DOCSLIB.ORG

The Privatization of Roads and Highways

Total Page：16

File Type：pdf, Size：1020Kb

Download full-text PDF Read full-text
The Privatization of Roads and Highways 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. © 2009 by the Ludwig von Mises Institute and published under the Creative Commons Attribution License 3.0. http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/ Ludwig von Mises Institute 518 West Magnolia Avenue Auburn, Alabama 36832 www.mises.org ISBN: 978-1-933550-04-6 Contents Foreword by Brad Edmonds . vii Acknowledgments . xiii Introduction. xv PART I: THE THEORY 1. Free Market Transportation: Denationalizing the Roads . 1 2. Congestion and Road Pricing . 47 3. Public Goods and Externalities: The Case of Roads . 97 4. Theory of Highway Safety . 153 PART II: APPLICATIONS 5. Private Roads, Competition, Automobilite Insurance and Price Controls . 167 6. Road Socialism. 183 7. Compromising the Uncompromisable: Speed Limits, Parades, Cigarettes . 201 8. Roads and the Immigration Issue. 215 9. The Motor Vehicle Bureau . 223 PART III: PROCESS 10. Privatize the Public Highway System . 227 11. Homesteading City Streets. 233 v vi The Privatization of Roads and Highways 12. Overcoming Difficulties in Road Privatization. 255 13. Transition to Private Roads . 279 PART IV: CRITIQUES 14. Roads, Bridges, Sunlight and Private Property Rights . 291 15. Comment on Roads, Bridges, Sunlight and Private Property (Comment by Gordon Tullock) . 311 16. Roads, Bridges, Sunlight and Private Property: Reply to Tullock . 315 17. Who is Responsible for Traffic Deaths . 331 18. Open Letter to Mothers Against Drunk Driving . 347 19. Road Privatization: Rejoinder to Mohring. 355 20. Aiding and Abetting Road Socialism: The Case of Robert Poole and the Reason Foundation . 379 PART V: CONCLUSION 21. An Interview with Walter Block . 403 Appendices . 419 Bibliography . 427 Index . 469 Foreword Abolishing Government Improves the Roads ook on the back of your ATM or debit card. Check your credit card, too. Whoever your bank is, on the back of the Lcard 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. This means you can use your debit card, the one from your little, three-branch local bank, to get instant cash from an ATM clear across the country. Yes, each bank charges you a dollar or two. They should. A single ATM costs $100,000 to install, costs money to maintain and manage (people have to put money in it and take money out daily), and it costs participating banks to hire Cirrus to move the money around. More important is what we learn about the market’s capabil- ities. One of the objections to privatizing roads is that we’d have to stop at a toll booth at every intersection. A five-minute com- mute to the grocery store would require, for me, three toll booths, seventy-five cents, and become an eight-minute commute, according to this objection. But it’s not so, and here’s why: vii viii The Privatization of Roads and Highways Our time is worth a few pennies to us. Cirrus and Pulse would charge us, wild guess, three dollars a month or less to pro- vide magnetically encoded stickers for our cars. Machines scat- tered about the roads, or sensors under the pavement, would record our comings and goings. That information would go to Cirrus and Pulse, and from them to our road providers. We might get three or four monthly bills, or just one, depending on the wherewithal of road owners. Some road owners, out in the woods, would still have toll booths, which would work perfectly well—less traffic and a slower pace of life make it no big deal. I use a toll booth occasionally in Atlanta, and the delay is only a few seconds. Lest you think your money would be going up in exhaust fumes, remember that market firms, who must please customers to stay in business, provide everything better and less expen- sively than government, without that nasty moral hangover of forcing people to pay for things they may not use or want. Your gasoline price already includes forty to fifty cents per gallon in taxes for road building and maintenance. This means I’m paying twenty-five to thirty-three dollars per month for road use now. With privatization of roads, that cost would go down, probably considerably. It happens every time anything is moved from gov- ernment hands into private hands. There are other benefits that would follow road privatization. The private roads that exist now have fewer accidents than pub- lic roads, probably in part because they’re better maintained: If private road builders let potholes remain, get reputations