The Privatization of Roads and Highways - Ludwig von Mises Institute

244 The Privatization of Roads and Highways
blockades. Indeed, this model serves principally as an entirely
refutable objection to the whole idea of private roads. 9
It follows, then, that no abutting real estate holder may establish
such a chokehold over any street. If so, how is ownership to
be divided? Clearly, the best way would be to accord with the
practice of ancient road enterprises: to set up a joint stock company
composed of these 1,000 people, who together would control
the entire venture. This in turn leads to another question:
would each of the 1,000 own an equal 1/1,000 of a share of the
corporation, or would the division be unequal?
The latter is far more in keeping with homesteading theory
than the former. That is, a building that stretches along Broadway
from 55th to 56th Street is far more valuable than the same
physical structure occupying the area between 155th to 156th.
Naturally, the former would have more of a stake in Broadway
than the latter. Were a road company to be set up de novo, it is
inconceivable that the shares would be apportioned according
to mere physical length. Based on these considerations, the
ownership rights over Broadway would be distributed in a
manner proportional to the assessed valuation of the property
in question.
This leaves open the question of whether the stock company
should own lengthwise, or in terms of geographical areas. That
is, should a company own all of Broadway or 3rd Avenue, or 23rd
Street or 42nd Street (the one dimensional format), or should one
be assigned to Greenwich Village, another to Hell’s Kitchen, a
9 According to this proposal, any two owners located opposite of each
other could together convert their little patch of road into a park. This
would very much diminish the ability of the street to convey traffic. This is
not to say that streets ought never be converted to parks. Economic efficiency
would require that this occur only when the value of the land as a
park exceeds that used as a street. When one entity owns the entire length
of a street it will be in a position to internalize the externalities that might
otherwise come into play.