Illinois Tollway changing in the up and coming years
| Subject: | 💼 Business |
| Type: | Problem Solution Essay |
| Pages: | 5 |
| Word count: | 1420 |
| Topics: | 🙋♂️ Management, Citizenship, Community, Leadership, 😇 Organizational Behavior, 💣 Work Ethic |
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Table of Contents
A clear reframing of the problem with changing the Illinois Tollway to credit card/cash machines and eliminating the employees in the booths
The Illinois Department of Transport’ s decision of going the cashless tolling style will both have advantages as well as disadvantages. As such, the new system’s benefits include the eradication of traffic jams as drivers will not be required to stop to pay cash toll as before. That notwithstanding, the new system of paying tolls will have advantages towards the near-booth environment that have for a long time been polluted as scores of vehicles queue to pay their fees with their engines still running. However, despite these advantages, the process of changing the Illinois Tollway to credit card or cash machines as well as removing the employees operated booths will have significant adverse effects as well as discussed below and thus the system ought to be implemented with some bit of moderation.
To begin with, the new regime has been shown by research to perpetuate the issue of bills evasion by drivers directly. That is because the new cashless option has vehicles’ license plates digitally read by a roadside machine and the drivers’ information obtained after which the driver receives a mailed bill which he or she pays later after arriving where one is going. As such, a study conducted on New York’s Henry Hudson Bridge realized that a majority of drivers never pay their dues under this system even after receiving the bills. Under this study also, the researchers managed to understand that the New York’s transport bills payment dropped by about two-thirds of what used to be paid initially, which has an adverse impact on the state’s earnings from traffic sector. In the same token, another study that was conducted on the Illinois road that adopted the open toll system by 2014 identified that such simply increased the number of drivers who owe the state past one thousand dollars in fines as well as tolls. With this regard, the researcher on the Illinois road reinstates that agencies concerned know all these negative impacts that the new system will have both on the road users as well as the state but are not acting as they blindly think that its long-term impact may be sustainable.
Equally important, it is true that the e-money scheme is geared towards the closure of the employees operated booths and this will lead to loss of employment by a significant number of the Illinois citizens. That is further estimated to significantly contribute to the overall drop in human labor demand in the states and thus affect the Illinois citizens’ livelihood adversely. As such, these fact holds despite the Illinois government argument that it will find alternative jobs for the booth operators. Moreover, the employees’ union argues that the new system has led to the loss of the union’s membership and may even lead to its death meaning that other non-booth workers who belong to the to be resolved unions will also be affected adversely.
In the same token, the new open toll system of paying transport bills will also compromise the Illinois citizens’ privacy. That is because the new regime allows government agencies to keep on tracking drivers’ information without seeking court’s permission as before. As such, the fact that the Illinois open toll scheme will help in directing authorities to get wanted license plates after they have been pinpointed on roads will significantly make many drivers shy from using these roads. That will thus lead to the limiting of civilians’ freedom and may also have adverse effects on the targeted road fees. Moreover, the American Civil Liberties Union has also questioned the Illinois directive of retaining both speed data and images of those that are caught driving without transponders for significantly long time, that is thirty days as well as seven years respectively. The Union states that these timeframes are quite long and will significantly limit citizens’ freedom of movement, more so, after learning that their government is out to collect more and more data regarding their movements and behaviors. Consequently, all these negative impacts regarding the new system of paying transport bills will lead to significant drawbacks to the whole project and thus requires an effective leader to curb them as well as promote the earlier stated advantages lest the arguably beneficial project fail (Abelson, Ledeen & Lewis, 2008).
Potential solutions considering both hypothetically, positive or negative solutions/ Potential barriers that one will need to overcome resistance
There are arguably several ways through which the earlier stated adverse effects of the open toll scheme that has been adopted by the Illinois government can be managed including setting alternative jobs for those that will lose employment after their booth jobs will be no more. As such, it is of paramount importance that the Illinois leadership works out adequate measures for ensuring that their citizens do not suffer due to the adoption of the new system. With this regard, other than creating alternative jobs, the Illinois administration should also ensure that their citizens’ privacy is not compromised. A possible way to guarantee this is for instance by shortening the duration within which the acquired drivers’ information is stored or even fail to save it at all. Furthermore, the state should also ensure that a strict follow-up of potential evaders of transport bills are followed keenly as well as charge smaller fines to those that do not have bills evasion history and who may have accidentally evaded paying their bills. Moreover, now that the new system involves the mailing of bills to specific driver’s emails, the state should also sensitize the public on the way to view one’s bills as well as ensure that all citizens can readily access internet signals at whatever point of the of the state. Equally important, the state should also introduce a system of helping drivers with large bills to pay their due in installments or even pardon those that are found to have no the ability to pay the accumulated large bills. In the same token, the toll rates should also be reduced to amounts that all drivers can afford so as not to punish the low-income earners as it allows the haves to enjoy life (Block, 2015).
The innovative leadership and management theories and behaviors or traits of leaders needed to implement and support the above solutions/ A possible plans for implementation the final recommendation
The open toll scheme is Illinois’ innovation and thus can be managed as well as made effective through the application of some key innovative leadership as well as management theories. Moreover, Overall (2015) reiterates that innovations are critical aspects of human development and thus requires absolute knowledge for one, or an agency to affect them (innovations). As such, Overall states that trusted leaders effectively inculcate trust as well as commitment to their followers which thus make an otherwise misunderstood change satisfactory. Moreover, he (Overall) maintains that making an innovation to be well understood by one’s subjects allows them to see its importance easily and thus support it, which in turn removes any tug of war between the innovator and the innovation users. That notwithstanding, Gupta, (2015) further provides leaders with an important art of managing innovation by helping them understand the McKinsey & Company’s innovation framework.
As such, Gupta encourages innovation leaders to embrace the eight essentials of innovation that include aspiring, choosing, discovering, evolving, accelerating, scaling extending and mobilizing. Consequently, the aspiring aspect is said by Gupta to involve the selecting of innovation goals as well as executing the innovation process. Moreover, the discovery issue includes the identification as well as the communication of innovation’s values to the public. That notwithstanding, the evolution issue involves the identification of potential innovation’s modifications so as to make it more useful while the acceleration aspect appreciates people’s culture and the innovators’ capabilities regarding the novelty. The scaling process as such entails the process of implementing the identified modifications that thus ensure that the innovation’s adverse impacts are trimmed. Lastly, the mobilization aspect of innovation involves the incorporation of the public into the whole innovation where they (the public) are made part and parcel of the entire project with each appreciating its importance as well as having no unanswered questions regarding it. As such, following these innovation essentials is key for the Illinois traffic sector as it will ensure that people understand the advantages of the changes and also cater for public concerns that the government is initiating these changes to demean them freedom.
- Abelson, H., Ledeen, K., & Lewis, H. R. (2008). Blown to bits: Your life, liberty, and happiness after the digital explosion. Upper Saddle River, NJ: Addison-Wesley.
- Block, W. (2015). Privatization of Roads and Highways: Human and Economic Factors. Bibliolife DBA of Bibilio Bazaar II LLC. ISBN 1298498465, 9781298498465
- Gupta, U. G. (2015). Teaching Business Students the Art and Science of Innovation. Business Education Innovation Journal, 7(2), 17-21.
- Overall, J. (2015). A conceptual framework of innovation and performance: The importance of leadership, relationship quality, and knowledge management. Academy of Entrepreneurship Journal, 21(2), 41-54.