for high accident rates, or do repairs during rush hour, they have to deal with complaints and with people choosing other roads. Pollution and pollution controls on automobiles would also be handled by road privatization. If auto pollution were to grow too thick, people living near the offending roads would sue the biggest, most obvious target: the road owners. Road owners would therefore charge higher fees for cars without up-to-date inspection stickers. Auto manufacturers would build pollution- control equipment into cars, and advertise how cleanly they run. Foreword ix Automakers do this already, but under the gun of a government that mandates pollution levels and what kind of pollution con- trols manufacturers use. Without government interference, engi- neers would be free to compete to provide different technologies to reduce costs and improve horsepower while providing cleaner burning engines. With the inspection stickers being coded to your automobile’s age, manufacturer, and model, there might be a sep- arate pollution rider on your monthly statement. Drivers of new Hondas might see a discount, while drivers of old belchers would pay fees that might be higher than the road tolls themselves. Isn’t the market grand? I’m just one person describing likely market solutions; imagine how efficient solutions would become with 280 million minds working on the issue. Reality continues to provide apparent (but not real) obstacles in the mind of the statist: What about new roads, and the thorny problem of eminent domain? Again, the market comes to the rescue. First, since roads are already there, getting started would involve nothing other than entrepreneurs bidding to take over. (Who would they pay when they buy the roads? U.S. government creditors. Once the government sells all its land, the government’s vote-buying debt might be paid off.) Even so, new roads are being built everywhere today, by developers who buy land and convert it to new uses. Land alongside interstates is cheap in some places, and expensive in others. Widening rural interstates wouldn’t be a problem. (There would be some correlation between road tolls and road quality/congestion.) Prices would be higher where road owners face little competition, such as in Alaska, but lower where people have alternatives. If prices for rural stretches of interstate get too high, people will use planes, trains, and buses, and road owners will be forced to lower their prices. If you think you’re getting the interstate for free, think again: Those gas taxes mean you’re paying one to two cents per mile now. Anyone who wanted to build a new interstate would face the huge task of buying up land crossing perhaps hundreds of miles. Widening existing highways would be more likely. In Los Ange- les and other large cities where traffic is consistently choked, x The Privatization of Roads and Highways road owners would have the incentive, and plenty of funds, to buy property along highways so they could widen them. Owners would also have incentives to improve interchanges, such as Spaghetti Junction in Atlanta. Roads would improve overall. (I interviewed a county road engineer years ago, and he told me they design circular entrance ramps deliberately with varying radii—experienced as odd changes in the curve, which force you to constantly readjust the steering wheel—to “keep drivers awake.” How many of us have trouble keeping focused for fif- teen seconds on a curving entrance ramp?) Without having had forcible government the last two hun- dred years, would the interstate system have come about? We can’t know, but we shouldn’t care. Without an interstate system, we would still have plenty of commerce; probably more than we have now (when railroads were built—largely with the help of government subsidies—much of the land between the coasts was unclaimed, and thus open to use. Much would still be unclaimed today without government.) We have what we have. Abolishing government is the way to improve what we have. And what about Cirrus et al. knowing your whereabouts? This possible privacy problem is already being solved by the market. First, most private roads likely would not even charge a toll. Streets in business districts would be maintained by local merchants, who would have incentive to keep the roads in good order and to allow free access. Residential streets, for their part, would not be so highly traveled that the residents would have an incentive to charge tolls. Hence, there would be no road sensors recording vehicles’ movements in business and residential areas.
