4 ms·
The Chesapeake Bay-Bridge Tunnel is one of the largest bridge-tunnels in existence. It's 17.6 miles long, and was financed by toll-backed bonds, and continues
by JPKab 12y ago
The Chesapeake Bay-Bridge Tunnel is one of the largest bridge-tunnels in existence. It's 17.6 miles long, and was financed by toll-backed bonds, and continues to be maintained with toll money. The point being that large infrastructure projects can be financed by the free market, provided they require the users to pay for them in the future, allowing investors to profit.
Here in the DC region, demand-based pricing was used in the widening of interstate 495. It works. My favorite aspect is that buses and vehicles carrying 3 or more people can use the lanes for free, while all the assholes riding by themselves have to pay handsomely for the privilege of creating congestion at rush hour.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Virginia_HOT_lanes http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Virginia_HOT_lanes
One of the funny things about the libertarian idea of making everyone pay for road use is that technology has made it much more feasible. We don't have to use toll booths anymore. Instead just stick a transponder on the window. One of the best remedies for situations in which overuse of a public good is causing environmental problems is to make people pay to use said good.
- snowwrestler 12y agoEveryone paying for road use is not a libertarian idea. It's the basis of the gas tax, for instance, which funded the Eisenhower interstate system--not usually held up by libertarians as their ideal. Likewise the Chesapeake bridge-tunnel was built by a government organization funded by municipal bonds. Bond funding does not imply private ownership and is not really a libertarian idea. The 495 HOT lanes were a public/private partnership, so again not exactly a libertarian ideal. Also, to date they are underperforming financially. The best example of a libertarian-type road project in the DC area is probably the Dulles Greenway, which was built and is operated by an entirely private company.