The Progress of Liberty

I offer the thirtieth part of my response to Mr. Jetton’s critique of my essay, “How to Privatize the Roads: The Mechanisms and Benefits of Road Privatization.”

In response to my raising the possibility that mobile construction barriers might exist under private road ownership, Mr. Jetton writes: “I am curious to learn what efficiency is gained by putting retractable rollers on cones or barrels that are easily hand-carried by one person.”

First, remotely controlled (or better yet, robotic) mobile barriers pose less of a safety risk to workers moving the barriers. Except in the unlikely event of an equipment malfunction, the cones/barrels could move themselves or be moved remotely to whatever new stretch needs to be blocked off. Second, this procedure is also likely to be faster than similar tasks involving direct application of human labor. (While machines can be designed to be perfect efficiency maximizers, by whatever criterion of efficiency one chooses, human beings are not; they may get tired or distracted; they need motivation; and they often have difficulty with quick transitions from one task to another. These are not problems or at least not avoidable problems per se, but they do indicate that anything which can be automated should be – to free the humans to do the more creative parts of the job.)

Mr. Jetton writes: “Why presume [concrete barriers] are ‘ridiculously heavy’? I’m not an expert on the matter, but I won’t presume concrete barriers were chosen simply based on the irrational premises of politicians or bureaucrats. Mr. Stolyarov proceeds to address possible dangers of heavy concrete barriers to drivers of cars, completely ignoring 18-wheelers and the safety of construction workers. Will private road builders be that negligent of the safety of their own employees?”

First, I seriously doubt that an 18-wheeler would be stopped by the kind of concrete barrier typically found on a government highway undergoing construction. A car might be completely crushed upon colliding with such a barrier, but an 18-wheeler will probably ram through it and break the barrier. (This is, of course, my conjecture; I am not an engineer. If there is data to the contrary, I am willing to concede this point.)

Second, I raised the possibility in Part 29 of my response that private roads might have separate lanes for 18-wheelers (which would probably be permanently blocked off by concrete, except at exits, to begin with) or that separate private roads for 18-wheelers and other large vehicles might emerge, with different rules and specifications. This means that different safety precautions might be taken when repairing lanes/roads meant for small vehicle traffic as compared to repairing lanes/roads meant for 18-wheelers.

Third, I suspect there will be varying degrees of risk involved in private construction jobs, with risk premia paid to workers who undertake particularly dangerous assignments. Instead of one-size-fits-all “hit a worker, go to prison, pay a $10,000 fine” regulations, private companies will pay their workers more for risking their lives. This is better for the workers and their families (who, aside from the satisfaction of retribution, would probably not benefit much from an offending driver being heavily fined or put in prison). It would also provide an indication to private companies about how much safety in construction is optimal. If they want to expose their workers to undue risk, they will need to pay them a lot more – more, perhaps, than they can comfortably afford. If the marginal cost of safety improvements is less than the marginal risk premium for the unsafety resulting from a lack of such improvements, then road companies will undertake the safety improvements. (Of course, in the marginal cost of safety improvements, one must include the foregone revenue from road users if the safety improvements impede right of way or convenience.)

Sincerely,
Gennady Stolyarov II

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