Load more

Recommended publications
  • SHOULD GOVERNMENTS LEASE THEIR AIRPORTS? by Robert W
    SHOULD GOVERNMENTS LEASE THEIR AIRPORTS? by Robert W. Poole, Jr. August 2021 Reason Foundation’s mission is to advance a free society by developing, applying and promoting libertarian principles, including individual liberty, free markets and the rule of law. We use journalism and public policy research to influence the frameworks and actions of policymakers, journalists and opinion leaders. Reason Foundation’s nonpartisan public policy research promotes choice, competition and a dynamic market economy as the foundation for human dignity and progress. Reason produces rigorous, peer- reviewed research and directly engages the policy process, seeking strategies that emphasize cooperation, flexibility, local knowledge and results. Through practical and innovative approaches to complex problems, Reason seeks to change the way people think about issues, and promote policies that allow and encourage individuals and voluntary institutions to flourish. Reason Foundation is a tax-exempt research and education organization as defined under IRS code 501(c)(3). Reason Foundation is supported by voluntary contributions from individuals, foundations and corporations. The views are those of the author, not necessarily those of Reason Foundation or its trustees. SHOULD GOVERNMENTS LEASE THEIR AIRPORTS? i EXECUTIVE SUMMARY The Covid-19 recession has put new fiscal stress on state and local governments. One tool that may help them cope is called “asset monetization,” sometimes referred to as “infrastructure asset recycling.” As practiced by Australia and a handful of U.S. jurisdictions, the concept is for a government to sell or lease revenue-producing assets, unlocking their asset values to be used for other high-priority public purposes. This study focuses on the potential of large and medium hub airports as candidates for this kind of monetization.
    [Show full text]
  • School Choice... 3
    Focus on Education Privatization Watch Celebrating 30 Years of Privatization and Government Reform Vol. 31, No. 2 2007 Urban School Choice... 3 Briefs 2 New Orleans Schools 4 Charter Enrollment 5 No Choices Left Behind 7 College Dorms 8 Utah Vouchers 9 Milwaukee Schools 10 State Lottery 12 Who, What, Where 16 2 Privatization Watch Privatization Briefs Editor Florida Gov. Crist Orders Privatization Review Geoffrey F. Segal ([email protected]) is Geoffrey Segal is the director of privatization In response to public criticism over state competitive sourc- and government reform at Reason Foundation. ing initiatives, Florida Gov. Charlie Crist directed the state’s Council on Efficient Government to undertake a review of privatization in state government, starting with the nine-year, $350 million ‘’People First’’ contract with Convergys for Managing Editor online personnel services, the largest of former Gov. Jeb Bush’s Leonard Gilroy ([email protected]) Leonard privatization initiatives. Gilroy, a certified planner (AICP), researches housing, ‘’The review will serve as a start- urban growth, privatization, and government reform. ing point for evaluating how to reap the most value from the system, whether privatization has merit—if Staff Writers Shikha Dalmia ([email protected]) it does, we should use it, if it doesn’t, George Passantino ([email protected]) we should not,’’ Crist said at a Feb- Robert W. Poole, Jr. ([email protected]) ruary 2007 news conference with Geoffrey F. Segal ([email protected]) Chief Financial Officer Alex Sink. Lisa Snell ([email protected]) Crist said Sink and three other Samuel R.
    [Show full text]
  • Amazon's Antitrust Paradox
    LINA M. KHAN Amazon’s Antitrust Paradox abstract. Amazon is the titan of twenty-first century commerce. In addition to being a re- tailer, it is now a marketing platform, a delivery and logistics network, a payment service, a credit lender, an auction house, a major book publisher, a producer of television and films, a fashion designer, a hardware manufacturer, and a leading host of cloud server space. Although Amazon has clocked staggering growth, it generates meager profits, choosing to price below-cost and ex- pand widely instead. Through this strategy, the company has positioned itself at the center of e- commerce and now serves as essential infrastructure for a host of other businesses that depend upon it. Elements of the firm’s structure and conduct pose anticompetitive concerns—yet it has escaped antitrust scrutiny. This Note argues that the current framework in antitrust—specifically its pegging competi- tion to “consumer welfare,” defined as short-term price effects—is unequipped to capture the ar- chitecture of market power in the modern economy. We cannot cognize the potential harms to competition posed by Amazon’s dominance if we measure competition primarily through price and output. Specifically, current doctrine underappreciates the risk of predatory pricing and how integration across distinct business lines may prove anticompetitive. These concerns are height- ened in the context of online platforms for two reasons. First, the economics of platform markets create incentives for a company to pursue growth over profits, a strategy that investors have re- warded. Under these conditions, predatory pricing becomes highly rational—even as existing doctrine treats it as irrational and therefore implausible.
