problem. While it’s a nice thing to do, moving over for merging traffic breeds the bad habit of those merging EXPECTING the right lane to move. It is the responsibility of merging traffic to accelerate to enter the highway without interfering. Merging at 35 or 40 miles an hour onto an interstate highway does quite a bit of interfering. When I first moved here from Florida, I couldn’t believe people were slowing and even stopping on the ramps. I can hardly think of a more dangerous behavior. Unfortunately, the ramp coming from northbound 155 to eastbound 74 is so short, most vehicles of average power have a very difficult time accelerating to an appropriate speed. THIS is the root of the problem, and it is the same problem that the Upgrade 74 project fixed in downtown Peoria and at 116 in East Peoria.
I agree with BJ… it is mostly a revenue generating speed trap.
As to needing construction work. Billy we have been down this road before… dig deep into your archives regarding the endless construction over the years around Morton. They took a break because of the I-74 redo. Now that it is done, it is time to resume the pork repairs around Morton. Free promo for Cat when visiting business folk are in town. Nothing beats seeing Cat machines at work.
Mahko,
Slow down and take a look at the bridges they are referring to the next time you pass through. There are spots where you can see the rebar. Drive under them and you can see the sad shape they are in.
These bridges were part of the original I-155 build 20+ years ago.
BJ needs a WAAAAAAAAAAAAAAmbulance.
I don’t agree. You are supposed to merge to the left lane when approaching an on ramp and traffic is trying to enter. The only hazzard is to those who are driving over the limit and come up on you. In fact there are signs thru out downtown I74 in Peoria that say; “East Keep Left” This is so slower traffic coming to speed can enter the highway. If you are traveling past Morton heading to Bloomington, then you are legal at 65 in the left lane all the way through those interchanges. BTW, I have never seen a semi going 55. They are the worst offenders. The people who are trying to go thru that congestion at 80+ mph are the hazzard.
Emtronics, you are right. You are SUPPOSED to merge to the left lane. You are also SUPPOSED to follow the speed limit.
THIS is why the cops are there. You know, keeping people safe? Or are they just there to collect money?
(BTW, anyone who thinks that the ISP, or any other police agency for that matter, is pulling people over on an Interstate highway and getting out of their car to write a ticket just to collect money is a fool. There is no more dangerous place to be than standing on a highway with traffic moving at 70 mph by your car and ignoring the flashing lights. As someone who has almost been hit in a situation like that several times, I wouldn’t just do it to make money for my employer.)
And remember, they’re not “quotas”. They’re “expectations”.
Thank you, Tony. Someone’s rational.
I cheer everytime I see they have “one of you” stopped. Strange, they don’t bother me. Guess that is because we don’t think we own the road and have the right to put everyone in danager just for our two minutes of saved time. I say … keep the “aggressive driver” stings in place and make it a safer road to travel..
I thought the $375 construction-zone penalty was just a revenue generator until I was passed by someone going about 90 mph in the 45-mph zone that was the I-74 upgrade. Those are the guys I hope to see pulled over after they put my life in danger.
Maubs, I’m not the guy driving 90 in a 45, or even 90 in a 65, or even 90 in a 70 over in Iowa. I want those people stopped, too, because at that point they’re obviously unsafe.
But the stings many of you seem to be so happy with are ticketing many people driving as “slow” as 68 in a 65. And these people don’t need to be endangered, and neither do the officers, with this trivial pull-over. And when they pull over several people in a row, a lot of these tickets are eventually thrown out when the “flow of traffic” argument is raised. But I’m saying it shouldn’t even get to that point. These people, as I said in my original post on my blog, are NOT the unsafe drivers.
There are many types of unsafe drivers I referred to in my post, but the whole thing wasn’t referenced here in Mouse’s commentary.
I’ve been doing research on this stuff this week, I HAVE contacted state Senators and Representatives, and I HAVE contacted ISP officials. These “expectations”, as Cory says, are exactly what the officials tell me they have. They will not admit, of course, to a quota, they just change the lyrics to fit the song.
If you’ll go to my blog, you’ll see what I’ve proposed to these Senators and Reps I’ve talked to. The whole thing is ridiculous, and I stand by what I said in my blog, it’s UNSAFE. It’s UNSAFE for the officers, it’s UNSAFE for the drivers stopped, and it’s UNSAFE for the drivers in the rest of the district to have unprotected areas while six cruisers clump within a nine-iron of each other.
BobSam – I’d rather follow or be around “aggressive” drivers anyday over one who never uses a turn signal or never quits turning around to talk to the kids in the backseat or one who pulls out to pass without checking to see if there’s traffic coming up on him on the left, and then proceeds to make his pass that takes a mile and a half to complete while traffic is backing up for 1/2 mile behind him. THOSE are the real dangerous drivers.
BJ: The aggressive drivers usually are the ones with no lane change signals and talking on the cell phone driving with 4 bright white lights on in their Ford 250 that sits up higher than most semis. I guess a jerk can be anyone depends on who is looking.
I agree, Em, those are the problems. You are correct. I should have specified the kind of aggressive driver I was referring to was a direct response to BobSam, who insinuated that “aggressive drivers” and “speeders” are one in the same.
BJ sez: “Safety has NOTHING to do with it. NOTHING. PERIOD. This is a sting. A speed trap. A way to make money. Nothing more…”
I sez: I love having these archives.
I spoke with one of the State Troopers that run those ‘wolf packs’ out on I-74.
He pointed out two important facts.
First, they rarely stop folks going less than 80MPH. Sometimes they will stop people doing 77 or 78, but usually the people on the side of the road were doing 80 or more.
Second, all monies collected through the ticketing process go to….ba bum bah…the county and township. NONE of the money goes to the State. Zip, Zero, Nada!
Next Rivermen game youa re at, ask Wendy about the conversation, she was there, too.
PS: He said they caught a guy doing 151 MPH on I-74 just last week.
And your point? Are “counties” and “townships” part of “the state”? Does the money go to Indiana or Wisconsin? Where does your “story” prove it’s NOT about money?
Let me answer those questions for you: Yes. No. Not a bit.
Seems someone has an obsessive fetish.
Why would STATE Troopers write tickets for a township gov’t money making sting?