Curb Rights

Daniel B. Klein; Adrian T. Moore; Binyam Reja

doi:10.5771/9780815707370

Summary

Transit services in the United States are in trouble. Ridership has dwindled, productivity has declined, and operating deficits have widened. The traditional approaches to running transit systemsgovernment planning or operation of bus and rail services, government subsidization of private operations, heavy regulation of all transit modeshave failed, and there is little hope of their ever succeeding under current practices. But public transportation cannot simply be abandoned. Can it, then, be made more self-supporting and efficient? The authors of this book say it's time to rethink the fundamental structure of transit policy. The book focuses on street-based transitbuses, shuttles, and jitneys. (While street-based transit in the U.S. today usually means bus service, in other times and places streets have also been served by smaller vehicles called jitneys that follow a route but not a schedule.) The authors examine a variety of transit services: jitney services from America's past, illegal jitneys today, airport shuttle van services, bus deregulation in Great Britain, and jitney services in less developed countries. The authors propose that urban transit be brought into the fold of market activity by establishing property rights not only in vehicles, but also in curb zones and transit stops. Market competition and entrepreneurship would depend on a foundation of what they call "curb rights." By creating exclusive and transferable curb rights (to bus stops and other pickup points) leased by auction, the authors contend that American cities can have the best of both kinds of marketsscheduled (and unsubsidized) bus service and unscheduled but faster and more flexible jitneys. They maintain that a carefully planned transit system based on property rights would rid the transit market of inefficient government production and overregulation. It would also avoid the problems of a lawless marketcutthroat competition, schedule jockeying, and even curbside conflict among rival operators. Entrepreneurs would be able to introduce ever better service, revise schedules and route structures, establish connections among transit providers, and use new pricing strategies. And travelers would find public transit more attractive than they do now. Once the system of curb rights is sensibly implemented, the authors conclude, the market process will take over. Then the invisible hand can do in transit what it does so well in other parts of the economy.

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Bibliographic data

Copyright year: 2011
ISBN-Print: 978-0-8157-4939-4
ISBN-Online: 978-0-8157-0737-0
Publisher: Rowman & Littlefield, Lanham
Language: English
Pages: 148
Product type: Book Titles

1. Contents No access
1. Introduction No access Pages 1 - 4
1. 2 The Triumph of the Private Automobile No access
2. 3. The Fizzle of Traditional Transit No access
3. 1. A Hayekian Critique of Traditional Urban Transit No access
  2. A Public Choice Critique of Traditional Urban Transit No access
1. 1. The U.S. Jitney Experience, 1914–16 No access
  2. Transit in the LDCs: Jitneys and Route Associations No access
  3. Illegal Jitneys in the United States No access
  4. Legal Jitneys in the United States No access
  5. Conclusion No access
2. 1. Illegal Taxicabs No access
  2. Taxi Deregulation No access
  3. Commuter Transit Services No access
  4. Noncommuter Door-to-Door Services No access
3. 1. Background to Privatization and Deregulation in Britain No access
  2. Costs, Public Subsidy, Service Changes, and Innovation No access
  3. Competition and Contestability No access
  4. Schedule Jockeying and Route Swamping No access
  5. Conclusion No access
4. 1. Contracting Out: Competition for the Market No access
  2. Two Critiques of Contracting Out No access
1. 1. The Market Advantages of Jitneys No access
  2. Appropriability of the Investment in Scheduled Service No access
  3. Thick and Thin Transit Markets in the Absence of Curb Rights No access
  4. A Typology of Route-Based Transit Markets No access
2. 1. Models of Economic Parasitism: Interloping, Adverse Selection, and Patent Infringement No access
  2. Getting a General Idea of Curb Rights No access
  3. Further Issues in Curb Rights No access
  4. Ideas for Transition Policy No access
  5. Conclusion No access
3. 1. Cutthroat Competition No access
  2. Failures to Achieve Economies of Density and Coordination of Transit Pieces No access
  3. Curbside Conflict and Inadequate Passenger Facilities No access
  4. Conclusion No access
1. 12. Further Policy Recommendations No access
2. 13. Conclusion: Transcending the Choice between Monopoly and Lawless Competition No access
References No access Pages 131 - 142
1. A No access
2. B No access
3. C No access
4. D No access
5. E No access
6. F No access
7. G No access
8. H No access
9. I No access
10. J No access
11. K No access
12. L No access
13. M No access
14. N No access
15. O No access
16. P No access
17. R No access
18. S No access
19. T No access
20. U No access
21. V No access
22. W No access