The Privatization

of Roads and Highways

The Privatization
of Roads and Highways

Human and Economic Factors

Walter Block

LvMI

MISES INSTITUTE

This book is dedicated to my fellow Americans, some 40,000 of them per year who have died needlessly in traffic fatalities. It is my sincere hope and expectation that under a system of private roads and highways in the future, that this number may be radically reduced.

Look on the back of your ATM or debit card. Check your credit card, too. Whoever your bank is, on the back of the card you’ll see the logos of other firms—Cirrus, Plus, Star, maybe others. Cirrus is an ATM network management system owned by MasterCard, Plus is owned by Visa, and so on. There is cooperation between companies, and the network managers are somewhat independent. For example, Visa debit cards often have a Cirrus logo on the back.

I would like to thank Gordon Tullock for allowing me to reprint his 1996 article, which appears as chapter 15, and Michelle Cadin and Matthew Block who co-authored with me articles that now appear as chapters 10 and 14 respectively. I thank Bruce Armstrong, Troilus Bryan, Mike Cust, Chris Delanoy, Jeff Dick, and Matthew Johnston for their interview of me that appears as chapter 21.

Most people who read this book will dismiss it as the ravings of a lunatic. For I advocate the complete, total and full privatization of all roads, streets, highways, byways, avenues and other vehicular thoroughfares. And I am serious about this, deadly serious.

INTRODUCTION

Were a government to demand the sacrifice of 46,700 citizens

Traffic congestion is one of the most stultifying, annoying and petty occurrences known to mankind. Vehicles which are capable of safely covering 150 mph under specialized conditions, and 55 mph under normal conditions, are limited to crawling along, bumper-to-bumper, at perhaps 5 mph.