Would private roads owned by private companies work well and efficiently? When I imagine all roads being privately owned, I imagine a huge number of toll booths. Would we have to stop and pay a toll every time we switched to a road owned by a different company? Would their be any ways to have private roads without a huge number of toll booths? Maybe the road compainies would charge other companies to advertise on their roads or something? Also, would traffic lights be abandoned? I am so used to my poorly maintianed public roads, it is difficult for me to imagine what exactly private roads would be like.
Bump.
Like anything else on the market, there are many different possibilities, but I can at least list a few of them. Toll roads would only be efficient in certain types of uses and situations, and with technology and such, no, you wouldn’t have to stop and pay a toll. Electronic devices are already in use now that automatically charge or deduct tolls from a turnpike account. Also, different road companies probably would work out arrangements for collection and division of toll money, espeically if their roads meet up with each other.
Other than tolls, there’s the ever-popular advertising revenues in the form of billboards or whatever. Homeowner’s associations might collect money from residents in their division to maintain neighborhood roads. Similarly, businesses in industrial parks or shopping malls might join together to pay for the roads that lead to their businesses (no roads, no access, no customers!).
I’m sure that there are other possibilities that I’m not thinking of, but then, a major point of markets is that they are a discovery process for figuring out how to do things in the best ways. Roads would be no exception.
Ah, I see. Thank you both. Makes a lot more sense now.
A point I’ve made before is that under the common law, if the state gives up title to the roadway then it devolves to the adjoining property owners. Obviously, everybody has an incentive to grant an easement and maintain their portion as part of the contiguous roadway at that point. It can also be part of the commonly owned area and there are a number of private subdivisions that have this arrangement. Highways would probably be part of a toll system owned by corporate entities.
I find it odd that “roads” are what come up all the time in objections to a stateless society, but I think it’s actually the part that’s the least problematic.
I agree. I think it is because public roads are the most ingrained statist idea in society.
I also think that if the road network system was private I believe our transportation infastructure would be WAY more diverse with more use of trains, buses etc etc. For instance in some private roads they have specified lanes for the transportation of goods and others for general use. I think the public control of roads (along with zoning laws) is the prime reason we have so much urban sprawl.
The Independent Review book titled Street Smart is a fantastic look into the history of private roads and how they can rise again.
Keep in mind also that under a market paradigm, road construction, maintenence, and operation would be A LOT less expensive. Right now most of what we pay “for the roads” goes into a massive government bureaucracy, and that which does go to the roads generally goes to a state-run company who charges a monopoly price, and then the DOT union makes sure that they’re constantly tearing up and replacing perfectly good roads so they always have work. And I know that at least in my state, the DOT uses concrete which is guaranteed to disintegrate annualy.
If you do a search for toll roads and “DiLorenzo” I’m pretty sure Tom has done a paper on the history of turnpikes and the like. It’s pretty interesting reading and not too long.
And I believe Walter Block is on today’s LRC Podcast discussing privatization of roads.