Private enterprise must take the leading role in managing roads - advocacy in Britain

Excerpt from article on oped page of Yorkshire Post, York UK

"Congestion has now spread out from the larger cities to small towns and sections of rural motorway (in Yorkshire). The Government has failed to respond adequately to consumer demand and the resulting delays are becoming increasingly costly.

"It's no wonder that motorists feel ripped off. They pay large amounts in tax but get a poor standard of service in return.

"What is needed is to make roads more like commercial businesses. Drivers would pay tolls and the revenues would be used directly for maintenance and improvements. In the 18th century this system built a 20,000-mile turnpike network, which became the backbone of the industrial revolution long before the railways arrived.

"Motorists would only pay for the journeys they actually made and the Government would no longer use fuel duty and road tax as convenient ways to fund its vast, counterproductive welfare programmes.

"Road pricing has the potential to provide motorists with better infrastructure, while reducing congestion and improving travel times. And a complex national scheme would not be necessary to achieve these gains. A charge of just 2p per mile on motorways and trunk roads could fund a trebling of investment in the core network, providing 100 miles of new motorway every year.

"But there are dangers. If toll revenues are controlled by government bureaucrats they are unlikely to be spent wisely. Money is likely to be lavished on expensive public transport schemes with questionable economic benefits. Vague social objectives such as "regeneration" will be given more importance than responding to consumer demand.

"The private sector must therefore be given a leading role in the development and management of tolled roads. This will help ensure that investment and pricing decisions are made on a commercial basis rather than at the discretion of politicians and planners – who often come under undue pressure from special interest groups.

"Only private enterprise can make the road system responsive to the needs of travellers and provide value-for-money for Yorkshire's long-suffering motorists."

Richard Wellings in the Yorkshire Post 2007-10-30. Yorkshire in the northeast of England has 5m population. Wellings works for the freemarket Institute of Economic Affairs.

TOLLROADSnews 2007-11-14