I love the thought of fully privatized interstates too. One huge problem though. Reducing gas and licencing taxes will never go down.
“I love the thought of fully privatized interstates too. One huge problem though. Reducing gas and licencing taxes will never go down.”
If real privatization happens, you’ll paying at least 10 times, possibly 20 times more to drive on Interstates than you pay now. You won’t even notices the gas tax and license fees. Here’s an example from Canada:
https://www.407etr.com/en/tolls/rate-charts/rate-chart-light.html
The rates here come out to about 50 US cents per mile on peak hours, and about 30 US cents per mile on off-peak hours. For comparison, a car getting 20 miles per gallon in the US pays between 2 and 3 cents per mile in gas tax in most states.
The company that owns the Canadian highway simply raises their tolls to keep traffic moving as the population increases...rather than increasing capacity...since increasing capacity costs money, but increasing tolls makes money. So they’re raking it in with monopoly protection. About 10 years ago, the government in Ontario took them to court to try to get a handle on the company, but the contract was iron-clad...the government simply had no recourse - the company could do whatever they wanted.
40 cents per mile to drive more than doubles the operating costs for most cars - there is a LOT OF MONEY to be made there. Right now, with government government ownership of most highways, we get to keep that money - but people who have done the math realize the potential and they’re all over Trump and Congress to legalize it.
BTW...here’s a really good summary of what the Canadians think of that ‘free market’ highway...
https://thebulletin.ca/highway-407-is-a-rip-off-with-high-fees-and-no-benefits-to-ontario/