The Privatization of Roads and Highways - Ludwig von Mises Institute

Congestion and Road Pricing 91
is that, if sufficient numbers of people can be so tempted, highway
congestion will be reduced. Free fares are also defended on
the ground that they will save heavy collection costs, which are a
high proportion of the total transportation bill. If no collections
are made at all, then at one fell swoop the whole panoply of toll
booths, tokens, change-making machines—and the labor necessary
to service them—can be eliminated. And similarly, the more
sophisticated electronic and computer-based pricing technology
that is likely to be employed in the future, would be obviated.
In addition, several other cost considerations are cited in
favor of free fares. Scheiner and Starling, for example, propose:
First, to the extent free-fare induces drivers onto public transit,
the bus itself is able to move faster; and increased vehicle speed
means lower operating costs. . . . Second, free-fare reduces running
time by reducing boarding time, which can consume as
much as 18 percent of total running time. Under free-fare, fare
box queues would be eliminated and passengers could board
through both front and rear doors. Third, fare collection equipment
maintenance and cash, token, and transfer handling
requires about one person for every ten buses—under free fare,
this would be eliminated. For a 100-bus operation, approximately
$100,000 annually could be saved in personnel reduction
alone. Fourth, transit liability insurance, costing $.04-$.06
per mile, would probably not be required; with the patron paying
no consideration for the trip, it would be taken at his own
risk. 68
remember the role that the assured “access to the King’s highway”
has played in history to see how important such rights may
be for individual liberty. (F.A. Hayek, The Constitution of Liberty
[Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1960], p. 141)
According to Meyer, Kain and Wohl, The Urban Transportation Problem, p.
340: “The American public seems to feel that highways should be ‘free’—
that is, have tolls extracted in the form of fuel and other excise taxes.”
68James I. Scheiner and Grover Starling, “The Political Economy of Free-
Fare Transit,” Urban Affairs Quarterly (December, 1974): 179. The authors
claim also, in behalf of free fares, aid for urban renewal, full employment,
relief of poverty.