Recent Trends
The National Center for Policy Analysis and the Cato Institute have proposed that the Demsetz auctions commonly used to award franchises be replaced with Present Value of Revenues auctions in order to reduce risk and thus required rates of return by private highway owners. Under this system, contractors would bid an amount equal to the present value of cash flows from user fees they are willing to accept for the project. The lowest bid would win.
Boarnet and DiMento believe that private highways will become more important as the rise of gasoline-efficient hybrids causes a decline in gas tax revenues.
Many highways are constructed under a "build-operate-transfer" model in which ownership ultimately goes to the government.
Read more about this topic: Private Highway
Famous quotes containing the word trends:
“A point has been reached where the peoples of the Americas must take cognizance of growing ill-will, of marked trends toward aggression, of increasing armaments, of shortening tempers—a situation which has in it many of the elements that lead to the tragedy of general war.... Peace is threatened by those who seek selfish power.”
—Franklin D. Roosevelt (1882–1945)
“Power-worship blurs political judgement because it leads, almost unavoidably, to the belief that present trends will continue. Whoever is winning at the moment will always seem to be invincible.”
—George Orwell (1903–1950)