Loss of Public Control

Transportation policy has tremendous impacts on quality of life, health, and the cost of living. It determines the level of traffic congestion and air pollution, the safety and quality of the roads, the many costs of driving and car ownership, the availability of high-quality and affordable public transit alternatives, and the development of future land-use patterns. What may seem beneficial from a narrow profit perspective does not necessarily benefit the broader public interest.45 Public control of key toll roads is therefore necessary to ensure coherent transportation planning and policy making over long periods of time.

Any driver knows how events that take place on one road affect other connecting and alternative routes. Thus, toll rates, maintenance and safety standards, as well as congestion on a toll road affect the number of cars using alternative means of transportation, including local roads and public transit. Decisions about how to operate and manage major roadways actually create traffic policy for an entire jurisdiction.

New toll roads or additional lanes can have particularly profound consequences for future land-use and development practices as well as for a state's energy and environmental policies, including efforts to reduce oil dependence, improve air quality, and curb emissions of global warming pollution.

Road privatization experiences across the country have shown that a private operator's profit motives lead to different management decisions than government might pursue. Examples from recent road privatization projects illustrate these potential dangers.