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There are significant risks on some of those deals, as, if the toll highway doesn't get enough traffic, governments will lack the political will to let the road

There are significant risks on some of those deals, as, if the toll highway doesn't get enough traffic, governments will lack the political will to let the road decay, and often will end up buying back the highway, and paying for the repairs. So if the highway goes well, the company makes money hand over fist, and it all looks like a giant scam. If it goes really badly, the government takes a bath, and it all looks like a bunch of waste. So ultimately it's very difficult to set up a deal that lasts very long and doesn't seem like a regulatory mistake, one way or the other. Also note that this isn't purely a US situation: Some form of privatization of toll roads happens all over the world, and success rates are also not all that great

BitwiseFool 4y ago
In Texas the state government does not want the toll roads to become public because the revenue collected from gasoline taxes and vehicle registration is not enough to pay for their upkeep.
- MereInterest 4y ago
  I’m not quite following your argument. If the gasoline taxes and vehicle registration aren’t enough to pay for the upkeep of newly public roads, why wouldn’t they continue to be funded as they currently are? There’s nothing to say that public roads must be toll-free roads. The tolls could even be lowered from their current values, receiving from the maximum drivers are willing to pay to minimum required for upkeep.
  - mr_toad 4y ago
    Raising tolls won’t get you any votes, so there’s always a temptation to collect less revenue than is needed.
  - BitwiseFool 4y ago
    I'm not arguing for anything in particular, just relaying what I've heard about the situation. One of the compromises that allowed for the construction of several major toll roads decades ago was that they would eventually become public and toll-free. But, this can be delayed by implementing continual capital improvements and making sure the road is never fully paid off.
- quantumwannabe 4y ago
  That's because Texas diverts a large percentage of the gas tax to the school system.

BitwiseFool 4y ago

In Texas the state government does not want the toll roads to become public because the revenue collected from gasoline taxes and vehicle registration is not enough to pay for their upkeep.

MereInterest 4y ago
I’m not quite following your argument. If the gasoline taxes and vehicle registration aren’t enough to pay for the upkeep of newly public roads, why wouldn’t they continue to be funded as they currently are? There’s nothing to say that public roads must be toll-free roads. The tolls could even be lowered from their current values, receiving from the maximum drivers are willing to pay to minimum required for upkeep.
- mr_toad 4y ago
  Raising tolls won’t get you any votes, so there’s always a temptation to collect less revenue than is needed.
- BitwiseFool 4y ago
  I'm not arguing for anything in particular, just relaying what I've heard about the situation. One of the compromises that allowed for the construction of several major toll roads decades ago was that they would eventually become public and toll-free. But, this can be delayed by implementing continual capital improvements and making sure the road is never fully paid off.
quantumwannabe 4y ago
That's because Texas diverts a large percentage of the gas tax to the school system.