Toll roads: private or public?

One of the difficulties of being a Libertarian is answering the same questions over and over and over again, from people who don't quite get it. One of those is "Who would build the roads?" Generally, they assume that roads are something that only government can afford to build properly.

Now, it's true that building roads has some problems that are difficult to solve in a free market. But that doesn't make them any easier to solve with government. Witness the British government's plan to tax drivers $2.50 per mile with GPS-enabled toll systems. Sure. Whack the privacy issue AND the economic issue at the same time. At those prices no one will drive.

Now, unlike the rest of Europe, I've BEEN to England. I've walked the streets of London -- and I've taken taxis, subways, and the like. You don't need a car to get around in the city, for the most part. But if people didn't WANT them, there wouldn't be a traffic problem. And there's a reason people want them, whether it's convenience, ego, or just wanting to be able to make it out to their house in the countryside.

What we have here is a government road-building operation that is apparantly unable or unwilling to build roads properly, preferring to charge ruinous tolls that will effectively prohibit regular access by car to the areas where the tolls are applied. This is not a failure of private enterprise, it's a failure of government.