Elana Newkirk is a regular user of Illinois' open road electronic tolling system, but she has avoided the Indiana Toll Road like the plague for years.
That's because to pay a toll on the Toll Road she would have to shift into park with her right hand, take her left off the hand control for the accelerator and brake, dig in her pocket for cash and hand it over to the attendant.
"It never fails that some idiot behind honks their horn," she said.
So on Monday, Newkirk, who lost her left foot to complications from spina bifida 15 years ago and her right foot to a drunken driver in 1994, gave the new electronic tolling system on the Indiana Toll Road a spin.
Letting up on the gas by raising her hand control lever and then pushing it forward to brake at the Gary toll plaza at mile marker 17, she waited as the cars nudged forward at 11:41 a.m. The car in front paid cash, the gate went up and then clunked down in front of Newkirk.
Newkirk kept nosing forward at less than 5 mph, one eye on her I-PASS transponder and one on the gate. Then the gate went up.
"It worked," Newkirk proclaimed.
But about 10 minutes later, Newkirk began to have doubts as eastbound traffic slowed to a crawl on the Toll Road adjacent to the toll plaza at mile marker 5. More than 40 minutes later, she arrived at her destination, the West Point travel plaza just before the Illinois line.
That wait, combined with the fact there were few toll lanes dedicated solely to electronic tolling, forcing those with transponders to wait for those paying in cash, dampened the 38-year-old's enthusiasm for the Indiana effort.
Newkirk originally had thought the advent of electronic tolling on the Indiana Toll Road would be a godsend for those with adaptive driving devices like hers.
"It's a great concept, but if you're going to do it, do it right," Newkirk said.
Still, Newkirk took it all with a cheery grace. Peering out through reflective sunglasses and wearing a long-sleeve shirt emblazoned with the logo of her beloved Chicago Wolves hockey team, Newkirk handled the driving with the deft touch of a NASCAR driver, which is her second favorite sport.
Maybe the Indiana State Police pursuit school she had attended a few weeks ago also helped. As a state police dispatcher in Lowell, she went to the school to learn and also answered questions troopers had on how people with disabilities drive.
Nationwide, an estimated 382,907 people use some form of adaptive equipment to drive, according to the most recent data from the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration.
In Indiana, 10,490 drivers operate motor vehicles with an adaptive driving restriction on their licenses, according to the Indiana Bureau of Motor Vehicles.
Newkirk wants more people to know about the availability of adaptive driving devices.
"I know there are a lot of people out there like me," Newkirk said. "For so long I wouldn't drive outside my little box. Just to my job and back, and that was it."
