DailyProgress.com | Obstacles plague path of 29′s future
In the Places29 Master Plan, officials are planning to redevelop several areas, and they’re linking transportation and land-use planning together in a new way, both to pave the way for future growth and ease the frustration of those who drive it today.
Every time I see “master plan” associated with something government, I cringe. I’m not sure why government has to get involved in the construction of roads and such, but it does about as good a job at that as it does at everything else. If they construction of roads were left to private industry, I think we’d see a vast improvement in the way they are constructed and maintained. A business running a road would have to run it well, or they would go out of business and someone else would take over and run it better. Government running a road can do it as poorly as possible, and since they are a monopoly, we can’t do anything about it, they just tax us more to cover the “increasing cost.” I know a lot of people will say that roads are different because they are part of the country (state, county, whatever) infrastructure, but I don’t think so, I think this can be treated as any other private property transaction in a capitalist society. The person that owns the land can build a road on it. If you want to use their land and road, you have to come to some agreement with them (i.e. paying a toll) in order to use it. If the company does a bad job of running their road, you are free to use another one, or to build your own. I don’t see where government regulation is necessary, I think the free market would manage this quite well enough on its own.