How many years has it been that the Government has been subsidizing Highways?

Question

The railroads never got a subsidy. When did the highways start getting subsidies?

Answer 1

The railroads got HUGE subsidies from the US government to build their lines.  They were given huge tracts of land all the way across the country so they'd build their lines and connect up the country.  And roads always got some subsidies.

But when Ike came back from WW 2 and started the giant Interstate System - that's when the BIG subsidies started for the roads - then came the trucks - and then came the demise of the railroads.  

Obviously the railroads are still in business, but they're really a shadow of what they used to be.

However - now with the rise in oil costs, look for the railroads to make quite a come-back at least in freight.

Answer 2

Railroads were given huge- criminally huge- land grants to build the railways.  They became an endless source of graft, conflict and corruption.  On many of the railways every other square mile on both sides of the track was given to the railroad companies so that they could sell them and so raise the money needed for the the construction.  It turned out to be too generous.  Railroads still hold a lot of this land and are still allowed to sell it.

Almost all roads are subsidized, usually even so called private toll roads.  Use of eminent domain to seize or at least force the sale of private land for roads is a form of subsidy.

The current interstate system in the U.S. was heavily subsidized by the Eisenhower administration as a part of the defense budget.

The earliest roads known to history were government subsidized or owned outright by the government.

Answer 3

The federal government did subsidize railroads - look up "railroad land grant", as well as various direct cash subsidies (primarily during the Depression).  It also subsidizes harbors and airports and canals.  Many local governments paid railroads to build to their cities.

The first state Highway Department (New Jersey) was formed in 1881 - before cars.  But even during the toll road era (1800-1860), most roads in the US were 100% subsidized.

Much earlier, the Roman Empire was particularly noted for their subsidized highways.  They weren't noted for being the first, but for building better roads than most.  They considered roads a vital part of military preparedness - the same way the Interstate Highway System started (it was required to handle the weight of tanks and have straight stretches for emergency landing sites).

People disagree about what consititutes a subsidy.  There are no simple answers.  Many of the definitions are unreasonably drawn to prove someone's pet point of view - depending how you define it, you can "prove" the government subsidizes auto travel, or vice versa, or that the government subsidizes land owners (because highway access increases the value of their property), etc. (btw, no matter how you define subsidies, mass transit depends more on them).

For a fairly balanced overview of the subject, see http://www.lafn.org/~dave/trans/econ/hig...

Answer 4

The railroads in the U.S. received huge subsidies in the form of ownership of the land adjacent to the railroad lines.  

Almost all highways have been build by government funds throughout history.  The Roman government built highways across Europe so that troops could move easily from one end of the empire to the other.

In the U.S. highways have always been built at public expense.  There might be a few exceptions, but they are not many.  The fundamental problem is acquiring the land where the highways are built.  Without government funds and power, no private enterprise could get a complete right-of-way.