The Privatization of Roads and Highways - Ludwig von Mises Institute

256 The Privatization of Roads and Highways
INTRODUCTION
For the purposes of this chapter, we will take it as a matter of
stipulation that it is desirable to privatize all traffic arteries. That
is, all extant streets, roads, avenues, highways, etc., should forthwith
be taken out of the control of governments, whether federal,
state or local, and placed into private hands. There is a wealth of
literature attesting to the benefits of market provision of goods
and services vis-à-vis governmental, in general, which is well
known especially since the demise of the Soviet economy, and
also with specific reference to roadways, 1 which is far less well
known.
1 David Beito, “From Privies to Boulevards: The Private Supply of Infrastructure
in the United States during the Nineteenth Century,” in Development
by Consent: The Voluntary Supply of Public Goods and Services, Jerry Jenkins
and David E. Sisk, eds. (San Francisco, 1993), pp. 23–48; David Beito and
Linda Royster Beito, “Rival Road Builders: Private Toll Roads in Nevada,
1852–1880,” Nevada Historical Society Quarterly 41 (Summer 1998): 71–91;
David Beito, “Voluntary Association and the Life of the City,” Humane Studies
Review (Fall, 1988); idem, “Owning the Commanding Heights,” Essays in
Public Works History (1989), vol. 16; Walter Block, “Free Market Transportation:
Denationalizing the Roads,” Journal of Libertarian Studies 3, no. 2 (Summer,
1979): 209–38; idem, Zoning: Its Costs and Relevance for the 1980s (Vancouver,
B.C.: Fraser Institute, 1980), pp. 299–330; idem, “Public Goods and
Externalities: The Case of Roads,” The Journal of Libertarian Studies 7, No. 1
(Spring, 1983): 1–34; idem, “Theories of Highway Safety,” Transportation
Research Record 912 (1983): 7–10; idem, “Road Socialism,” International Journal
of Value-Based Management 9 (1996): 195–207; “Roads, Bridges, Sunlight
and Private Property: Reply to Gordon Tullock,” Journal des Economistes et
des Etudes Humaines 8, nos. 2/3 (June–September 1998): 315–26; idem, “Private
Roads, Competition, Automobile Insurance and Price Controls,” Competitiveness
Review 8, no. 1 (1998): 55–64; idem, “Road Privatization: A
Rejoinder to Mohring,” Privatize Roads and Highways (Lewiston, N.Y.:
Edwin Mellon Press, 2005), also reprinted as chap. 19 in the present volume;
Fred Foldvary, Public Goods and Private Communities: The Market Provision of
Social Services (Cheltenham, U.K.: Edward Elgar, 1994); Walter Block and
Matthew Block, “Roads, Bridges, Sunlight and Private Property Rights,”
Journal des Economistes et des Etudes Humaines 7, nos. 2/3 (June–September
1996): 351–62; Michelle and Walter Block, “Privatize the Public Highway
System,” The Freeman 47, no. 2 (February 1997): 96–97; Bryan Caplan, “A