I heard a funny comment in debate the other day. An otherwise intelligent person said they prefer "free" roads over those paid for and maintained through user fees (i.e. the dreaded toll). First I stifled my laugh at the ridiculous nature of this comment, then, I pondered how frighteningly common it is for folks to assume that anything they aren't paying for right now, with cash, is somehow "free." There are no "free" roads.
It costs a lot of money to build a highway. It costs a lot of money to maintain that same highway to keep it safe for travel. That money will come to the builders and maintainers of the roadways in one of two ways. Either the money will be taken from you in the form of widespread taxation, or it will be collected from you locally when you use the road. The obvious difference is that in the second case, the person actually benefiting from the road is going to fork out the cash (yes, including winter visitors).
In Arizona, we were already struggling just to maintain our roadways with our current funding streams (read: taxes that you already pay) and that was before recession. The idea of being able to pay for enough new roadways to keep up with the growth in population is so far out in fantasy thought that few even seem to want to think about it, much less collaborate and talk about it.
The question is... How do we want to pay for them and who should decide where they go and what incentive should there be to plan, build, and maintain roads well? Ok, to be fair, that is really several questions. But one answer that has become fashionable is to allow private companies to figure it out and compete for our business as savvy driving shoppers. Roads built privately will pop up where they are needed most (that is called "demand") and will be the most pleasant to drive on (that is called "competitive advantage"). In order to attract us to cough up our 75 cents, the private road will have to give us a smooth, fast, safe driving experience that we consider to be a good value.
And, remember, there are no "free" roads.
