Free-market roads concept possible
(My Clovis News Journal column for June 28, 2013. First of the neutered columns.)
Are you under the impression that free market roads would be impossible, or at least impossibly complicated?
Then I have good news for you.
There are many possible ways for roads to be provided in a free society, even assuming unfettered technology wouldn't make roads obsolete.
Business owners could voluntarily join forces to provide roads and bridges that service their area so that customers could reach them comfortably. Neighbors could band together voluntarily to service the roads they use to get where they need to go. Companies could spring up to provide roads for a fee on your car insurance, or in some similar way. There could be toll road companies that bill you monthly for your use of their roads. You don't think road use is currently free, do you?
You'll still pay to use the road, but there will be accountability. The advantages of that should be obvious.
Privately owned roads had better be good, since the owner could be liable for any damage to your person or property due to poor maintenance or other road hazards like snow, ice, or tumbleweeds. Restitution would be a powerful incentive. Still, potholes happen.
Cars in a free society would probably be better at avoiding or dealing with problems than those we now drive. Perhaps they will automatically avoid that pothole to prevent the impact completely. If this fails and your car is damaged anyway, the road's owner may be able to recover some portion of the restitution he pays you from the car's manufacturer because of this malfunction.
Perhaps cars would immediately contact a database to report a road hazard, and its exact coordinates, so that other drivers (or their cars) could be alerted to avoid it, and repair crews could be dispatched.
If someone refuses to pay, either for use of the road or for damages from flawed maintenance, arbitration could be sought.
There could still be patrols to make sure no one is driving dangerously, but they would never have authority above any other individual, and would be held accountable if they violate your rights; they and their employer would be personally liable for any abuse or harm you suffered at their hands.
I can't go into every possibility even I can think of in a column this short, and the solutions might be completely different, anyway. In a free society there wouldn't be a "one-size-fits-all" way to provide roads. Anyone would be free to experiment and compete with roads he found inadequate in some way. How might you do it, if you had the opportunity, without coercion?
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Living as I do on a private road used by about 15 households, I find this post misses something vital. Namely, maintenance. My house is first on the road, and so, in general, the condition of the road is not very important. However, the portion of the road in front of my house is very much my problem. So, my sons spent most of Monday cleaning the clogged arroyo the had washed out the road in front of my house. My neighbors with tractors did come and move dirt around, but it was my sons that did most of the work by hand with shovels and wheelbarrow. I expect that the culvert that one of my neighbors crunched as he/she tried to avoid the washout will also require my sons labor.
ReplyDeleteSo, I don't think private roads are all that good an idea. I certainly don't want to charge my neighbors to use the road. And I certainly don't want to buy a tractor with a grader blade and loader to maintain it. In my opinion, private roads don't make sense in general. A small number of households on a private road is doable, but not where large numbers of vehicles make use of the road.
So, you're under the impression that you aren't paying for "public roads"?
ReplyDeleteThere's nothing about private roads that says you can't hire professionals to do the maintenance work- after all, they are the people who are hired by the state (with YOUR money) to build and maintain roads now. Plus, with "government-owned" roads, you are paying for several layers of bureaucracy to boot. Not a good deal.
Of course I know I'm paying for public roads. I do pay taxes after all. And I understand that bureaucracy is a huge waste of dollars. An even bigger waste given where I live.
ReplyDeleteMy only point, if any, is that private roads are, in general, not doable. First, there is the profit incentive. The owner of a private road, particularly one that's the only or shortest route to a desirable destination, could scrimp on maintenance to enhance revenue. Second there's the problem of paying multiple times per trip of any long distance. In my case, one would by required to pay a toll every 100 yards or so to travel from my land to the end of the road. Third there's the problem of inconsistent maintenance standards. In my own area of the country there are a number of roads that transept city and county maintenance and the road surfaces are distinctly differently maintained. Fourth, someone has to collect the tolls, construct places to shelter the toll collectors, and pay the collectors wages.
As I said private roads generally don't make sense.
"First... The owner of a private road ... could scrimp on maintenance to enhance revenue."
ReplyDeleteYes, he could. But he could also be liable if his road caused damage to a customer's car or person due to poor maintenance or conditions.
"Second there's the problem of paying multiple times per trip of any long distance. In my case, one would by required to pay a toll every 100 yards or so to travel from my land to the end of the road."
Which is why most people would probably lease their section of road to someone else to avoid the hassle and responsibility. Or why someone might come up with a way to collect micro-tolls without stopping the travelers.
"Third there's the problem of inconsistent maintenance standards. In my own area of the country there are a number of roads that transept city and county maintenance and the road surfaces are distinctly differently maintained."
So, your argument against private roads partly rests on using a problem with government roads?
"Fourth, someone has to collect the tolls, construct places to shelter the toll collectors, and pay the collectors wages."
See the second point above.
Finally, if private roads didn't work "well enough" there would be no one standing in the way of those with a better idea. Flying cars? Hovercars that need no paved surface? Something else I can't even imagine?
How might you provide roads (or an alternative) if theft and coercion were completely off the table?