Alternative Route : toward Efficient Urban Transportation . by Clifford Winston and Chad

This book is one of many recent works dealing with issues of transportation and the prospects for privatization. In particular, this volume emphasizes the losses and wastes generated by public intervention. Winston and Shirley give an overview of the present dismal situation (chap. 1). Public authorities manage most bus and railway companies, while those managed by private enterprise are hindered by subsidized and fixed fares and political pressure over the location of routes (chap. 2). Public transport is indeed a socialized system that generates a great deal of inefficiencies (chap. 4). Government regulators, by subsidizing low user fares, extending route coverage, and increasing service frequency, are the real reason for wasteful public expenses and sporadic overutilization of resources (p. 78). These interventions reflect special-interest concerns even as local political authorities push for other policy priorities. The authors argue that it is hugely difficult for regulators to administer a consistent transport policy. The problem of public management is too complicated: the price of fares, frequency of service, route coverage, and the density of the means of transport vary according to the importance some populations place on various policy goals (p. 81). Globally, the authors estimate, $6 billion are wasted each year to promote an inefficient policy in urban transit system. The authors’ proposed solutions are interesting but ultimately disappointing. Laudably, they do call for what they believe to be the privatization of urban transit. They call for an increase of fares, as well as reductions in the frequency of service and route coverage. They argue that with competition, the bus will replace the rail, and that automobile transportation will increase. New modes of transport would appear, they believe. They also propose a complete deregulation of the taxi market. When it comes to political strategy, however, they blink. They argue that the privatization of roads, though necessary, is premature (p. 103). Waiting for the right time to privatize is the perfect bureaucratic excuse. Moreover, Winston and Shirley are confused about the meaning of privatization. They equate toll roads with private roads, for example. In fact, toll roads are public pieces of land, managed by pseudo-private companies, ultimately controlled by the State. Managers are only specific bureaucrats