The Privatization of Roads and Highways - Ludwig von Mises Institute

Private Roads, Competition, Automobile Insurance,
and Price Controls 181
no economic competition. This is why privatization and competition
are inseparably linked. Without the
former, the latter is logically impossible. 29 But this applies to
roads and highways no less than to cabbages, chalk, and cheese.
It is perhaps the contribution of this paper to show that economic
competition on the roadways cannot take place in the absence of
privatization, and that it is this lack, not any “market failure,”
which is responsible for the plight afflicting cities such as
Philadelphia.
29 Of course, there can be economic competition in the mixed economy.
But this is because of its market elements, not its bureaucratic ones.