“You clearly don’t live in the DC metropolitan area.”
The failure of government in that area of the country doesn’t change what I said. In Texas, we’ve been expanding highways like mad, and now it’s being done without tolls (we had to get rid of Rick Perry first, who was owned by those same companies). The dirty little secreat is that highways are VERY CHEAP relative to what they provide...that is until you hand over control of them to people who change monopoly prices to access them...then they get a bit more expensive, typically 10-fold. That’s why these companies are SALIVATING at the chance to take control of these assets...after all, does anyone here think they’re just trying to ‘Make America Great Again’ or something?
I’m not sure how many companies are “salivating” at the prospect of owning these highways. My experience suggests that’s not the case at all. As commercial ventures these toll roads aren’t all they’re cracked up to be. Cintas, the company cited in this article, submitted the top bid back in the mid-2000s for a 75-year lease on the Indiana Turnpike. The venture was bankrupt within a decade due to revenue shortfalls, and the state got the road back to re-lease it after it had already collected a huge pile of money up front from the defunct investors.