The Privatization of Roads and Highways - Ludwig von Mises Institute

Congestion and Road Pricing 83
determine whether the demand for the given road is greater on
the part of those people who wish to use the road in conjunction
with their autos, or by those people who wish to use the roads
without benefit of these machines.
Another argument against automobile banning is that, at
best, it will not solve the congestion problem but will only disguise
it. We have seen that electronic surveillance would shift
congestion from the roads to the highway entranceways; automobile
bans will not transfer the congestion to such an easily
seen place, and, therefore, it may be more difficult to realize that
the congestion will still exist. After all, the roads will be relatively
uncrowded, and there won’t be any jam-ups on the entranceways.
But the effects of the ban will not vanish. The results will
be “seen” in the inconvenience of those who are forced from their
first preference, the automobile, to mass transportation; in the
lessened mobility of those who, having to give up their autos,
and facing unappealing mass transit choices, opt to stay at home,
or make fewer trips; in the increased spatial integration of residential,
employment and recreational opportunities, which was
uneconomic given reasonable transportation opportunities, but
which comes into its own, given a transportation breakdown.
We must make no mistake about it: The individual motorist
vastly prefers his private mode of automotive transportation to
most conceivable, mass-transit alternatives. Even a fanatical
adherent of public transportation such as Owen admits this:
The automobile, notwithstanding its shortcomings, is at the top
of the list of what most people want, whoever they are and
wherever they live. High taxes and restrictive policies designed
to discourage car ownership have not had much effect, nor
have the inconveniences of urban traffic. People still drive
under the most adverse conditions, or they move out when
conditions finally become unbearable. 54
54 Owen, The Accessible City, p. 21.