So, on my trip toward anarcho-capitalism, Walter Block, among others, has generally convinced me that private highways are a practical idea that would benefit from the market as other things do.
What I’m not convinced of, or at least have trouble understanding, is how the same benefit would be conferred to local roads, such as in a subdivision or on the grid in NYC, where multiple property owners, sometimes thousands, line the street on either side, each using the street as their sole means of entering and exiting their property.
Does each resident have to pay a toll simply to exit their property? Is everyone in a suburb a renter from the owner of the subdivision? How would ownership tend to arise in a private system? How did this work historically, before public roads existed?
Note that I’m not asking about the morality or principle of the situation, which I understand well. I’m simply asking if in the absense of government the quality of life in this situation would increase, decrease, or change, without regard to the morality of either outcome.