We’re busy. And hurried. And pretty flush with cash. So Orange County’s toll roads are a hot business.

Like any local consumer-centric endeavor, the three roads are finally shaking off their Great Recession hangover. If you want to see how businesses tied to discretionary income ride the economic roller coaster, just watch toll road usage.

The recovery means people need quick options to drive to/from/for work. Cheaper gasoline motivates after-hours driving. All that added traffic gives extra value to the often swift-moving toll roads.

So fatter paychecks created by the business climate’s rebound means more drivers can afford the tolls, which average roughly $3 per trip.

I tossed toll data from the Transportation Corridor Agencies and the Orange County Transportation Authority into my trusty spreadsheet and learned that 108 million trips were taken on Orange County tollways in the fiscal year that ended June 30. That’s the best combined usage since 2008, and the 8 percent jump in a year is the fastest rate of traffic growth since the recession.

The added usage is pretty impressive considering the tollways aren’t cheap because the agencies that run them must (1) keep the lanes relatively free of heavy traffic and (2) pay off debts tied to the roads’ creation. No Groupons here!

Added drivers, plus higher tolls and assorted fees, pushed total toll collections up 11 percent to $331 million.

Here’s how it broke down:

• The San Joaquin Hills (73) had 31 million trips in the fiscal year, up 9 percent – the busiest year since 2007. Revenues jumped 12 percent to a record $148 million.

• The Foothill/Eastern (133/241/261) had 63 million trips in the fiscal year, the busiest year since 2007 and up 8 percent in 12 months. Revenues jumped 12 percent to a record $141 million.

• The 91 Express Lanes had 14 million trips in the fiscal year, up 5 percent. Revenues jumped 7 percent to a record $42 million.

This isn’t a one-year boom as the three local tollways have been on an extended roll. In the past three fiscal years, combined traffic is up 16 percent as revenues soared 34 percent.

Leading the pack has been San Joaquin, seen as a quick alternative to the construction-plagued 5 in South County. Its traffic is up 22 percent in three years; revenue soared 47 percent.

Hopefully, toll-road managers remember a few lessons from the downturn. Between 2007 and 2013, the toll roads lost 18 percent of their overall trips.

One problem then was agency bureaucrats who kept tolls too high, largely to placate nervous bondholders.

Despite scaring off many drivers, toll revenues rose 5 percent over six challenging years.

For all the bellyaching about paying to drive, the toll-road concept brought much-needed lanes to Orange County. And apparently, there are enough traffic-phobic Orange County drivers who’ll take a shortcut – no matter the price.

Contact the writer: jlansner@ocregister.com