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Private road

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Revision as of 15:50, 6 December 2012 by Pestergaines (talk | contribs) (More on private roads in the US.)

A private road is a road owned and maintained by a private individual, organization, or company rather than by a government.[citation needed]

Private roads in the US

Once the state of Pennsylvania chartered a private company in 1792 to build a road connecting Philadelphia and Lancaster, rival states felt impelled to follow. Private initiative was the only effective means of providing new highways, because state and county finances were almost nonexistent and town resources were meager.

The turnpikes were financed by private stock subscription and set up to pay dividends. Built with a surface of gravel and earth, turnpikes were usually 15 to 40 miles in length, and cost $2,000 per mile to build. They were massive undertakings and relied on widespread investment from the community. Stock purchased was more like a contribution to community improvement rather than a business investment. Some travelers objected to the idea of paying tolls, particularly to a corporate monopoly. Legislators, often suspicious of corporate motives, wrote extensive (and economically debilitating) restrictions into company charters, specifying conditions for construction, maintenance, and toll rates, and toll collection.

Only Pennsylvania, Virginia, and Ohio subsidized their turnpike companies; New York chartered the most turnpikes. The opening decade of the nineteenth century saw the most charter activity, though roughly one-third of the companies chartered failed to construct a single mile of roadway.

The unprofitability of turnpikes soon became obvious. The vast majority of turnpikes paid only very small dividends or none at all. First, toll evasion was rampant, as people would circumvent tollgates, a practice known as "shunpiking." Second, many roads were built in advance of settlement and travel demand was low. Third, legal restrictions and regulations, limiting both toll rates and countermeasures to shunpiking, hamstrung the turnpikes’ abilities to improve their financial situation.

But poor financial returns did not necessarily mean unfruitfulness. Even an unprofitable turnpike stimulated commerce, raised land values, and aided expansion. Therefore, community leaders resorted to a fascinating array of tactics to boost the turnpike cause despite the sad prospects for dividends. Supporters used newspaper appeals, town meetings, door-to-door solicitations, and correspondence to apply social pressure. In this way as in others, American communities relied on voluntarism, as so elegantly described by Alexis de Tocqueville, to meet local needs.

In the late 1820s canals began competing with many of the major turnpikes. Railroads joined in a bit later. Between 1825 and 1845 turnpike mileage dropped considerably. At the same time, however, the canals and railroads changed the patterns of trade and development, and stimulated new demands for shorter toll roads that would serve as feeders. Turnpike activity by no means ceased with the advent of canals and rails.

The toll road idea endured to the end of the century. Discoveries of gold, silver, copper, and other minerals in California, Colorado, and Nevada sparked rushes of newcomers. Even before statehood for Colorado and Nevada entrepreneurs organized their own toll road enterprises to serve the mining communities, and some got rich in the process. Well over 360 toll roads were constructed in California, Colorado, and Nevada alone. This experience indicates that private initiative can provide infrastructure for economic development.

By the end of the nineteenth century, state and county governments had grown in capabilities and new agencies began setting goals for centralized highway management. Independent private toll roads were not thought appropriate in the era of progressive governance, and most of those remaining were bought out or shut down.[1]

Turnpike Incorporation, 1792-1845:[2]
State 1792-1800 1801-10 1811-20 1821-30 1831-40 1841-45 Total
New Hampshire 4 45 5 1 4 0 59
Vermont 9 19 15 7 4 3 57
Massachusetts 9 80 8 16 1 1 115
Rhode Island 3 13 8 13 3 1 41
Connecticut 23 37 16 24 13 0 113
New York 13 126 133 75 83 27 457
Pennsylvania 5 39 101 59 101 37 342
New Jersey 0 22 22 3 3 0 50
Virginia 0 6 7 8 25 0 46
Maryland 3 9 33 12 14 7 78
Ohio 0 2 14 12 114 62 204
Total 69 398 362 230 365 138 1562

References

  1. ↑ Daniel Klein. "Private Highways in America, 1792-1916" (pdf), The Freeman, February 1994. Referenced 2012-12-06.
  2. ↑ Daniel B. Klein and Gordon J. Fielding. "Private Toll Roads: Learning From the Nineteenth Century" (pdf), Department of Economics and Institute of Transportation Studies, University of California, Irvine, December 1991. Referenced 2012-12-06.

Links

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