Selling Roads To The Highest Bidder Won't Solve Transportation Problems

Robert Puentes, a fellow at Brookings Metropolitan Policy Program, argues that the growing trend of privatizing roadways is moving forward without real consideration for the repercussions to government's bottom line and the public at large.

"Governments lose more than they gain. All that up-front cash looks sweet, but the long-term revenue stream is lost since all the toll receipts flow directly to the private operators."

"Governments also lose the option to borrow against those future revenues."

"Far worse, policy-makers lose the ability to connect transportation to other emerging metropolitan trends. Transportation planning is inherently a metropolitan issue - people and goods travel in and out of cities and between suburbs - and removing a piece of the puzzle hampers the ability to deal strategically with the system in an integrated manner."