Free Market for Transportation Plan

A plan to eliminate welfare for automobiles
and increase efficiency of all transportation modes.

The Modern Transit Society

This Plan:

• Increases the automobile capacity of roads. Freeways will carry twice as many cars at 40 mph than at 10 mph (stop-and-go), and it will take 1/4 the travel time.
• Completely eliminates the daily stop-and-go traffic on freeways.
• Greatly reduces traffic congestion on all roads.
• Reduces air pollution.
• Costs nothing. Actually produces revenue by giving motorists the option of paying money rather than wasting time in traffic.
• Makes public transit much more efficient by taking advantage of its small incremental cost.
• Enhances the local economy by increasing efficiency of land use.
• Makes unnecessary deliberate automobile inefficiencies used to discourage automobiles traffic (e.g., 4-way stop signs, freeway ramp metering, traffic barricades) without encouraging greater automobile usage.
• Alleviates need for more road construction by permanently decreasing demand.
• Meets concerns of all groups (other than those in the business of automobiles, trucks or highway/road construction).
• "High Occupancy Vehicle (HOV)" lanes (also called carpool lanes) become obsolete, thus allowing all vehicles to use HOV lanes.
• Reduces sales tax, property tax, and income tax.

The root cause of difficulties for transit is the lack of a free-market for competing transportation. Returning to fundamental free market principles is the most effective way of helping transit. There are beneficial side effects, including cleaner air, less noise, and a safer city.

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The authors

The Free Market for Transportation Plan is published by the Modern Transit Society (MTS). First published on March 22, 1990 in tabloid newsprint, it was updated and formatted for the internet in December, 1998. Minor updates followed with current events.

The principle author is Akos Szoboszlay, (then Vice-President of MTS, now President). Major contributors are Mike Bullock (Director), Stanley Hart, and Al Spivak, P.E. (then President).

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How to print

A printing version of the Free Market for Transportation Plan enables printing the entire report instead of one page at a time. To print, first set your browser preferences to your desired font and size. Page breaks are marked by a thick horizonal line with page number instead of starting a new page. Paper can be further saved by using legal-size paper and/or reducing margins. Print from your browser after going to the unlinked web page which is at moderntransit.org/fmt/print.html