To all of our friends driving in Illinois, beware of Construction Zones!

http://www.dot.state.il.us/press/r033005.html

 

Ouch! People better pay attention to their speedos!

 

This is not such a bad deal. There have been incidents where construction people have gotten picked off. The problem is that 90% of the time there is no one working at the contruction zones so people get complacent. They got places to go and people to see. When 5 lanes get squeezed down to 2 it can cause some pretty good back ups. Road rage and other assorted idiots make this situation worse. So folks don't slow down when the construction guys are there. Kind of needs to be done.

 

They already photo-police certain intersections downtown (think sheridan and lake shore drive). This is certainly going to help against the few people who are actually being a hazard to construction workers.

 

Are construction worker deaths on the rise, or is this an additional income stream during tight budgetary times?

 

We used to have photo radar here a number of years ago. It was nothing more than a cash cow for the goverment. However I think it should be used in constuction and school zones.

 

I think statistically the number of deaths in work zones has been decreasing the last ten years, but they just want it to decrease faster.

I think it's something like 40x as many construction workers die outside of posted work zones than inside posted work zones, so I think part of it is money related. If they really wanted to reduce fatalities, they would police unmarked work zones.

source: http://www.workzonesafety.org/crash_data/