The Privatization of Roads and Highways - Ludwig von Mises Institute

Congestion and Road Pricing 57
But congestion is too seldom seen as a direct, if harsh, form of
economizing; we economize on urban transportation plant and
equipment (social capital) by crowding many vehicles on a narrow
street or by carrying standing passengers in packed buses.
Through congestion, the commuter trades his time for lower
fares, fees, or taxes; the lost time may be regained only at the
cost of additional investment in transportation plant and equipment.
19
A constant refrain in these passages is that solving the problem
of congestion would be quite all right; however, to do this
would involve the expenditure of monies, and this would be
unjustified. But is it not true that the solution of any problem
usually calls for the undertaking of some costs? And do we usually
let this fact, and this fact alone, deter us? It may well be
asked, “What is so special about congestion that, upon hearing
that its solution may well call for the expenditure of resources,
we must at once conclude that to do so would be unjustified?”
Also implicit in this treatment is the assumption that somehow,
somewhere, at some time (perhaps in the long distant past),
some people were actually asked to choose between something
like the present levels of congestion, for free, and a vastly
improved, uncongested rush hour situation, for some appreciable
costs—and chose the present situation. But this is the merest
fiction. Despite the allegiance this assumption has been able to
garner, there is not the slightest bit of veracity to it.
Of course, on the market, people are continually choosing
between (usually) lower priced but more crowded conditions,
and more expensive, less congested alternatives. They do this in
their daily choices to patronize, or not, a crowded fast food chain,
a bargain sale at a local department store which they expect will
attract large crowds, etc. The problem with our road network, in
this regard, is that there is no functioning market in which the
19 Wilbur R. Thompson, A Preface to Urban Economics (Baltimore, Md.:
Johns Hopkins Press, 1968), p. 333.