The Privatization of Roads and Highways - Ludwig von Mises Institute

Congestion and Road Pricing 87
Among some writers, a fiat express lane for buses is justified
not for its own sake, but as a “second best” policy. Since it is
“politically impossible” to institute such a system based on
prices, and it is important to have express bus lanes, it is argued,
a fiat system, while not ideal, may be the best possible alternative.
59 The difficulty with this line of thought is that there is no
scientific way of proving that fiat bus lanes really is the policy
next best to that which would result from the operation of a price
system. It may well not be the second-best policy. Moreover, it is
poor strategy for economists, the supposed “experts” in the matter,
to relinquish the defense of the best policy, in this case, an
operational price system.
Perhaps the most disheartening thing about the reserved bus
lane proposal is not the idea itself, but the manner in which it is
to be tested and introduced. Not surprisingly, it is the state that is
called upon for this task. 60 But this is the very institution which
has so far not seen fit to institute the program on any widespread
basis. 61 There is a contradiction lurking here. For if the reservelanes
idea is a good one, and the highway authorities are competent,
then they should have been the first to have thought of and
implemented it. Given that they have not done so, and that
instead the impetus for the program has come from outside
sources, then either the idea is unsound, or those responsible for
not implementing it so far are incompetent. Those who want
reserve-lane systems instituted by the present authorities cannot
logically maintain that those bureaucrats who have so far failed
in this regard are the most qualified to control them now.
59See John R. Meyer, “Knocking Down the Straw Men,” in Benjamin
Chinitz, ed., City and Suburb (Englewood Cliffs, N.J.: Prentice-Hall, 1964),
pp. 91–92.
60Kain, “A Re-appraisal of Metropolitan Transportation Planning,” p.
166, calls for the Department of Transportation to conduct the study.
61See the discussion of the Diamond Lanes experiment—which was later
abandoned—to reserve freeway lanes for buses and car pools in Los Angeles.
“Diamond Lanes Experiment,” California Journal (January 1978): 20.