Speaker: Gabriel Roth, Civil Engineer & Transport Economist

Most roads in the U.S., as in all other countries, are run, like public parks, by politically, appointed officials. The predictable results include excessive congestion, waste and deterioration. Might the application of commercial principles produce a road system more responsive to the wishes of road users?

Mr. Roth discussed a plausible commercial framework for roads, and the possibilities of implementation. How might U.S. roads be run as a commercial basis? The framework to be presented at the seminar include the following elements:

The ownership of existing roads would be vested in publicy-owned commercial road corporations;

A tariff of charges of road use, calculated to cover all costs resulting from vehicle use on uncongested roads, paid for mainly by surcharges on fuel;

One or more dedicated road funds, controlled by road users' representatives, to receive the revenues paid by road users, and disburse them on the basis of traffic counts;

The commercial road corporations would pay rent for their road space and, like other commercial enterprises, taxes on their property values and on their profits. They would be allowed to use electronic road pricing to charge premium prices for the use of congested roads.

Investment by the road corporations, which would be subject to competition, would be guided by financial profitability;

The road corporations would not be monopolies. Private corporations would be allowed to provide additional road links and would be entitled to payment from the dedicated road funds on the same terms as the publicly-owned road corporations.

Gabriel Roth, transportation economist and civil engineer, whose work on the provision of roads has stretched over five continents. He is author, most recently of Roads in a Market Economy which considers the commercial provision of roads, on the model of telecommunications.