The Privatization of Roads and Highways - Ludwig von Mises Institute

Congestion and Road Pricing 67
On the coordination of land use and transportation through
central planning, he writes:
The basic difficulty of urban growth all over the world is that
decisions about the use of urban land are being made by a host
of private parties without the guidance of comprehensive plans or
community goals. The result is heavy social costs, which
include the high costs of a bad environment and large outlays
for transportation and other services needed to cope with the
outcome. Transportation technology is supporting a wide variety
of undesirable cities and shoddy suburbs. The only remedy
is to recognize that anything is technically possible and to
choose the kind of environment to be sought. The laissez-faire
city is likely to end in disaster. . . . Transportation technology
will be able to serve effectively only if it is furnished as part of
a total development strategy. 30
Owen’s case for “new towns,” in order to combat congestion,
is made as follows:
These [congestion] problems can be solved in two ways. One is
redesigning the old cities, to make way for “the new city in
city.” The other lies in guiding urban growth through a combination
of new highway and transit investments plus public
land acquisition to help bring about an orderly urbanization
process in place of the urbanism that is accidental, divisive, and
designed for profit instead of for people. Planning a nation’s economic
growth should be accompanied by planning for its spatial
growth.
The single-purpose, least-cost solution aimed at moving traffic
will have to be abandoned in favor of creating an environment
in which adequate shelter and decent neighborhoods are convenient
to job opportunities, recreation, and all that urbanization,
in theory, has to offer. Plans for transportation must shift
30 Owen, The Accessible City, pp. 50–51; emphasis added.