The Privatization of Roads and Highways - Ludwig von Mises Institute

Private Roads, Competition, Automobile Insurance,
and Price Controls 171
difficulties associated with nonexcludability? What about
monopoly? We must object to the claim that there is something
intrinsic about roads that renders it necessary for them to be part
of the “public” sector. The original highways, turnpike roads,
were invariably private concerns; the theoretical arguments
opposing vehicular thoroughfare privatization are all invalid. 4
Even nowadays, there are miles of private “streets” which function
exceedingly well, despite the fact that most commentators
have not appreciated that they accommodate automobile traffic. 5
Nor is there any theoretical reason why such a state of affairs
could not prevail for the entire vehicular-transportation network
4 See T.S. Ashton, An Economic History of England (London: Methuen,
1955), pp. 78–81; Block, “Free Market Transportation: Denationalizing the
Roads,” chap. 1 in this volume; “Theories of Highway Safety;” and “Road
Socialism.” Also Walter Block, “Public Goods and Externalities: The Case of
Roads,” Journal of Libertarian Studies 7, no. 1 (Spring, 1983); and Walter Block
and Matthew Block, “Roads, Bridges, Sunlight and Private Property
Rights,” Journal Des Economistes et des Etudes Humaines 7, no. 2/3 (June–September
1996); Economist (November 30, 1963): 912 and “Watch This Airspace,”
Economist (June 22–28, 2002):14–21; W.T. Jackman, The Development
of Transportation in Modern England (Cambridge: Cambridge University
Press, 1916); Dan Klein, John Majewski, Christopher Baer, “Economy, Community
and the Law: The Turnpike Movement in New York, 1797–1845,”
Journal of Economic History (March 1993); idem, “From Trunk to Branch: Toll
Roads in New York, 1800–1860,” Essays in Economic and Business History 11
(1993); Dan Klein and G.J. Fielding, “Private Toll Roads: Learning from the
Nineteenth Century,” Transportation Quarterly (July 1992); idem, “How to
Franchise Highways,” Journal of Transport Economics and Policy (May 1993);
idem, “High Occupancy/Toll Lanes: Phasing in Congestion Pricing a Lane
at a Time,” Policy Study 170 (November); Gabriel Roth, A Self-Financing Road
System (London: Institute of Economic Affairs, 1966); idem, Paying for Roads:
The Economics of Traffic Congestion (Middlesex, England: Penguin, 1967);
idem, The Private Provision of Public Services in Developing Countries (Oxford:
Oxford University Press, 1987); Murray N. Rothbard, For a New Liberty
(New York: Macmillan, 1973); William C. Wooldridge, Uncle Sam, The
Monopoly Man (New Rochelle, N.Y.: Arlington House, 1970).
5 I refer to the traffic lanes inside modern enclosed shopping centers.