Bacon's Rebellion

Democracy Thrives in Sunlight

If Not for Government, Who Would Build the Roads?

—

by

James A. Bacon
in

Street car running through the Fan district of Richmond, circa 1928.
Street car running through the Fan district of Richmond, circa 1928.

A couple of blog posts over on Smart Growth for Conservatives shed light on some of the controversies raging within the comments section of Bacon’s Rebellion…

Emily Washington asks in “Urbanism without Government,” if not for the government, who would build the roads? She points to the example of Elfreth’s Alley in Philadelphia, built around 1700 when Pennsvylania had a barely functioning government that levied no taxes. Elfreth’s Alley was built by adjoining landowners who contributed land for mutual advantage.

(Similarly, more than two-and-a-half centuries later, landowners contributed the right of way for the Dulles Greenway. I would be fascinated to know what role landowners played in constructing privately financed turnpikes in the early 19th century.)

Riffing off Washington’s post, Jim Dalrymple delved into the history of Salt Lake City’s roads, laid out by the Mormon potentate Brigham Young. In “Bad Urbanism with Big Government,” he explains how theocratic big government laid out broad streets and huge blocks that may have served an agricultural society well but are mal-adapted to a post-autocentric society.

This system worked very well in many regards — the Mormons thrived quite well in a harsh desert environment — but, again, it left a legacy of costly and hostile urban design in the 20th and 21st centuries. … Utah seems to support Washington’s thesis: she argues that “laissez-faire urban development” produced the great, economically agile (and privately-created) spaces in the East. Utah shows that when you lose the laissez-faire part of the equation, you can also potentially lose those great places.

I would add that there are other examples of the private sector building roads for public use. The best known, perhaps, were the real estate developers who built street car lines to connect inhabitants of their new neighborhoods with city centers.

Because the United States, like most other countries, followed the path in the early 20th century of governments taking over the financing and building roads, it is difficult for us to conceive of any other way of doing things. These examples show that other ways are at least theoretically possible. Whether they could have effectively served the needs of rapidly industrializing cities with fast-growing cities is worth discussing.

— JAB

Share this article

ADVERTISEMENT

(comments below)

ADVERTISEMENT

(comments below)

Comments

7 responses to “If Not for Government, Who Would Build the Roads?”

  1. Breckinridge Avatar
    Breckinridge

    Considering the level of general wealth and welfare this country has achieved, the strong attachment we have to the mobility and flexibility provided by the automobile, and the role played by government subsidized transportation projects going back to before Alexander Hamilton, I’m not one to throw out the current model. Sometimes the best or at least better ideas win out.

  2. larryg Avatar
    larryg

    finally we’re edging toward the MEAT of the issue.

    two initial contributions (at least I think they are):

    1. when landowners contribute to build a section of road – how do others get to use it when trying to get from point a to point b?

    HINT – go to a place near Winchester Va called “Double Tollgate” and read the history

    2. – we have modern day versions of landowners building common roads right now – to day – where a guy/gal will buy or inherit a larger parcel of land, subdivide it and build an interior road to connect the parcels – often not to state standards.. often a mud pit in winter and dusty as heck in the summer.. and cut up by floods if near creeks.

    then you have the question when folks “contribute” to build an initial road what is the agreement in terms of future contributions to maintain it?

    and it’s not like we don’t have examples of roads not built by the government – about 1/2 or more of the countries on earth are 3rd world countries where roads are basically just historic animal and tribal trails. very few govt-built roads.

    the point is that these roads are more than just access to where you live.

    they are commerce infrastructure. they are a significant part of a modern, robust economy – where goods made can be transported thousands of miles to markets.

    you can’t do that in a 3rd world country.. and that’s why the markets are “local”.

    if you look at the OECD countries and the 3rd world countries one of the stark differences is the commerce infrastructure.. that includes – fundamentally roads – and roads that are capable of handling large trucks at speed.

    the problem with the Libertarian types is that they hate government so much that they refuse to acknowledge the importance of roads – like national and state interstate and primary roads role in commerce.

    we had a country without these national roads – and what changed was the advent of the railroads – done by government.

  3. Acbar Avatar
    Acbar

    Wait — railroads “done by government”? The 1830s -50s were wild and wooly times for transportation in this Country with canals and then railroads springing up all over; then the post-war era brought us the great interstate corporate consolidations we associate with the robber barons. But “done by government”? The feds managed to build one road from Cumberland to Wheeling and a little beyond before they got out of the business, but it was the private roads, canals and railroads that opened up the Midwest and beyond.

    1. larryg Avatar
      larryg

      where did the rail and canals get their right-of-way?

      do you know where the term “checkerboarding” came from?

      do you know what a canal “charter” is?

      both rails and canals were subsidized by government.

      In fact the rails were dead in the water until the government gave them land and money…

      do a search with the keywords ” railroad land grants wiki”

      to see the history…

      1. Breckinridge Avatar
        Breckinridge

        Or watch a few episodes of Hell on Wheels :).

  4. Acbar Avatar
    Acbar

    Sure, government has provided everything from condemnation authority to monopoly power to legislated privilege and exemption from lawsuit — to get the job done faster and more profitably, if at all, thanks to the need to overcome government’s own obstacles to the entrepreneur-without-connections. But that’s a far cry from giving credit to “government” for pushing these rail projects forward in the first place. Like suggesting that the “done by government” label should attach to an urban construction project that succeeds simply because someone (the real entrepreneur) found a way to slice through those building and zoning codes and bureaucratic lethargy.

    1. larryg Avatar
      larryg

      I think if you read the history -you’ll see that the railroads tried to go forward without the government but they were unable to .. investors were not going to sign on because of the risk.

      the same is true not only of highways – the first “interstates” – the “US” signed roads then the Interstate – and again the problem was in obtaining right-of-way… via willing-seller/willing-buyer means..

      you’ll find also that almost all pipelines and power lines rights-of-ways were also obtained by govt-sanctioned eminent domain.

      the history is clear .. that without right-of-way … the process of building national-scope transport (commerce) infrastructure is very difficult.. there are few, if any countries on the planet that have national scope transport that was totally privately obtained and built.

Leave a Reply

Read More