Tollway naming rights worth exploring

Drive along I-90/94 in Chicago and you go past U.S. Cellular Field while on the Dan Ryan Expressway and see the signs to United Center and Wrigley Field while on the Kennedy Expressway. Once you hit the Jane Addams Tollway in the Northwest suburbs, you see the Allstate Arena and Sears Centre.

While those stadium venues bring in big bucks for granting the naming rights to businesses, the roads themselves remain sponsor-free. Instead, local or national heroes are given the honors while our transportation agencies look for ways to pay for the upkeep of those roads.

Usually that means taxpayers or tollpayers foot the bill.

So, while traditionalists may disagree, we think Rep. La Shawn Ford, a Chicago Democrat, may be on to something with his legislation that asks the Illinois Toll Highway Authority to explore granting naming rights for its roads.

Yes, that’s right. Instead of the Reagan Tollway, we may, as our Springfield reporter Jeff Engelhardt suggested, get the Tostitos Tollway. Or as Ford opined, maybe we’ll have the Mobil Tollway instead of the Jane Addams.

Is it really that hard to digest? Aside from traffic reporters, who calls it the Jane Addams Tollway anyway? Most of us still refer to it as 90 or the Northwest Tollway. Most of us, even though we support our veterans, still call I-355 the North-South Tollway. And there are some who still remember I-88 (the East-West, er, Reagan Tollway) once was designated I-5.

So we’ll either get used to new names or we will still use the more common ones. Sears Tower, anyone? And in the process, the toll authority may get more money to help offset its costs and help us with the rising cost of driving.

Let’s not forget that the Chicago area, according to AAA’s most recent fuel gauge report released Tuesday, is paying the most in its history for the average price of gas.

It’s not a new concept either for transit agencies. As Engelhardt reported, the Metropolitan Transportation Authority in New York leased the naming rights for a Brooklyn subway station to Barclays for $4 million. The city gets $200,000 a year for 20 years. Metra and the CTA also are investigating granting naming rights for their transit lines and stations.

Tollway spokeswoman Joelle McGinnis said the agency is looking at sponsorships for the H.E.L.P. Truck program, oases and salt domes.

Those are all good ideas. But the roads could bring in the most money. Not only should the toll authority do this, but the Illinois Department of Transportation should as well.

If a company is willing to pay millions to put its name on a well-traveled roadway, then it should be able to do so. Maybe, in return, sponsors will ask for guarantees that the potholes are filled a lot quicker and that traffic flows smoother.