Tuesday, August 5, 2014

Paging Walter Block: But..but..who will build the roads without government? UK guy built one in 10 days

A grandfather sick of roadworks near his home defied his council and built his own toll road allowing people to circumvent the disrupted section.
Opened on Friday, it’s the first private toll road built since cars became a familiar sight on British roads 100 years ago. Motorists pay £2 $(3.37) to travel each way and bypass the 14 miles diversion.
Mike Watts, 62, hired a crew of workmen and ploughed £150,000 ($252,000) of his own cash into building a 365m (about a quarter mile) long bypass road in a field next to the closed A431. He reckons it will cost another £150,000 ($252,000) in upkeep costs and to pay for two 24 hour a day toll booth operators.
Speaking from the road in Kelston, Somerset, Mike said: “Too many people are displaced by the road closure, their daily lives have been so disrupted by this.”
Walter Block is author of The Privatization of Roads and Highways: Human and Economic Factors 



(ht Mark Perry)

1 comment:

  1. This is awesome!

    Unfortunately, if someone tried that here in the U.S., the SWAT team would likely be called out and the "perp" would end up heavily ventilated.

    ReplyDelete