Face it, roads are subsidized for motor vehicles. Stop falling for the Potemkin village pipe dreams the government road agencies prop up. Robust pedestrian and bicycle infrastructure, that is safe and fiscally solvent is not going to occur as long as the roads are public.
Is 60 years not long enough? It is 2019- If they were going to build it, and could -it should have happened by now.
My local government finally built a 3 mile trail for walking and bicycling. Only took 19 years and millions.
https://mises.org/library/privatization-roads-and-highways
Walter Block brings some valuable insight and arguments for road privatization, please take some time and formulate your own thoughts after you read this book about best practices to road building. I argue we would be far better off with private roads. A bicycle lane could be completely independent of the motor vehicle roadway and obviously much cheaper, particularly if you get red tape and external friction out of the picture.
If the private trail is unsafe people would not use it and the insurer would force the owner to improve the design.
He shows that even the worst, off-the-cuff scenario of life under private ownership of roads would be fantastic by comparison to the existing reality of government-ownership of roads, which is awful in ways we don't entirely realize until Block fully explains it (think: highway deaths).But that is only the beginning of what Professor Block has done. He has made a lengthy, detailed, and positive case that the privatization of roads would be socially optimal in every way. It would save lives, curtail pollution, save us (as individuals!) money, save us massive time, introduce accountability, and make transportation a pleasure instead of a huge pain in the neck.
Because this is the first-ever complete book on this topic, the length and detail are absolutely necessary. He shows that this is not some libertarian pipe dream but the most practical application of free-market logic. Block is dealing with something that confronts us every day. And in so doing, he illustrates the power of economic theory to take an existing set of facts and help see them in a completely different way.
What's also nice is that the prose has great passion about it, despite its scholarly detail. Block loves answering the objections (Aren't roads public goods? Aren't roads too expensive to build privately?) and making the case, fully aware that he has to overcome a deep and persistent bias in favor of public ownership. The writer burns with a moral passion on the subjects of highway deaths and pollution issues. His "Open Letter to Mothers Against Drunk Driving" is a thrill to read!
[amazon_link asins='147833844X,B07FBZDF5Z,1498518826,B004NSV8WO,1610165950,1933550171' template='ProductCarousel' store='flbikeped-20' marketplace='US' link_id='ab46ccef-bad7-40bb-aeee-d127fabf48e8']