    [Show full text]
  • A New Etobicoke Centre
    Construction Liaison Committee RECONSTRUCTING THE SIX POINTS INTERCHANGE The City has established a Construction Liaison Committee (CLC) to provide community input and advice to City staff throughout the duration of construction. Committee members represent A NEW ETOBICOKE CENTRE local interests such as the Business Improvement Area (BIA), Resident’s Associations, Community Organizations, Neighbouring Properties, the Ward 5 Councillor's Office, and City Staff. So far, the CLC has met twice and will continue to meet bi-monthly. A record of CLC meeting minutes can be found on the project website toronto.ca/etobicokecentre under ‘Get Involved’. PROJECT OVERVIEW Following more than 10 years of planning, consultation, engineering, and design, the City of Toronto is beginning reconstruction of the Six Points Interchange. The project supports the development of Construction is Underway! Etobicoke Centre as a vibrant Reconstruction of the Six Points Interchange started in March 2017 and continues mixed-use transit-oriented to progress. You may have noticed work taking place southeast of Bloor Street and community, and features: Kipling Avenue (former Westwood Theatre lands), and locations along Bloor Street West, Kipling Avenue, Dundas Street West, and some ramps. Learn more about • A new road network and at-grade what’s been completed and what to expect next inside this newsletter. intersection at Dundas, Bloor, and Kipling, with Bloor Street continuing across Kipling Avenue. • Improved pedestrian facilities including wide boulevards, trees, and street furniture, and Untangling Spaghetti Junction: improved access to Kipling Subway Station. the last walk through the interchange • Improved cycling facilities including separated bike lanes. Jane’s Walks encourage people to share stories about their • New land available for potential uses such as parkettes, public art, development, and other neighbourhoods and use walking as a way to connect.
    [Show full text]
  • Markets Not Capitalism Explores the Gap Between Radically Freed Markets and the Capitalist-Controlled Markets That Prevail Today
    individualist anarchism against bosses, inequality, corporate power, and structural poverty Edited by Gary Chartier & Charles W. Johnson Individualist anarchists believe in mutual exchange, not economic privilege. They believe in freed markets, not capitalism. They defend a distinctive response to the challenges of ending global capitalism and achieving social justice: eliminate the political privileges that prop up capitalists. Massive concentrations of wealth, rigid economic hierarchies, and unsustainable modes of production are not the results of the market form, but of markets deformed and rigged by a network of state-secured controls and privileges to the business class. Markets Not Capitalism explores the gap between radically freed markets and the capitalist-controlled markets that prevail today. It explains how liberating market exchange from state capitalist privilege can abolish structural poverty, help working people take control over the conditions of their labor, and redistribute wealth and social power. Featuring discussions of socialism, capitalism, markets, ownership, labor struggle, grassroots privatization, intellectual property, health care, racism, sexism, and environmental issues, this unique collection brings together classic essays by Cleyre, and such contemporary innovators as Kevin Carson and Roderick Long. It introduces an eye-opening approach to radical social thought, rooted equally in libertarian socialism and market anarchism. “We on the left need a good shake to get us thinking, and these arguments for market anarchism do the job in lively and thoughtful fashion.” – Alexander Cockburn, editor and publisher, Counterpunch “Anarchy is not chaos; nor is it violence. This rich and provocative gathering of essays by anarchists past and present imagines society unburdened by state, markets un-warped by capitalism.
