It's a sad fact, but some people are at their creative bests when it comes to chiseling.

Just ask Tom DeLorey, numismatist at Harlan J. Berk Ltd., one of the Chicago area's biggest coin shops.

A few years ago, people started appearing at the Berk store at 31 N. Clark St. showing uncommon interest in a specific coin--worth less than one penny--from a certain far-off land that will remain nameless.

More recently, another coin from another distant country enjoyed a mysterious popularity. Its value is about 2.2 cents.

The visitors say they are seeking the coins "`for an art project' or "for my kid's geography class" or the like, DeLorey said. "By sheer coincidence, the coins they are looking for are the exact same size as CTA tokens."

Tokens cost $1.35 each when purchased in discounted 10-packs, and that's the freight that honest people pay to ride. But the CTA must contend with those looking for any way they can to beat the system.

The cash-strapped agency, under perpetual pressure to raise fares and cut service to make ends meet, needs every dollar it can get. The people who use bogus coins and tokens rob it of about $180,000 a year.

The oldest and least sophisticated turnstiles at CTA rail stations are able to check only the diameter of what's deposited, making them easy marks for cheaters.

But for people who pay their fair share and believe everyone else should, too, the good news is that new turnstiles being installed in stations systemwide have more advanced technology. Besides measuring the size of what's dropped in, they also check for proper metal content.

Even with the new equipment, however, CTA officials acknowledge that the battle against chiselers is one that will never end. As new coins that work are discovered by fare evaders, software in the new turnstiles will have to be changed.

Meanwhile, the CTA can thank DeLorey for refusing to help the people who come in with phony stories and requests for mass quantities of suspect coins.

"I tell them I will sell them all they want--for $1.50 each," he said. "They lose interest."

Trouble at the turnstiles

It was an ugly scene Tuesday night at one of the entrances to the CTA's Clark/Lake elevated station, according to a commuter who witnessed it.

Of the three new turnstiles installed at the entrance, only one is equipped to handle tokens. The usually long line at that machine became even longer when it jammed.

Riders "were screaming and yelling and climbing over the turnstiles," the commuter said. "That's what happens when people want to get home."

Indeed, the transition to the new turnstiles has not been without its frustrations.

Only some of the new machines accept tokens. That's because CTA officials believe that many riders who buy tokens will switch to "stored-value" cards early next year when the new fare-collection system becomes fully operational.

Similarly, the turnstiles won't be able to handle riders with monthly passes until a new type of monthly, which it can read electronically, is introduced in a few months.

Repaving planned

For motorists who are bounced and battered as they travel the northern reaches of Lake Shore Drive, relief is on the horizon.

The Illinois Department of Transportation is expected to award a contract soon to repave a pockmarked milelong stretch of the drive between Hollywood and Foster Avenues that has plagued drivers for too long.

As Lake Shore regulars know only too well, the highway was rehabilitated between Hollywood and downtown in 1991, but the fixup of the northernmost stretch did not include an overlay of new asphalt. Within a few years of the rehab, the concrete pavement began to crumble at an alarming pace.

Potholes were filled as they developed, but in some areas, the pavement consists of a bumpy hodgepodge of patches.

The repaving is expected next spring or summer on the northbound and southbound lanes.

Meanwhile, it's anybody's guess how long it will be before the stretch between Foster and downtown requires another makeover. Just five years after the rehab, IDOT and the motorists who travel the drive are faced with areas of cracked concrete and asphalt exhibiting pronounced signs of aging.

Slowdown on the drive

Also on Lake Shore Drive:

- The city on Monday imposes its annual wacky wintertime slowdown between Hollywood and North Avenues. The speed limit drops to 40 m.p.h. from 45 m.p.h. as officials attempt to protect the tender young trees and other plantings in the median from salt spray--as if a 5-m.p.h. reduction will make any difference.

Motorists must endure the lowered limit until April 1.

- When city officials warned there would be increased enforcement on the rebuilt section of the drive between Balbo Drive and 31st Street, they weren't kidding. It looked like a Kmart blue-light special for days after the new concrete opened to traffic Nov. 9 as Chicago cops in radar-equipped cars pulled violators over left and right.

It was an attempt to slow drivers who celebrated the reopening by doing 50 and 60 m.p.h. on a stretch where the legal limit ranges from 35 to 45.

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Got a commuting question? See a problem on the area's roads, trains or buses? Getting Around will address topics of general interest. Write to Getting Around, c/o Chicago Tribune, 435 N. Michigan Ave., Chicago, Ill., 60611-4041.