Issue Transportation
THE ISSUE: Government involvement in transportation has been an intolerable burden to everyone, whether as taxpayers, travelers, shippers, or consumers. It has meant massive violations of individual rights, threats to public safety, disruption of neighborhoods and the environment, barriers to economic opportunity, subsidies to special interests, and immeasurable corruption, waste, and inefficiency. We support the privatization of transportation and the end of all government interference in this area.
THE PRINCIPLE: Government interference in transportation is characterized by monopolistic restriction, corruption, and gross inefficiency. We oppose the coercion through taxes and eminent domain necessarily involved in implementing transportation plans.
LIBERTARIAN SOLUTIONS: We call for the dissolution of all government agencies concerned with transportation and the transfer of their legitimate functions to competitive private firms. We demand privatization of railroads, airports, and highways.
LIBERTARIAN ACTION/TRANSITION: The first solution to any transportation problem is to avoid doing any further harm. We oppose all new plans for government spending on public transportation, particularly for the latest fad called “light rail” which is actually nothing but 19th century trolleys with fresh paint jobs. We applaud Tucson’s resounding rejection of a light rail transportation plan in that city’s 2003 election. Though the voters of Phoenix approved a light rail plan in its 2000 election, we hold that it is better to discard a bad idea now than to continue to spend money on a doomed plan. Phoenix should end its taxpayer funding of its transportation plan.
We support the concept of transportation that is available to the public, including but not limited to trains, buses and light rail. The proper way to build, maintain and operate a light rail plan would be to sell an easement for certain public property (for example, a wash) where no other building could take place except for a rail line - and then let a private consortium build the rail line and let the consumers decide if this is what they want.
