Advertising cannot even finance a newspaper, and the record shows that people hate urban advertising.
No. It’s a similar problem to what Facebook and DIGG face right now. They have to maintain high user metrics (drivers in this case) to attract advertisers, but their constituency wants to drive with minimal distraction, not look at ads.
If you look into the Trans-Texas Corridor plans, they had a very interesting model, which was a combination of leasing commercial space, running pipelines, selling offramp exits etc along with the road. These are secondary revenue streams and models. In some cases, they can add to the driver experience, instead of trying to interfere with the driver experience (advertising).
First of all, yes, I do want to own roads! I think private ownership of roads would achieve safety and convenience as well as a road for every kind of driver.
Roads to drive sedately on for compacted living in a city, and super-speed highways between cities on which people are paying for the privilege of being able to drive as fast as they literally can. No speed limit. Because they love to drive fast. Privately owned roads would mean that owning a vehicle would be a distinct pleasure, because you drive on the kind of roads you enjoy and there will be a pretty wide variety of ways to get from A to B.
The first guy to build a highway is just that - the first guy. Other guys will think up new ways to traverse the distance and rather than replace, it will augment and add to the sum total of our knowledge of ways to get from A to B. Yes, he owns the monopoly over that road, the road he built. If you would rather make another road instead of using his, is up to you. You can stay where you are or you can pay him to use his road. Your net options have just increased because the road is there for you to use if it suits you. The essential choice here is to be able to say no thanks to an offer without being hurt other than by the loss as a result of saying no to the opportunity to travel on that road and see what’s on the other end of it or along the way and once again chances are there are things of value along and at the end of that road so the sum values have increased in the world whether or not this or that person agrees with me. Or him. Or you.
As for the Norwegian point, it is his right to make such a strange rule. It is our right to ask why if we care. If his answer makes sense, then we might all look differently at Norwegians. Most likely his story will involve an individual Norwegian, and it’s the man’s individuality as a human being from Norway speaks of him, not necesssarily of any other, never mind all, Norwegians.
It’s an odd request without a good reason and could cause him to lose custom from what would otherwise have been long-time steady customers of whatever he is selling on the roads.
What is the point of roads? Some serve inside the town, some house accommodations for the city’s people, some serve as conduits and still also provide business addresses and homes above the store. The art of owning downtown roads is different from residential, highways, construction roads, etc. People owning their own roads means more efficient use of scarce time and limited ready resources. The Earth may be a ball o’ resources, but many of them require a lot of work to get them ready for basic production of building materials for different climates on Earth.
Then of course there are people who own sidewalks. But I digress.
As for the road ownership of the road you occupy, here’s what I think will happen. There’s no slow way to do it. We just have to face the fact that it’s now time to do it.
If you are interested in road ownership, meaning the piece of road outside your house, then you own it. You would look up and find some road pavers and probably end up paying a guy that some of your neighbors are paying too. Maybe half dozen of the remaining 8 or 9 choose some other outfit to do their paving. Both companies can operate - the job gets done. The people who don’t offer to pay anyone to do their road - maybe they’re willing to sell the rights to their road to someone else. Or they might be unwilling to sell to anyone. So that’s when bridges are born.
Having a right of way to leave your home on foot is about paying what they used to pretend was being paid by our property taxes. The difference when you let the voluntarily entered free market do it, you get what you paid for and more.
You want to use the sidewalks - the price you pay for a year’s use covers snow removel too. Same with the roads. As a property owner, you have to decide what you want to do with the bounty of frozen water deposited on your land each winter. That there is worth money, that water. A fortune right under our Canadian/North American noses. It’s all very well having a desalinator in the ocean but there’s no substitute for unlimited fresh and clean water, as only mankind can deliver it.
If you’re a hermit and do not want to leave your land, then you’ll end up paying for the road indirectly via the delivery cars and vans you arrange to deliver your life needs to your door.
If you want to use the roads or the sidewalks and leave your home, you do have to pay someone for it. Sorry but if you don’t like it then don’t live in a city with all the possibilities for wealth at your command for the price of a few hours’ work.
Sorry if I got too over-excited about roads. I think the possibilities for roads are just beginning. The whole lot can be put together a lot better in a free market environment than it has been when government was permitted to try to force it to happen. Coercion won’t ever get that kind of job done. Once you stop relying on the ability to fall back on initiating force to get your way, and learn to apply your mind, your thinking apparatus, to figuring out a real answer, you’ll discover what it is to live as a human being.
Sure, if he wants to lose revenue and go bankrupt