By Paul Servodio
Ludwig von Mises Institue
December 27, 2004


There is a slogan: "Everyone talks about the weather but no
one does anything about it." It is especially true because so
much of our transportation infrastructure is publicly owned.
Every winter of bad weather brings us the same scenes of bleak
road and highway conditions. Spinning tires, "beached" cars
the shoulder of the road, cars stuck in the median and
spun-out cars, impassable roads, banks of snow interfering
with traffic flow, hazards of all sorts. The economic costs
are high indeed.

Northeast Ohio experienced its first significant snowfall of
the fresh winter season. The snowstorm was quite a surprise;
the weather reports did not indicate an oncoming snowstorm for
the day. Nonetheless, the snow began falling at 11:00 a.m. and
did not relent until sometime the next day. By 3:00 p.m.
conditions had substantially worsened. The lake effect snow
(The weather front moves across Lake Erie, picks up more
moisture and dumps it on Cleveland.) became a force to reckon
with on top of the gusting wind. The driving conditions were
terrible; it was a white-out.

My friend Ben and I were leaving downtown Cleveland after a
day of job searching in Cleveland's financial district. As we
came out of the parking garage we realized just how horrendous
the drive home would be. City traffic was what one would
expect it to be for rush hour, slow going. Interstate traffic
was another story. It was not moving. What normally would be a
45 minute drive home turned into a 90 minute drive because of
the atrocious conditions of Interstates 71 and 90.

As time passed we did not see even one plow/salt truck. This
prompted a discussion between my friend and I on how much
better the roadways would be if they were privately owned.
Obviously with privatized roads, the owners of these roads
would have huge incentives to keep the roadways as clean as
they possibly could during snowstorms.

The profit incentives of being able to claim that one's
roadway is much safer during inclement weather than a
competitor's would be tremendous. Surely word of mouth would
spread through consumers on which roadways were consistently
safer to travel during inclement weather. The road owner who
does nothing to keep his roadways clean during snowstorms
would certainly suffer large profit losses.

What seems to be the state's problem with keeping roadways
clean of snow is that there simply are not enough plow/salt
trucks to do all of the work. Isn't there a word for that
scenario? What is it called? Ah yes, shortage! The state has a
shortage of plow/salt trucks.

The process works like this: all limited access highways are
taken care of first, followed by primary city streets, and in
a distant third are residential streets. I say a distant third
because many of these streets do not get cleaned until the
middle of the night or the next day. Some people have to wait
until the sun gets around to being warm enough to melt the
snow. Instead, road entrepreneurs would have their own teams
of plow/salt trucks and know the precise number of these
vehicles to have in order to efficiently keep their roadways
clean of snow and ice.

Some nonbelievers may think that privatized roads will never
function as well as the current system of state owned roads.
That it is impossible for the plow/salt trucks to operate
efficiently to clean the roadways during rush hour because
they are bogged down in traffic with the rest of the drivers.
This is true; however, the market has already devised
inventions to invalidate that assertion. As my friend
mentioned, some bridges are currently being installed with a
system that monitors road conditions for ice and snow. When
weather conditions reach a certain threshold sprinkler heads
pop up from the road and spray a non-corrosive agent onto the
road to melt the snow and ice. Brilliant!

The noncorrosive melting agent is currently used on select
bridges in order to help keep the I-beams from rusting too
quickly. Currently, the plow/salt trucks spread salt on the
roadways as they drive along the road. When the salt interacts
with the snow and ice it makes salt water, which then washes
down over the I-beams, causing them to rust. This would be
another selling point for the private road owner because his
bridges would need less construction, meaning less traffic
jams as a result of less construction.

Where else would this noncorrosive melting agent be useful? I
know, along the entire roadway, making those roads
car-friendly as well. No more salt water washing up on cars
causing premature corrosion. Every car owner who has to deal
with these driving conditions knows that the salt water is
harsh on the entire car, causing premature corrosion on the
underbody, aluminum or chrome wheels and on the body. What a
great way to attract consumers by not only having cleaner
roadways, but also roadways that do not damage one's car.

To be sure, the price to travel on a road that has an
electronic monitoring system of road conditions and the
noncorrosive melting agent would be a premium over other
private roads that use the traditional method of salt to keep
the road clean. However, it is entirely the consumer's
decision in his willingness to pay for more safety and less
corrosion versus a road that is less clean and uses corrosive
agents to aid in snow and ice removal. Surely the road owners
would always be seeking new methods to keep their roads as
clean and safe as possible during snowstorms in the most
efficient manner.

Thus, other entrepreneurs would pursue avenues to meet the
demands of road owners.

Of course the state did not invent the noncorrosive melting
agent, it was the free market motivated by the profit
incentive. The state has no interest in improving driving
conditions in the snow and ice because the state does not have
to bother with such trivial aspects as profits and losses and
competition in the way private firms do. Therefore, the state
does not invest in ways to improve its capital. Besides,
people are conditioned to driving on treacherous roads during
snowstorms; they only wish the roads could be safer to travel.
As Ben and I discussed this topic I began to realize why
initially I did not think that the drive home would be so
arduous. We were walking on the sidewalk to different office
buildings. These buildings were not owned by the state, but
rather by private firms. The owners of these buildings have an
incentive to keep their walkways clear of snow and ice so that
their customers do not slip, fall and break their bones or
sustain a head injury.

I noticed at one building there was a team of FIVE people
shoveling snow and spreading salt over an area of
approximately 1,000 square feet. That's probably the same
number of plow/salt trucks operating to clean the city streets
of Cleveland. In all honesty, the sidewalks were cleaner than
the roadways!

Unfortunately, the idea of private roadways is alien for most
people; they are used to the hazardous roadways of the state.
As shown though, the private market would provide safer road
conditions and substantially less corrosive melting agents on
the road.

Therefore, it cannot be denied that privately owned roads are
surely the solution to the unsafe, corrosive roads of the
state because through the private sector consumers would have
more choices in which roads to use instead of the current
situation of the state's horrendous roads.

Paul Servodio is an alumnus of Mises University (2003) and has
finished up his MA in economics at the University of Akron.