Government Looks at Privatized Highways

Coming soon to a highway near you: The Coca-Cola Refreshing Taste Make Every Drop Count Turnpike.

The Department of Transportation is considering one of the most fundamental shifts in national transportation policy since Dwight Eisenhower helped create the interstate highway system.

The DOT wants to take the government out of the role of funding and maintaining roads and private highways and turn the responsibility over to the private sector. Individuals and businesses would be able to buy and control portions of road, making profits by charging tolls at certain checkpoints.

The idea of such road privatization has been met with widespread skepticism by both Democrats and Republicans. Although the federal and state governments would save money by turning over responsibility for so much infrastructure, the public would likely end up paying the cost.

Comments

Patently stupid. There are some things, termed "public goods," that private industry has no business in. Lets dream up more ways to disenfranchise the poor.

Really, does anyone want to be stopping every 10 miles to pay a toll?

Interesting idea... but... I can see that without a huge amount of regulation, it could really backfire.

The cost of tolls would have to be regulated, as would the distance between tollbooths. There would have to be regulations on maintenance to make sure the roads are safe, and there would need to be some system in place to make sure emergency vehicles could get through.

By the time they're done regulating it (making companies and the public angry in the process), they might as well have just kept it under control of the state governments.

I am all for privitization of every thing that we can, but im not sure this is a good idea. Think about monopolies for a minute. If the only road to and from your work is owned by a company, it is a monopoly. They could charge exorbitant amounts to use the road and there would be little that you could do.

Another poster had it right, this would require so much regulation it probably wouldnt save any money.

Does this mean they'll drop the gas tax?

I think this idea is brilliant. Let people pay for what they use (and avoid paying for what they don't). If people's commutes become too expensive they can move - it's a free country. Without a highway system to fund, the gas tax and most transportation based taxes would be repealed (To Adrock: this would be a huge benefit to the urban poor who pay taxes on gas for highways they rarely use).

The other big winner would be public transportation. If your commute becomes more expansive than you're willing to pay there are a lot of other options to get to work.

This would also lead to more stringent inspections because lenders and bondholders would want to make sure their investment won't come crashing down (literally). Despite what 100+ years of populism has taught us, businesses never makes money by killing off their customers.

Valid points all on the pros, but does anyone really believe (with any conviction) that gas taxes (federal or state), income taxes, etc that normally fund road maintenance would be "repealed?" That is the most laughable comment I have ever heard. These taxes will never be repealed but they will be rerouted to other stated and federal programs/pork projects/corruption.

At the end of the day those who can least afford to pay will still be paying high taxes AND the private sector tolls. The poor/lower middle class again bear the worst of it.

Need any proof? The glorious Mayor Daley in Chicago sold off the Indiana Skyway for something like $2 billion and shortly thereafter the city RAISED taxes by another $265 million in 2007 and Crook County (i.e. Cook County)raised their county sales tax to make Chicago one of the highest tax cities in the US. Where did the 2 billion go? To fund generous pensions for state workers, hire more ghost payrollers, shore up the bleeding in other areas of the budget due to horrible mismanagement, etc.

Rest assurred that sure as the sun rises each day current gas taxes will NEVER be repealed. Never.

Remember the promise of toll roads in the 50's? Sure, dont worry. Once the bonds to build the roads are paid off they will become freeways. Never happened in Illinois and the tolls are now here forever because we bought into these lies 50 years ago.

Politicians are liars by nature and always will be so never take any promises to get rid of these taxes at face value.

What all of you guys are missing is when these private companies convince local muni's to put up extra stop lights so traffic gets congested. People will then opt to pay to drive the less congested (ie less stop lights) privatized roads.

Dems have done this Texas and are starting to do it Pennsylvania as it helps fund their social programs as they get a slice of the proceeds. I'm confident Repubs are doing the same, I'm just not aware of any documentation that supports such but they are equally criminal when it comes to stealing from the tax payer. Either way at the end of the day all politicians are opportunistic scum who love to spend our money.

Nothing better than having already paid for the roads in taxes and then to have the government sell them to someone who will charge us for them again.

What happened to the romantic concept of the freeway?

I wonder if we can instigate a class action against the governemnt to get the taxes back we paid to get the roads built in the first place (not to mention the depreciation as they are selling a multi-billion dollar road for only a few million)

For that matter, if people on Wall St. can be indited for fraud, why can't we jail a pol for promising one thing durring campaign season then delivering (or failing to deliver) in office?

I don't like the idea of privatization of highways. I was on vacation in Illinois & Florida and it was ridiculous having to stop and wait at the toll booths. There was more traffic congestion & wasted vacation time because of them. At times it seems like every on-ramp had a booth just to get onto the Interstate…something I’m not use to here in toll-free Minnesota.

On my last trip thru Illinois, I actually tried not to exit the highway until I reached "toll-free" Wisconsin. Before the government gives up freeways, they need to consider the economic impact to roadside businesses, too.

Why not do this to the people that the pol represent, after all look where they have put the middle class. We keep on slipping farther down and the pol don't care and while they are at it why don't we just give the gov all of our money and let them give us back what they want us to live on. You know what it says (for the people) which people?

This is such a bad idea. E470 in Denver is a nice road, well maintained and usually free of congestion, but its a pain in the rear and the wallet every time you use it. You have to pay tolls all the way to the airport.

What are the legal ramifications of being caught speeding on a private road? What about snow removal, traffic lights, services? Speaking of services, are we now going to be enundated with PepsiCo islands, where my only choices are Pizza Hut, KFC, and Taco Bell for the next 100 miles? Does the Fed lose its controlling authority of the pocketbook over the States; e.g, raise the drinking age of your state to 21 or face the loss of all Federal funding for highways.

All in all, this makes for far more headaches than it cures.

This is already done in Ontario, Canada.

The 407 is privately owned and the tolls are collected by the company. It uses the E-pass technology. If you don't have E-pass a photo of your car is used to send you a bill for the use of the highway.

The interesting thing is that they withhold drivers license renewal if you owe tolls. Which seems a bit unfair since you owe a private company not the government.

No.