Should roads be privitized?

[phk]

Should roads be privitized?

[2952-0-0]

Good luck trying.

[John Dibble]

Probably not.

[Bono]

Oui.
The bigger ones, while the smaller ones should be handed to neighbourhood organizations or something.

[Giant Saguaro]

I don't know how it would be done, so no. In theory - and that's one hell of a qualifier these days - but in theory, the care of roads on which there aren't many votes could be left to individuals in some cases, but overall I think it would be a terrible idea. Many roads in which there aren't many votes are left to the care of individuals anyway in some areas.

[© tweed]

No, such a movement would be impossible to enforce.

[MaC]

I agree with Dean's "good luck trying".  Although in theory they could be, I think this issue is so far down the road (excuse the pun) that the difference between private and public would be almost insignifigant.  We have much more important priorities as to what to privatize.

[Jake]

No

[Bono]

No, such a movement would be impossible to enforce.

[A18]

Probably not, but I would support repealing the gas tax and making all roads toll roads.

[© tweed]

No, such a movement would be impossible to enforce.

Private companies likely would look to the public for money for roads, and in exchange for paying, they would give you a license to drive on a road.  Now the companies would have to set up tolls to check every driver to see if they had supported the company and whether they can drive on the road.  Traffic would become horrendus, fraudlent recipts from the companies would be printed, and it'd just all be one big mess.

[Alcon]

No.

Just imagine - you have to choose a road plan, and if you choose one, you can't go on the other's roads!

[TheresNoMoney]

Absolutely horrible idea. Woud just be another step towards plutocracy.

[Dave from Michigan]

no

[Joe Republic]

I can't possibly see what good this would do.  Most people can't choose their route of travel, or refuse to (literally) go the extra mile to change routes, which takes away the consumer choice aspect.  Plus, putting toll booths everywhere is totally unfeasible, inconvenient and would increase traffic significantly.

[muon2]

I can't imagine a system of entirely private roads, and I can imagine a lot of possibilities.  Consider all the different problems of scale.

At the most local level, it has been suggested that neighborhood associations maintain the roads. This is the easiest one to imagine, since there are many private homeowners associations that do just that. From experience, I can tell you that if you have a community with mixed public and private residential roads, they don't often stay that way. When a new subdivision comes in and asks for private roads, it's usually because the developer wants to cut costs. After 10 years the cheap road starts to brak down and the original ownership has started to move out, the inheritors of the area look to the municipality to fix their problems. Unfortunately, if the municipality says no, the area can become blighted and drag down the neighboring areas that do rely on public service.

At the next level up is the problem of collector streets. Every town relies on these roads to connect neighborhoods together, and to connect residences to shopping and jobs. They are primarily used by people who begin or end their trips nearby, and tolls would be horribly impractical with so many short trips. Municipalities handle these roads just fine, and consider this - what's the difference between a large homeowners association and a small suburb? Answer: Sometimes not much.

Next in scale are the regional arterials, including most state highways. If you make these into private toll roads the public will use the smaller collectors to avoid those tolls. That puts an unusual burden on the people who locally have to support roads that are not intended for heavy through traffic.

Finally there is the scale of the interstate highways. One can imagine tolls here, becaus ethey frequently exist. There are even privately-operated toll roads. Even so, there is usually a provision for full public access and emergency use of the roads. If there is not, the system would be more like the railroads with the owner's vehicles having exclusive use of the road, except for individually contracted users.

[Everett]

No. This would become incredibly inefficient in the long run. As Dean said, good luck trying to enforce this. It would be a nightmare getting from Point A to Point B if I had to pay tolls, ask for permission, go around should neither option be available, et cetera. It's bad enough as it is; why make it worse?

[Gabu]

Roads are one of the things that are just fine being government-run.  I honestly cannot see what privatizing roads would do to help anything.  There's nothing to fix.  Roads are fine.  Contrary to what appears to be popular belief, "it's private" is not a valid argument to prove that something is better than the alternative.

[dazzleman]

I don't see how it would work.  I think roads have to be public. 

Is the idea to spur competition between different roads, and improve public service?  I don't think that would work, in the absence of relative ease in increasing supply, which does not exist in many parts of the country.

Where I live, competition would not be a factor, since we're lucky to have one decent road to travel on, and there's no room for more road-building.

[A18]

The problem is there isn't enough land to put all these competition roads. Otherwise I would strongly favor the idea.

[2952-0-0]

Imagine every street, road, highway and driveway in the country like this.

[A18]

Why would they look like that?

[Gabu]

Here's a question: what exactly is so wrong about our roads that needs fixing?  It seems to me that we're attempting to fix something that isn't broken.

[2952-0-0]

Forget it, Gabu. Philip would raise taxes to 3000% if that would somehow make markets freer.

[Jake]

Here's a question: what exactly is so wrong about our roads that needs fixing?  It seems to me that we're attempting to fix something that isn't broken.

Constant road approvements that seem to stretch on and on are common complaints. I know I-81 has at least ten miles worth of road re-contruction every time I drive on it, and it's never ending. By the time all of it is replaced, the first parts are already wearing down. Some how, privitization will fix this.