Road to the future

Road to the future by Sauvik Chakraverti, 
Saturday March 22 2008 18:21 IST

Street Smart:
Competition, Entrepreneurship and the Future of Roads
By Gabriel Roth
Transaction Publishers and  
The Independent Institute, $30  

Gabriel Roth is a libertarian with a passion for roads, that is, roads as private businesses. His earlier book Roads in a Market Economy (1996) revealed that Western nations had deeply erred by making roads into government monopolies funded through taxation and provided by politicians.

It offered capitalist nations the way out of this ‘Soviet-style roads system’.

His new book is a collection of brilliant essays by a wide variety of specialists on various aspects of roads. Bruce Benson, for example, a formidable authority on Law and Economics, has contributed two fascinating essays: The first on ‘eminent domain’, its misuse, and why it is really not required for road-building; and the second on the history of the 'turnpike trusts' of 18th and 19th century England, which were private efforts at building, maintaining and tolling roads. Indeed, the history of private roads in both England and America are recounted in this book, and there are many lessons to learn.

The essay on eminent domain is particularly instructive, since it dispels the false idea that roads cannot be built without invoking these authoritarian powers. This paves the way for a deeper understanding as to how businessmen can easily assemble the land required for such projects. The examples of the misuse of these powers in western countries tells us a great deal about the politics behind a similar misuse in India such as in Singur and Nandigram.

There are 20 essays in all and they present a wide array of issues and perspectives. John Semmens talks of privatising vehicle, driver testing and licensing and it becomes clear why better safety standards will be promoted if insurance companies, with a direct financial interest in safety, took over this vital function from a corrupt and useless government bureau.

Gopinath Menon, who teaches traffic management at Singapore’s technical university, has contributed an excellent piece on the city-state’s Automatic Road Pricing system and the history of its development.

This history confirms the old adage that ‘Rome was not built in a day’ and that traffic and transportation was always an area of critical focus for their government, right from independence in 1965. It is also time for our government to give up the ‘looking after poor’ bullshit and deliver knowledge-based solutions to traffic congestion and mayhem in all our cities and towns.

While each and every essay is noteworthy, those that deserve mention in this review are the two on city streets as ‘private sector public goods’ and the account of the Private Roads Associations of socialist Sweden, which provide and maintain a major share of that country’s rural roads. Rural roads are a critical area for India, as are city streets, and these essays are hugely illuminating.

Another essay that is extremely relevant to the Indian situation is on ‘the role of the private sector in managing and maintaining roads’. It is seen that ‘performance-based contracts’ with private firms are the best and cheapest way to maintain roads. There is an interesting story of how a US town paid $120 per pothole repair by traditional manual methods. When the performance-based contract was executed, the contractor found it prudent to employ a pothole-repairing machine that could be driven over the pothole, and which conducted an immediate repair for just $22. There is a photo of this machine. It is also mentioned that not repairing highways in time escalates costs hundredfold. One of the contracts cited contains the clause that, over every 10 kilometre, not more than three potholes of 15mm diameter should be seen: and where seen, they should be repaired in 48 hours. These are ideas India needs.

Gabriel Roth’s own essay, which opens the volume, ‘Why Involve the Private Sector in the Provision of Public Roads’ sets the tone for a learning experience on ‘the future of roads’ that can benefit many Indians dealing directly with this vitally important subject or indirectly interested in it, from infrastructure fund managers down to journalists covering roads.

Engineers can also benefit, and there is an exposition of radio-enabled ‘open road tolling’, by which tolls can be electronically collected on all roads, without requiring vehicles to stop.

As a libertarian myself, that too one with a passion for roads, I can only assert that I have myself benefited greatly from a study of Gabriel Roth’s Street Smart. I am happy this will be reflected in my writings on roads for many years to come. 

http://www.newindpress.com/sunday/sundayitems.asp?id=SEB20080322085510&eTitle=Books+%26+Literature&rLink=0