State reaping more in highway tolls

The return of crunching highway traffic to Boston area roadways might have made drivers miserable, but there’s a silver lining for transportation officials: a bounty of tolls that are pouring in.

Through the first three quarters of fiscal year 2022, the Department of Transportation hauled in $306.5 million from roadway tolls, nearly $70 million more than over the period in 2021. The surge positions MassDOT to end the year with $76 million more in toll revenue than expected.

Standing in stark contrast with still-depleted ridership on public transit, drivers have been using tolled roadways in large enough volumes that MassDOT officials now expect to bring in about 95% as much in tolls this year as they did in the last year before the pandemic.