    [Show full text]
  • Mere Libertarianism: Blending Hayek and Rothbard
    Mere Libertarianism: Blending Hayek and Rothbard Daniel B. Klein Santa Clara University The continued progress of a social movement may depend on the movement’s being recognized as a movement. Being able to provide a clear, versatile, and durable definition of the movement or philosophy, quite apart from its justifications, may help to get it space and sympathy in public discourse. 1 Some of the most basic furniture of modern libertarianism comes from the great figures Friedrich Hayek and Murray Rothbard. Like their mentor Ludwig von Mises, Hayek and Rothbard favored sweeping reductions in the size and intrusiveness of government; both favored legal rules based principally on private property, consent, and contract. In view of the huge range of opinions about desirable reform, Hayek and Rothbard must be regarded as ideological siblings. Yet Hayek and Rothbard each developed his own ideas about liberty and his own vision for a libertarian movement. In as much as there are incompatibilities between Hayek and Rothbard, those seeking resolution must choose between them, search for a viable blending, or look to other alternatives. A blending appears to be both viable and desirable. In fact, libertarian thought and policy analysis in the United States appears to be inclined toward a blending of Hayek and Rothbard. At the center of any libertarianism are ideas about liberty. Differences between libertarianisms usually come down to differences between definitions of liberty or between claims made for liberty. Here, in exploring these matters, I work closely with the writings of Hayek and Rothbard. I realize that many excellent libertarian philosophers have weighed in on these matters and already said many of the things I say here.
    [Show full text]
  • State Set to Push Toll Roads
    State set to push toll roads FUNDING PLAN AIMS TO SPEED UP ROAD PROJECTS, TRAFFIC RELIEF By Gary Richards Mercury News Thursday, February 3, 2005 The future of highway driving in California could be a two-tiered system, in which commuters can either remain in stop-and-go traffic for free, or pay a toll to cruise on a private highway. Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger is expected to soon announce his support for allowing private contractors to build toll roads across California. Following the model of Highway 125 now under construction in Southern California, contractors would build toll roads in congested areas or toll lanes parallel to existing roads -- such as Highway 152 or Interstate 205 -- that would be designed and maintained by the state. The specifics are still far away, but it is yet another step in the governor's strategy to creatively finance -- and speed up -- highway construction in California without raising taxes. The governor previously noted his support for allowing solo drivers to pay their way into carpool lanes. ``We're going to make an announcement really soon where we're going to look at our whole infrastructure and transportation and we have a very creative way of financing it,'' Schwarzenegger said last week in a meeting with the Orange County Register editorial board, adding: ``We want to approach it in a very radical way and then look at all kinds of transportation.'' The governor's office had no comment Wednesday on the expected announcement, but last year his performance review team called for more toll facilities. ``I'm not surprised,'' said Randy Rentschler of the Metropolitan Transportation Commission in Oakland.
