Robert W. Poole

Can Police Services Be Privatized

Some people consider police services as inappropriate for privatization, arguing that such services are public goods that only government can practically provide. The work of E. S. Savas and others, however, has persuasively demonstrated that many government services are not public goods or, at least, not pure public goods. Police services, in fact, have been successfully financed, through user fees, and delivered, via contracting, by the private sector. Moreover, there are some surprising examples of fully privatized police services, both financed and delivered privately. The major barriers to police privatization include tradition and attitudes, concern about control and accountability, union opposition, legal restrictions, and the difficulty of encouraging all beneficiaries to finance these services voluntarily, or privately. All of these barriers can be surmounted under certain circumstances. There are even signs that the privatization of police services, especially some milder forms of privatization, is gradually taking place.

Toward Risk-Based Aviation Security Policy

The well-coordinated terrorist attacks on Sept. 11, 2001 presented the world with a new aviation security threat: the capture of aircraft in flight to be used as human-guided missiles. The two previous threats—hijacking an aircraft for ransom and putting a bomb aboard an aircraft—had led to varying degrees of screening of baggage and passengers in developed countries, plus some use of on-board security personnel on selected flights in some countries. In the wake of 9/11, governments in the United States, Canada, and Europe (at both national and EU levels) implemented a number of additional aviation security measures, among them: - strengthened (and locked) cockpit doors; - 100% screening of checked baggage; - more thorough screening of passengers and their carry-on baggage; - increased use of on-board security officers; - increased attention to air cargo; - and greater attention to airport access control and perimeter control (...)

Privatization: A New Transportation Paradigm

A new approach to the funding, management, and operation of transportation infrastructure is emerging. “Privatization” refers to several different ways in which private sector firms, usually under some form of government supervision, assume significant responsibility for these major systems. Although the traditional U.S. model of user taxes, trust funds, centralized resource allocation, and government ownership and operation has produced reasonably good transportation infrastructure, this approach carries with it incentives for suboptimal performance—such as allocating resources on political rather than economic-value grounds, encouraging congesation at peak hours, and skimping on maintenance. The privatization techniques offer the potential of institutionalizing a better set of incentives for cost-effective performance. This article explores the use of (1) contract management and operation, (2) long-term franchises and concessions, and (3) divestiture as privatization modes that can be applied to highways and airports.

Congestion relief toll tunnels

Changing urban land-use patterns have reduced the importance of traditional downtowns as the origin and destination of numerous vehicular trips. Much traffic on downtown-area freeways seeks merely to get past downtown, thereby worsening the level of congestion for those seeking access to downtown.A number of European cities have begun to develop a new type of transportation facility: congestion-relief toll tunnels in downtown areas. These projects appear to be economically feasible largely or entirely from premium-price tolls paid by users. Hence, they are being developed by private consortia, operating under long-term franchises from government. Other keys to the feasibility of such projects are peak/off-peak pricing structures (congestion pricing), nonstop electronic toll collection, and restriction of use to auto-size vehicles only (to reduce tunnel dimensions and therefore capital investment).Preliminary analysis indicates that congestion-telief bypass runnels for downtown Los Angeles and San Francisco would be economically feasible as private business ventures, if developed along European lines. Similar approaches might be applied to other controversial freeway projects in both cities, and to restructuring Bostons huge and controversial Central Artery/Tunnel project.Congress has already authorized public-private partnerships of this type, permitting private capital and private owner/operation to be used, both for new projects and to rebuild existing highway, bridge, and tunnel facilities. Six states and Puerto Rico have enacted private-tollway legislation under which such projects could be developed and operated.This type of project should be politically feasible, since it offers a way to make significant transportation improvements in impacted downtowns with little or no public funding. While transit proponents may oppose the construction of toll tunnels, highway users are likely to support such projects, and some environmental groups may support this method of implementing congestion pricing in urban areas, because of its potential for reducing air emissions.

Adaptation de la politique de sûreté de l'aviation aux risques

Le rapport se structure comme suit : il commence par quelques considerations generales sur la lutte contre le terrorisme pour situer la question dans son contexte, presente ensuite un exemple provocateur de calcul, par le biais d’une l’analyse des risques, du rapport cout/efficience de plusieurs mesures prises apres le 11 septembre pour securiser le transport aerien, compare apres cela, en se fondant sur les resultats de ce calcul, la substance, les couts et les risques des politiques de surete de l’aviation menees apres le 11 novembre par les Etats-Unis, le Canada et les Etats membres de l’Union europeenne et detaille, enfin, quelques pistes a suivre pour mieux adapter la politique de surete de l’aviation aux risques.

Renewing Trucking’s Infrastructure for the 21st Century

The trucking industry depends critically on the National Highway System and in particular on the Interstates. With a design life of less than 50 years, the Interstate corridors are aging, and most will need reconstruction over the next two decades. Many corridors—especially those used heavily by trucking companies—also will need widening. This paper reviews several funding alternatives for the reconstruction and widening of the Interstate system, with a focus on the needs and concerns of the trucking industry. After concluding that toll financing may be the least-bad alternative for this estimated trillion-dollar set of projects, the paper addresses the trucking industry’s long-standing and current concerns about the expanded use of tolling. The paper seeks to develop a value proposition for that industry (as well as for other Interstate highway users). The value proposition builds on recent developments in all-electronic tolling technology, current trucking industry uses of this technology, and policy changes aimed to guarantee that tolls used for Interstate modernization will be pure user fees, used solely for the capital and operating costs of the revamped system.

Managed Arterials: New Application of Managed Lanes Concept

Priced managed lanes have been proposed and implemented exclusively on limited-access roadways. Yet major arterials handle a large fraction of urban traffic and account for a significant portion of traffic congestion. This paper proposes a way to apply priced congestion relief to major arterials (six or more lanes) and builds on research from the early Value Pricing Pilot Program on tolled queue jumps (grade separations) at signalized intersections, carried out in Lee County, Florida. A “managed arterial” (MA) is defined as an arterial retro fitted with a series of electronically tolled grade separations (overpasses or underpasses) that provide an alternative to the signalized intersection for through traffic. Bus rapid transit is an important element of the concept, and the MA provides an alternative to arterial bus-only lanes, similar to high-occupancy toll lanes providing an alternative to bus-only lanes on freeways. The study addresses issues and trade-offs in integrating bus rapid transit into the design and operation of MAs. The study includes conceptual designs of overpasses and underpasses for use in MAs and estimates the throughput increase obtained by converting a six-lane arterial to the MA configuration compared with that provided by widening it to eight lanes. Sketch-level estimates of financial feasibility are included.