Re: Private roads was RE: right to drive cars

From: Randall Randall (wolfkin@freedomspace.net)
Date: Mon Feb 17 2003 - 12:07:24 MST

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    Rafal Smigrodzki wrote:
    > Daniel Ust wrote:
    >
    > (It would a lot better, here, to privatize roads and
    >
    >>then have a full free market for transportation -- instead of the
    >>mixed economy we have there now. It would also, in my mind, be more
    >>Extropian.:)
    >>
    >
    > ### I have been thinking about this issue for a long time. It sounds very
    > attractive, to have private, competing highway systems. One thing bugs me
    > however - the acquisition of the land for roads would be quite difficult.
    > You couldn't use eminent domain (or could you?). A single holdout on the
    > path of a planned highway could demand a lot of cash, or scuttle the project
    > altogether (e.g., the owner of a mountain pass). This would drive up the
    > prices. Also, in certain situations, if the ownership of roads in an area
    > became concentrated in one hand, there would be the risk of monopoly rents
    > being extracted from the citizens.
    >
    > How could you solve these problems?

    Set up a public board (perhaps on the web), with a map divided into small
    plots, or using the actual property lines, and announce planning to build a
    road from point A to point B. Anyone on the map can post the price for their
    property, even if not on a direct line between A and B. If participation is
    low,
    you can offer incentives to visit the site. When enough people have made
    offers that the map is fairly well covered with land which has a price, you can
    pick the few routes with the least apparent cost, and try to negotiate them
    down. Each person you're negotiating with understands that you're looking
    for the lowest cost, and trying to hold out for more money makes it more
    likely that you'll just go around.

    As for the mountain pass problem, the cost of making your own pass must
    be considered, but I don't think it's a showstopper. 

    -- 
Randall Randall <randall@randallsquared.com>
'Institute regime change everywhere...
 to "None of the above."' -- Alex Future Bokov

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