My favorite book on transportation policy is “Mobility First”. It explains practical solutions to transportation challenges, such as using existing rights of way to reduce cost and avoid eminent domain.
The growth in Texas has put strains on our transportation systems. This was anticipated many years ago when Governor Rick Perry announced the Trans Texas Corridor, which promised to address these concerns. When I first read about it, I was excited. It seemed like a libertarian dream to have private funds provide public roadways. Then I heard fellow libertarians tell me about its monopolistic attributes and eminent domain concerns.
Some see toll roads as a solution. We have seen a proliferation of toll roads, which had strong opposition in the past. Much of the opposition concerned existing roads that were paid with taxes and then were converted to tolls. In some cases, people just don’t like paying them. SH 130 in east Austin was intended to get trucks off I-35 in downtown Austin, but truckers didn’t like the tolls, so it went bankrupt and I-35 is still clogged.
There is a more fundamental problem. I firmly believe in free market sustainability, which means paying for your impact. While tolls do this, a fuel tax also is supposed to work that way. However, it does not work if the fuel tax is siphoned off to pay for things that have nothing to do with roads.
If we want “Mobility First”, we need to embrace free market sustainability.