I have every intention to read Block’s book, but I haven’t had the time just yet. Does he touch on this?
Private roads and highways means no state licenses, but it does not mean no private licenses.
In a free society it would depend on the owner of the road as to whether they required a license or not to use their services. I would imagine that most insurance companies would require licenses though.
Road socialism has been a complete failure, and I wish VA would privatize the highways. That would be pretty cool. Everything would be so much better privately owned.
Yea I’m sure some highways would require licenses, while others wouldn’t. The highways that did require licenses would probably be much safer, but that’s whats great about a free market; theres always something for each preference.
private roads and highways means exactly that…whatever in the hell the person who spent all that money building it wants you to have…
I don’t recall him discussing the subject, and searching the PDF for “license” only brings up the copyright info and one instance of the word used in a different context. I assume Block has never felt it necessary to write about it, because it’s widely assumed that road owners can demand their customers pass certain tests and be certified to drive. He does mention the possibility of road owners collaborating to share payment plans and the like; by extension, we could imagine them sharing certification requirements.
That is, most road owners might require you to have a tag from Company X (or any company adhering to standards A, B and C) on your car, to electronically track how many miles you drive on their roads and determine your bill. Similarly, they may require you to be certified by Company Y (or any company adhering to set standards) before you’re allowed to drive on their roads. There are incentives to standardize driving certification, so that a license from one reputable company is likely to be widely accepted.
Road socialism has been a complete failure, and I wish VA would privatize the highways.
VDOT is the most asinine group of individuals to ever do anything. I remember they decided to close down the downtown tunnel and the Gilmerton Bridge on the same day around the same time. Took me 3 hours to get from Virginia Beach to Portsmouth which is generally a 20-30 minute drive for me.
I agree with Michael. It is in situations like this that standards organizations such as ISO could a significant purpose in a free society. In the computer industry, a lot of certifications can be obtained for web developers from companies like Microsoft, Adobe, etc. I think standards organizations would create similar programs for roads.
Their could be various standards to give drivers certain ratings. These ratings could vary from driver to driver and car to car. With such ratings, different rules could apply to different drivers. For example, an experienced driver in a sportscar could have a much higher speed limit than a less experienced driver in a clumsy SUV.
He does mention the possibility of road owners collaborating to share payment plans and the like; by extension, we could imagine them sharing certification requirements.
That is, most road owners might require you to have a tag from Company X (or any company adhering to standards A, B and C) on your car, to electronically track how many miles you drive on their roads and determine your bill. Similarly, they may require you to be certified by Company Y (or any company adhering to set standards) before you’re allowed to drive on their roads. There are incentives to standardize driving certification, so that a license from one reputable company is likely to be widely accepted.
Wow, good info, thanks.
Their could be various standards to give drivers certain ratings. These ratings could vary from driver to driver and car to car. With such ratings, different rules could apply to different drivers. For example, an experienced driver in a sportscar could have a much higher speed limit than a less experienced driver in a clumsy SUV.
How would the ratings be enforced, though. How would the law enforcement be able to determine those ratings on an individual basis?
It would probably be the same as now. You get stopped for a violation and they check you license. Contractually, you would have to agree to the license as a condition for driving on the road. No license would be a violation of your contract.
I realize this is impossible to answer certainly because we do not know what decisions the market would make in a free society, but would there be an incentive for road companies to standardize their licensing procedures? I would think that a road company that used different licenses would be losing out on customers because of the inconvenience of havingto carry multiple driver’s licenses with you wherever you go.
How would the ratings be enforced, though. How would the law enforcement be able to determine those ratings on an individual basis?
While we can’t be sure since we aren’t running the roads, one could assume that license plates or some other type of identification would still be used and would be associated in one way or another with various information about the car. As far as enforcement goes, the roads would definitely have to have some form of patrol. I doubt roads would have nearly as many police as state roads do. My gut tells me that the focus would be more on responding to accidents than enforcing rules. The glory of a market system is that people can chose the roads. Grandma can travel the slow roads with strict enforcement and the daredevils can live life in the fast lane.