Commentary

Toll Road Idea Continues to Pick Up Steam

More and more cash-strapped states are looking to toll roads as a way to finance desperately needed infrastructure. The newest state is South Carolina. An article in the Christian Science Monitor discuss South Carolina and other states.

Once seen as harbors of patronage, turnpikes are seeing a roadway renaissance. New technology that allows drivers to buzz through booths at a full clip is changing how Americans perceive their motoring experience, and revealing creative – and profitable – ways to build and maintain roads. Critics say the trend threatens to wreck the egalitarian spirit of highway travel in America by creating a form of travel tiered by wealth.

And, of course, it’s always useful to look at Dan Klein short history of privately financed roads in the U.S. from the Revolutionary War era until World War I published by the Foundation for Economic Education.