The Privatization of Roads and Highways - Ludwig von Mises Institute

19
Road Privatization:
Rejoinder to Mohring
The thought many people will have when first confronted
with the notion that roads, highways and streets ought to
be privatized is likely that yes, it might be a good idea for
the government to contract out to business firms some minor
tasks: perhaps salting or bulldozing in snow conditions, maybe
cleaning, possibly even pot hole repair or paving. Suppose they
were convinced that the advocate of such an initiative meant, not
merely contracting out a few such functions, but radically privatizing:
allowing private enterprise to conduct, not some, but all
functions related to vehicular traffic; that is, turning over responsibility
for vehicular traffic entirely to the marketplace; allowing
entrepreneurs to assemble the land upon which new thoroughfares
were to be built; to manage and charge from them and,
gulp!, earn profits thereby. Then, presumably the reaction of most
people would be to question the very sanity of anyone making
such an outlandish proposal.
There is a wealth of literature attesting to the fact that, historically,
many of the first roads were privately built turnpikes; so
that there is no reason, at least in principle, why such should not
be the case even in modern times. Many of these studies underline
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