• dillekant
    112·
    1 month ago

    Toll roads aren’t bad, it’s all in the details. The problem is that the government is often “captured” and therefore has no incentive to have a fair contract, so they’ll add clauses like

    • If the company loses money because the government does something, the government will pay them. This often prevents the government from reducing or removing the toll road / other privately owned resource.
    • The government can’t “compete” with the toll road, either with another road or (sometimes) through public transport.
    • The government will often, as a form of pork-barrelling, offer people reimbursements for the toll road usage, thereby funneling tax payer money into the private company.
    • Toll roads are tax deductible.

    Ideally, toll roads encourage people to take the train.

    • Srh@lemmy.world
      3·
      1 month ago

      Usually the details show toll roads are bad. Ideally, toll roads are not needed. Toll roads are a result of failure of government.

      • Cethin@lemmy.zipEnglish
        2·
        1 month ago

        It’s also a failure of politics. If you tell people you’re going to raise taxes to pay for the road, you’re probably not getting elected. Toll roads ideally are just another form of tax that is more sneaky than straight up raising taxes.