The Privatization of Roads and Highways - Ludwig von Mises Institute

204 The Privatization of Roads and Highways
75–80 mph, this will actually be safer than if some proceed at 40
mph (the typical minimum highway requirement) and others,
cheek by jowl, at 65 mph (policemen rarely ticket anyone for
excessive speed of only 10 mph).
What is the libertarian compromise between these two
incompatible positions? The solution is to privatize all highways.
6 With all highways, by-ways, streets, roads, thorough fares
and other traffic arteries in the hands of private entrepreneurs,
there would be no need for government to decide upon any
speed regime. Just as the state now plays no role whatsoever
regarding the color of cars, or cloths, or crayons, and thus there
is no need for any public “decision” regarding these choices, the
public sector would entirely absent itself from the decision concerning
the rate of motorists. Just as there is now no U.S. government
cloth or crayon “policy,” so, too, would there be no speed
limit “policy.” Privatization is the only true compromise. Any
other “solution” would be arbitrary, merely taking the limits
6 For answers to objections that this is impossible, would create chaos,
would not work, would be an abomination, or would be akin to Solomon’s
decision to cut the baby in half and give each part to two contending mothers,
see Walter Block, “Free Market Transportation: Denationalizing the
Roads,” Journal of Libertarian Studies 3, no. 2 (Summer 1979); Daniel Klein,
“The Voluntary Provision of Public Goods? The Turnpike Companies of
Early America,” Economic Inquiry (October): 788–812; Dan Klein, John
Majewski, and Christopher Baer, “Economy, Community and the Law: The
Turnpike Movement in New York, 1797–1845,” The Journal of Economic History
(March 1993): 106–22; idem, “From Trunk to Branch: Toll Roads in New
York, 1800–1860,” Essays in Economic and Business History 11 (1993): 191–209;
Dan Klein, and G.J. Fielding, “Private Toll Roads: Learning From the Nineteenth
Century,” Transportation Quarterly (July 1992): 321–41; “How to Franchise
Highways,” Journal of Transport Economics and Policy (May 1993):
113–30; idem, “High Occupancy/Toll Lanes: Phasing in Congestion Pricing
a Lane at a Time,” Policy Study 170 (November 1993); Gabriel Roth, 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).