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Should the Government Build the Cars or the Roads?

April 19, 2008 By Adam Hengels

I tend to agree that there is some hypocrisy in the conservative/libertarian world when it comes to transportation, which is part of the reason I started this blog. A more free-market transporation system would certainly lead to a more urban land use pattern; something between pre-auto, transit-reliant density and current auto-reliant sprawling suburbs. Regardless, market-based solutions will lead to a denser land use pattern in the long-run. This article discusses governement’s role in infrastructure and some libertarian free-market advocates’ strange love affair with government planned highways:

Maybe the Government Should Build the Cars

Is transportation like education, a communal service that works best through heavy general funding that pays off down the road in a community’s overall prosperity, or is it best delivered by targeting users, especially road users through congestion pricing to reduce demand and increase revenues?

Also: King of the Road

They seem to see a highway as an expression of the free market and of American individualism, and a rail line as an example of government meddling and creeping socialism.

However, the above article portrays the government as the hero for overspending on highways, but what do you expect from a magazine named Governing?

Rationalitate: Libertarians for Statism on the Governing article:

“[o]ur national road system would never have been built if every street were required to pay for itself.” Yeah, that’s exactly the point! Our “national road system” is the problem, and the author’s implication is that not only would there be no “national road system,” but that roads are indeed synonymous with transportation. But just because we wouldn’t have trillion-dollar pavement stretching across the continent doesn’t mean we wouldn’t be able to get across the continent – or, more importantly, wherever it is that we want to go.

Latest: How McCain or Obama Can Permanently Eliminate the Gas Tax, Cut Pork, Help the Environment, and Save Face

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Filed Under: Transportation Tagged With: congestion pricing, density, Free-market, highways, libertarian, politics, reason, Transportation

About Adam Hengels

Adam is passionate about urbanism, and founded this site in 2007, after realizing that classical liberals and urbanists actually share many objectives, despite being at odds in many spheres of the intellectual discussion. His mission is to improve the urban experience, and overcome obstacles that prevent aspiring city dwellers from living where they want. http://www.marketurbanism.com/adam-hengels/

Comments

  1. H.I.D. Lights says

    December 18, 2008 at 12:43 pm

    It’s the government duty to do those things. we should really make use of aircars, or car that uses water as an alternative gas fuel. Researches like this can really help the global economy. we can save resources and will have lots of fund to build roads.

  2. H.I.D. Lights says

    December 18, 2008 at 12:43 pm

    It’s the government duty to do those things. we should really make use of aircars, or car that uses water as an alternative gas fuel. Researches like this can really help the global economy. we can save resources and will have lots of fund to build roads.

Trackbacks

  1. Emergent Disorder » Private Roads Work says:
    January 4, 2009 at 2:31 pm

    […] April 19, 2008 — Should the Government Build the Cars or the Roads? (1) […]

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