These days, I have to leave very early to get to my dentist appointments because I travel the long and not-so-scenic Route 9. So far, I’ve been lucky enough to leave my office with enough time to take the back streets and winding roads which parallel I-90. I avoid the highway because I don’t have a transponder, and don’t want one. I also don’t want to get charged extra by the Big Brother gantries just because I don’t have one. It’s my personal boycott against the intrusive surveillance. No judgement, please.
But as I found out earlier this year, 86 percent of drivers do use E-ZPass transponders. Only a very small part of the remaining 14 percent are people like me who don’t take toll highways. As Commonwealth Magazine recently reported, most are pay-by-plate drivers who owe unpaid tolls and late fees. Since the state switched 11 months ago from manned toll booths to electronic tolling, uncollected fees have ballooned to $32 million. But Jonathan Gulliver, the Department of Transportation’s highway division chief, explained to the magazine the state expects to recoup all but about 5 percent of that sum. Bottom line, the state is collecting a hefty chunk of change from the Allston tolls, the Tobin Bridge, and the Sumner, Callahan and Ted Williams Tunnels. I do spend a fair amount of time going to and from Logan airport, so in the end, I can’t completely escape toll payments.
Things may also soon change for travelers on Interstate 93 heading through Boston, and on Interstate 95 as it circles around Boston. State Sen. Thomas McGee, a Democrat representing Massachusetts’ 3rd Essex District, north of Boston, has proposed an expanded tolling system. It would include Route 1 south of I-95 and Route 2 between Alewife and I-95. With apologies to poet John Donne, that means nearly every road in the state would toll for me and thee.
Sen. McGee told the Boston Herald that his plan is fairer for North Shore and Metrowest drivers who he said already pay daily tolls. “In many ways, we are paying our own tax and not seeing the benefits. We need to be fair and equitable about how we toll.” What’s more, he said the proposed plan would raise new funds which could be used to address the billion-dollar shortfall in transportation. Funds that could pay for much-needed infrastructure repairs and maintenance, as well as the MBTA’s ongoing repair needs and support for the rail and ferry service. Welcome relief, perhaps, to stave off threatened elimination of commuter rail lines.
But critics are lukewarm to the plan, calling it a “money grab” and a first step toward permanent tolls. Looks that way to me, too. There’s got to be a better way to ease the daily toll burden of McGee’s constituents and keep the rest of us from being tolled to death. Taxachusetts, indeed.
Update: This post has been updated to reflect the correct spelling of Senator McGee's name.
