From the Freakonomic Blog - Mixed Messages on Auto Use: We wrote not long ago about the various negative externalities produced by driving — congestion, pollution, accident risk, etc. — and how pay-as-you-drive insurance might help impose the true cost of driving on each driver. ... And here’s … [Read more...]
$12.8b Bid for PA Turnpike
From Toll Road News: With a bid of $12.8 billion an Abertis/Citi team has been selected as the concessionaire in a 75 year lease of the Pennsylvania Turnpike. The bids were received in a second round of best-&-final offer bids last Friday (May 16). #2 bidder was Transurban/Goldman Sachs at … [Read more...]
The Great Depression and America’s Addiction to Government Roads and Oil
One of my favorite new blogs, Rationalitate brought up a topic that I have spent much time thinking about, The Great Depression and Public Roads: In a time before the widespread adoption of income and sales taxes, property taxes made up the lion's share of local government revenues: two-thirds of … [Read more...]
How McCain or Obama Can Permanently Eliminate the Gas Tax, Cut Pork and Help the Environment
John McCain and Hillary Clinton have both supported the idea of a "Gas Tax Holiday". The whole idea of a Holy Day to celebrate the worship of socialized transportation catered by Santa Clinton/McCain seems pretty absurd to me. Nonetheless, they expect pandering to gas-addicted voters to pay off in … [Read more...]
Should the Government Build the Cars or the Roads?
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, … [Read more...]
McCain: Suspend the Gas Tax and Inflate the Deficit
I favor Bob Poole's solution: "The longer-term solution is to scrap the 20th-century tax-and-grant system in favor of universal tolling, managed by each state’s Department of Transportation and private toll companies." Furthermore, get the federal government out of the business of subsidizing … [Read more...]
Government Planning Day
The Antiplanner discusses how well-intentioned agencies become wasteful government-planning bureaucracies. The mal-investment in our socialist highway system and the resulting congestion, pollution, disrepair, and sprawl come to mind. Using smart growth, modern day planners are trying to correct … [Read more...]
Video: Gridlock
Drew Carey discusses private alternatives to socialized highways that promote sprawl. … [Read more...]