Give them a (bathroom) break

Lots to cram into one column, after a busy transportation week and no slowdown in sight.

For starters

The Illinois State Toll Highway Authority board is expected to vote on a settlement offer with former I-PASS director Scott Okun on Monday.

In February 2006, Okun was suspended without pay for allegedly ignoring rules about state purchasing policies. The controversy dates back to 2005 when he oversaw the hiring of a company, where his cousin worked as a sales agent, to print an I-PASS mailer.

Tollway administrators said Okun skirted state rules that require contracts to go through the state's central purchasing agency.

Okun, who resigned in March 2006, fired back by suing the agency. His lawsuit charges the tollway purchasing department told him to obtain bids on his own and that the agency's operations department approved the deal.

Stay tuned.

When you gotta go ...

Thanks to suburbanite Deb Bragg who was kind enough to share a travel story we'll call, "The Sad Affair of the Blocked Toilet."

Bragg, an administrator with an Oak Brook health-care company, travels extensively on business. She was supposed to be headed to Kansas City on a United Express flight Aug. 26 but FAA computer problems grounded her airplane and hundreds of others across the country.

After about one and a half hours on the tarmac at O'Hare, nature started to call. One flight attendant sternly ordered passengers back in their seats if they approached the bathroom.

"After two hours, people needed to go," Bragg explained.

As mass discontent grew, the other flight attendant decided to quell any anarchy. Over the loudspeaker, she announced, "People, you need to be in your seats. You need to sit down even if it means going in your pants," Bragg recounted.

Silence reigned for a moment. Then, passengers began whipping out their cell phones and BlackBerries.

"I turned to the man next to me and said, 'Did she say what I think she said?'" Bragg recalled.

As riled travelers started describing the bathroom embargo to friends and family, the flight attendants launched a counterattack, Bragg remembered, ordering cell phones and messaging devices to be turned off.

Eventually Bragg believes, the pilot, who she described as the one bright light in a latrine-deprived world, intervened. The flight attendants relented on toilet and cell phone use and even passed out water and snacks.

Passengers didn't buy it.

"On the one hand, people were enraged. On the other hand, people wanted to laugh," Bragg recounted.

Asked to comment on the lavatory lapse, a spokesman for United Airlines, which owns United Express, said the company took any complaints seriously and would review the concerns. He encouraged passengers with problems to contact United's customer service center.

As for Bragg, she's flying United again on Monday. In all her travels, she's never encountered an unprofessional flight attendant, she said, until last week.

Golden anniversary

Of course, it's not just passengers who are fuming at the world of aviation these days. Air traffic controllers are steaming about their workload. Pilots are incensed about high salaries paid to airline executives. Airline executives are ranting about the soaring increase in jet fuel prices.

But this year, it's the Federal Aviation Administration's 50th birthday and Barry Cooper has faith.

During an interview last week, the FAA's regional administrator acknowledged it's a rough time for the industry. But he argues that air travel is safer than it's ever been and aviation is resilient.

"We understand there's peaks and valleys in the aviation industry," Cooper said. "But bottom line, if you look down the road 15 to 20 years, there will be growth."

The public also should look to the coming decade when the FAA hopes to unfold its NextGen program, also known as Automatic Dependent Surveillance-Broadcast technology, Cooper said. FAA types call it ADS-B when they're hanging out around the water cooler.

For the rest of us, ADS-B means using satellites instead of radar to transmit information to pilots and air traffic controllers. It means better visuals on air traffic, a more accurate weather picture and diversity in the routes planes fly.

"Because of the increase in satellite-based technology, there's going to be a definite increase in efficiency," said Cooper, an engineer from Schaumburg who has spent 30 years with the agency.

With all this positive talk are there any clouds in the FAA's sky?

Well, "one of the very obvious single priorities is reauthorization," Cooper said. What he means is that the FAA is reauthorized every five years by Congress; it's mission is recast and funding is determined. But the last authorization expired in September 2007 and current legislation isn't likely to move fast during election season. While the FAA still functions, its ability to act on long-range projects like NextGen is limited.

Looking for some FAA anniversary factoids? Here's a few.

•The FAA was created by President Eisenhower in 1958.

•Back then about 53 million people flew a year compared to 776 million now.

•There were 354,365 active pilots in 1958 versus 590,349 now.

Mailbag

• Reader Dan Anelli wondered "how long is the mess caused by Menards on Lake-Cook Road and Hicks Road going to last?" Well, according to the village of Long Grove, work building new turn lanes and through lanes should be done by Oct. 20. "Traffic flow will be better when it's completed," Village Superintendent Bob Block said.

Incoming

• People using Pace Routes 787 and 788 in Naperville will need to make other travel plans soon. Pace announced it's eliminating both midday routes because of declining ridership, but Route 714 that travels between Naperville and Wheaton is an alternative. The agency will use the money it saves to beef up its feeder service to Naperville Metra stations in rush hour, starting Oct. 6. Routes 787 and 788 go kaput on Oct. 3.

• Time's running out to kvetch or praise CN's proposed merger with the EJ&E railroad. Public hearings on a draft environmental impact statement end this week and there's one Tuesday at West Aurora High School, 1201 W. New York St. An open house starts at 4 p.m. and public meeting begins at 6 p.m. to 9 p.m. The meeting's sponsored by the U.S. Surface Transportation Board.