The British government is considering introducing a nationwide satellite-based road tolling scheme.  Here are my thoughts:

1. I like freedom and free markets.
2. Private ownership is an integral part of free markets so I am in favour of private ownership
3. So, I am favourable to the idea of privately-owned roads.
4. So, a government-implemented road-pricing scheme is very much a second-best option.
5. Pricing mechanisms are a frequent, though not universal, feature of free markets.  So I am in favour of pricing.  I am certainly against price controls.
6. The fact that roads can be priced does not necessarily mean that they should be priced.
7. The market is the best mechanism for determining when roads should and shouldn’t be priced.
8. Therefore, the best we can hope for is that the government scheme mimics whatever the market would otherwise come up with.
9. My guess, and I wouldn’t put it any more highly than that, is that major highways should be priced, that congested urban roads should probably be priced and everywhere else definitely shouldn’t be priced.
10. The market would also have every incentive to invest in new, better and more efficient roads.
11. So, on that basis I am already not particularly well-disposed to the government’s scheme.
12. There are other problems.
    
    1. The scheme is not scheduled to start for many years.  This is an unnecessary delay.
    2. The scheme will either be delayed, over-budget or buggy.  Probably all three.
    3. While it may lead to new and better roads, there’s is every chance that it won’t.
13. One of the objections to the scheme is that it will increase the over all cost of motoring.  This is almost certainly true.
14. Another objection to the scheme is that it will help pave the way to the Big Brother state.  I think this is a red herring.
15. There’s a chance that it might cut congestion.  But it might not.
16. So, I am probably against it.
17. The best reason to be in favour of it, is that the grassroots rebellion it inspires could see us leaving the EU.

Why are you so sure that the scheme is going to be delayed and over-budget etc?

Because it’s a government scheme.  They’re always disastrous.  It’s even worse than that.  Not only is it a government scheme but it’s a government scheme related to an EU-government scheme.  The project is called Gallileo which is a rival to the US GPS system.  It is a classic case of a solution in search of a problem - and one of the prime reasons why road pricing is being delayed so much.  It is also - surprise, surprise - having some problems of its own.

Some examples of disastrous government schemes?

The NHS computer
The ID card scheme
Any IT project you ever heard of
Nimrod

So, you’re not worried about 1984?

No, not really.  The frightening thing about Orwell’s 1984 is not the technology but the tyranny.  And tyrannies don’t even need the technology as Nazi Germany and Soviet Russia demonstrated.  The other aspect of tyrannies is belief.  To do great evil you have to believe you are doing great good.  But I don’t get that impression from our current crop of politicians.  I don’t believe any of them believe they are doing anything more than playing around at the margins.  Which is why I am not worried about a tyranny emerging any time soon.  Oh, they might find ways to harass a few people but it will be small beer.

So, pricing is not a universal feature of free markets?

In the sense that not everything gets priced.  For instance, when you sit down in a restaurant you don’t get charged for the table or the chairs - although they have undoubtedly cost the restaurateur some money - their cost is included in the price of the meal.

Permalink • Roads • Last Updated: 22 April 2007

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