    [Show full text]
  • Capitalism, Social Marginality, and the Rule of Law's Uncertain Fate in Modern Society
    University of Colorado Law School Colorado Law Scholarly Commons Articles Colorado Law Faculty Scholarship 2005 Capitalism, Social Marginality, and the Rule of Law's Uncertain Fate in Modern Society Ahmed A. White University of Colorado Law School Follow this and additional works at: https://scholar.law.colorado.edu/articles Part of the Criminal Law Commons, Law and Economics Commons, Rule of Law Commons, and the Social Welfare Law Commons Citation Information Ahmed A. White, Capitalism, Social Marginality, and the Rule of Law's Uncertain Fate in Modern Society, 37 ARIZ. ST. L.J. 759 (2005), available at https://scholar.law.colorado.edu/articles/429. Copyright Statement Copyright protected. Use of materials from this collection beyond the exceptions provided for in the Fair Use and Educational Use clauses of the U.S. Copyright Law may violate federal law. Permission to publish or reproduce is required. This Article is brought to you for free and open access by the Colorado Law Faculty Scholarship at Colorado Law Scholarly Commons. It has been accepted for inclusion in Articles by an authorized administrator of Colorado Law Scholarly Commons. For more information, please contact [email protected]. +(,121/,1( Citation: 37 Ariz. St. L.J. 759 2005 Provided by: William A. Wise Law Library Content downloaded/printed from HeinOnline Sun Apr 30 18:05:56 2017 -- Your use of this HeinOnline PDF indicates your acceptance of HeinOnline's Terms and Conditions of the license agreement available at http://heinonline.org/HOL/License -- The search text of this PDF is generated from uncorrected OCR text. -- To obtain permission to use this article beyond the scope of your HeinOnline license, please use: Copyright Information CAPITALISM, SOCIAL MARGINALITY, AND THE RULE OF LAW'S UNCERTAIN FATE IN MODERN SOCIETY Ahmed A.
    [Show full text]
  • Judith Jarvis Thomson on Abortion; a Libertarian Perspective
    DePaul Journal of Health Care Law Volume 19 Issue 1 Fall 2017 Article 3 April 2018 Judith Jarvis Thomson on Abortion; a Libertarian Perspective Walter E. Block Loyola University New Orleans, [email protected] Follow this and additional works at: https://via.library.depaul.edu/jhcl Part of the Health Law and Policy Commons Recommended Citation Walter E. Block, Judith Jarvis Thomson on Abortion; a Libertarian Perspective, 19 DePaul J. Health Care L. (2018) Available at: https://via.library.depaul.edu/jhcl/vol19/iss1/3 This Article is brought to you for free and open access by the College of Law at Via Sapientiae. It has been accepted for inclusion in DePaul Journal of Health Care Law by an authorized editor of Via Sapientiae. For more information, please contact [email protected]. Judith Jarvis Thomson on abortion; a libertarian perspective1 I. Introduction Abortion is one of the most vexing issues faced by society. On the one hand, there are those who favor the pro-choice position. In their view, the woman, and she alone (along with the advice of her doctor – but the final decision must be hers), should be able to legally determine on what basis, and whether, her pregnancy should be conducted. She should be as free to end her pregnancy at any stage of the development of her fetus, or give birth to it after the usual term of nine months. On the other hand, there are those who favor what is called the pro-life position. In this perspective, the fetus, from the moment of conception, is a full rights-bearing human being.
    [Show full text]
  • Policing in Federal States
    NEPAL STEPSTONES PROJECTS Policing in Federal States Philipp Fluri and Marlene Urscheler (Eds.) Policing in Federal States Edited by Philipp Fluri and Marlene Urscheler Geneva Centre for the Democratic Control of Armed Forces (DCAF) www.dcaf.ch The Geneva Centre for the Democratic Control of Armed Forces is one of the world’s leading institutions in the areas of security sector reform (SSR) and security sector governance (SSG). DCAF provides in-country advisory support and practical assis- tance programmes, develops and promotes appropriate democratic norms at the international and national levels, advocates good practices and makes policy recommendations to ensure effective democratic governance of the security sector. DCAF’s partners include governments, parliaments, civil society, international organisations and the range of security sector actors such as police, judiciary, intelligence agencies, border security ser- vices and the military. 2011 Policing in Federal States Edited by Philipp Fluri and Marlene Urscheler Geneva, 2011 Philipp Fluri and Marlene Urscheler, eds., Policing in Federal States, Nepal Stepstones Projects Series # 2 (Geneva: Geneva Centre for the Democratic Control of Armed Forces, 2011). Nepal Stepstones Projects Series no. 2 © Geneva Centre for the Democratic Control of Armed Forces, 2011 Executive publisher: Procon Ltd., <www.procon.bg> Cover design: Angel Nedelchev ISBN 978-92-9222-149-2 PREFACE In this book we will be looking at specimens of federative police or- ganisations. As can be expected, the federative organisation of such states as Germany, Switzerland, the USA, India and Russia will be reflected in their police organisation, though the extremely decentralised approach of Switzerland with hardly any central man- agement structures can hardly serve as a paradigm of ‘the’ federal police organisation.
