The Privatization of Roads and Highways - Ludwig von Mises Institute

6 The Privatization of Roads and Highways
. . . traffic density . . . expenditures on traffic-law enforcement
by state highway patrols . . . expenditures on roads . . . the ratio
of imports to total cars (because there is evidence that small
cars are more lethal than large cars if an accident occurs) . . .
education of the population . . . and the availability of hospital
care (which might reduce deaths if injury occurs). 8
Further, David M. Winch cites another reason for public apathy:
the belief that “[m]any persons killed on the roads are partly
to blame for their death.” 9 True, many victims of road accidents
are partly responsible. But this in no way explains public apathy
toward their deaths. For people killed in New York City’s Central
Park during the late evening hours are also at least partially to
blame for their own deaths; it takes a monumental indifference,
feeling of omnipotence, absent-mindedness or ignorance to
embark upon such a stroll. Yet the victims are pitied, more police
are demanded, and protests are commonly made.
The explanation of apathy toward highway mismanagement
that seems most reasonable is that people simply do not see any
alternative to government ownership. Just as no one “opposes”
or “protests” a volcano, which is believed to be beyond the control
of man, there are very few who oppose governmental roadway
control. Along with death and taxes, state highway management
seems to have become an immutable, if unstated, fact. The
institution of government has planned, built, managed and
maintained our highway network for so long that few people can
imagine any other workable possibility. While Peltzman puts his
finger on the proximate causes of highway accidents, such as
excessive speed and alcohol, he has ignored the agency, government,
which has set itself up as the manager of the roadway
apparatus. This is akin to blaming a snafu in a restaurant on the
fact that the oven went out, or that the waiter fell on a slippery
8Sam Peltzman, Regulation and Automobile Safety (Washington, D.C.:
American Enterprise Institute for Public Policy Research, 1975), pp. 8–9.
9David M. Winch, The Economics of Highway Planning (Toronto: University
of Toronto Press, 1963), p. 87.