    [Show full text]
  • Economic Efficiency Implications of Optimal Highway Maintenance Policies for Private Versus Public Highway Owners
    22 TRANSPORTATION RESEARCH RECORD 1116 Economic Efficiency Implications of Optimal Highway Maintenance Policies for Private Versus Public Highway Owners DAVID GELTNER AND RoHIT RAMASWAMY The Idea of transport Infrastructure privatization has been infrastructure privatization. Key questions in this regard are (a) receiving Increased attention recently from researchers and Would private infrastructure owners charge an economically policy makers. In both Britain and the United States, as well as efficient price to the users of the infrastructure? and (b) Would in some developing countries such as India, the idea or high­ private infrastructure suppliers provide efficient levels of quan­ way ownership privatization Is being seriously considered and tity and quality of product or service over the long run? In some cases Is being implemented. Most research to date has focused on the technical or financial feaslblllty of highway This paper focuses on a specific aspect of the second ques­ privatization or of using tolls to finance roads. This paper ls tion. In particular, a hypothetical privately owned toll highway motivated, rather, by the question of the economic efficiency of is considered. The profit-maximizing highway pavement highway ownership privatization. The paper focuses on in­ quality maintenance policy for this highway is compared with depth analysis In an effort to quantify what may be the main the socially optimal or economically efficient policy. Meth­ issue In the question or the economic efficiency or privately odologically, this paper contains an extension and application owned highways-the problem of suboptimal highway physi­ of other work previously presented to the TRB (1, 2). cal quality, which could result over the long run from highway 111aintenance policies that seek to maximize immediate private profit rather than overall economic welfare.
    [Show full text]
  • Congestion Costs the Economy ATRI Research Identified Trucking Industry Costs Of$63.4 Billion As a Result of Congestion on the Nation’S Highways
    Congestion Costs the Economy ATRI research identified trucking industry costs of $63.4 billion as a result of congestion on the nation’s highways. That cost generates from 996 million lost hours of industry productivity, the equivalent of 362,000 truck drivers sitting still for an entire year. Spaghetti Junction in Atlanta, GA – Photo courtesy of Doug Turnbull, WSB Radio To view the top 100 = Top 100 Bottlenecks list of truck bottlenecks along = States with the Most Bottlenecks with detailed profiles for each location, please visit ATRI’s website at TruckingResearch.org TOP 100 LIST TOP 100 LIST 1 Atlanta, GA: I-285 at I-85 (North) 51 Philadelphia, PA: I-76 at I-676 2 Fort Lee, NJ: I-95 at SR 4 52 Washington, DC: I-95/I-495 (East side) Since 2002, the American Transportation Research 3 Chicago, IL: I-290 at I-90/I-94 53 Seattle, WA: I-5 at I-90 Institute (ATRI) has collected and processed truck 4 Atlanta, GA: I-75 at I-285 (North) 54 Cincinnati, OH: I-75 at I-74 GPS data in support of the Federal Highway 5 Los Angeles, CA: SR 60 at SR 57 55 Minneapolis - St. Paul, MN: I-35W at I-494 Administration’s Freight Performance Measures 6 Boston, MA: I-95 at I-90 56 Minneapolis - St. Paul, MN: I-35W at I-94 (FPM) initiative. The FPM program develops and 7 Baltimore, MD: I-695 at I-70 57 Detroit, MI: I-94 at I-75 monitors a series of key performance measures 8 Queens, NY: I-495 58 Houston, TX: I-610 at US 290 on the nation’s freight transportation system.
    [Show full text]