Globalizing tolls

The next time you drop a few quarters at a toll booth, your change may be going to the most unlikely of places: the coffers of a foreign firm. Introduce a cash-strapped state government to an international corporation flush with capital and the result just might mean the privatization of Indiana’s toll road system.  Indiana has ...

608024_tollbooth5.jpg
608024_tollbooth5.jpg

The next time you drop a few quarters at a toll booth, your change may be going to the most unlikely of places: the coffers of a foreign firm. Introduce a cash-strapped state government to an international corporation flush with capital and the result just might mean the privatization of Indiana's toll road system

The next time you drop a few quarters at a toll booth, your change may be going to the most unlikely of places: the coffers of a foreign firm. Introduce a cash-strapped state government to an international corporation flush with capital and the result just might mean the privatization of Indiana’s toll road system

Indiana has leased a 157-mile toll road for 75 years to a Spanish-Australian consortium for $3.8 billion. Instead of getting the cash the old-fashioned way through tolls, Indiana now gets a lump sum up front. The private company takes the tolls and the responsibility to maintain the road. Could these leases be the first in a growing trend? If the project is successful, we may well see more states leasing infrastructure to foreign firms for quick cash.

Since the [Indiana] General Assembly approved the plan in March, national transportation experts have recognized the state as being at the vanguard of a movement toward road privatization. A growing pack of states also are considering privatizing their roads. In one of the bigger deals, Chicago Mayor Richard M. Daley signed off on a 99-year lease of the Chicago Skyway for $1.8 billion.

More from Foreign Policy

An illustration shows the Statue of Liberty holding a torch with other hands alongside hers as she lifts the flame, also resembling laurel, into place on the edge of the United Nations laurel logo.
An illustration shows the Statue of Liberty holding a torch with other hands alongside hers as she lifts the flame, also resembling laurel, into place on the edge of the United Nations laurel logo.

A New Multilateralism

How the United States can rejuvenate the global institutions it created.

A view from the cockpit shows backlit control panels and two pilots inside a KC-130J aerial refueler en route from Williamtown to Darwin as the sun sets on the horizon.
A view from the cockpit shows backlit control panels and two pilots inside a KC-130J aerial refueler en route from Williamtown to Darwin as the sun sets on the horizon.

America Prepares for a Pacific War With China It Doesn’t Want

Embedded with U.S. forces in the Pacific, I saw the dilemmas of deterrence firsthand.

Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi, seen in a suit and tie and in profile, walks outside the venue at the Belt and Road Forum for International Cooperation. Behind him is a sculptural tree in a larger planter that appears to be leaning away from him.
Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi, seen in a suit and tie and in profile, walks outside the venue at the Belt and Road Forum for International Cooperation. Behind him is a sculptural tree in a larger planter that appears to be leaning away from him.

The Endless Frustration of Chinese Diplomacy

Beijing’s representatives are always scared they could be the next to vanish.

Turkey's President Recep Tayyip Erdogan welcomes Crown Prince of Saudi Arabia Mohammed bin Salman during an official ceremony at the Presidential Complex in Ankara, on June 22, 2022.
Turkey's President Recep Tayyip Erdogan welcomes Crown Prince of Saudi Arabia Mohammed bin Salman during an official ceremony at the Presidential Complex in Ankara, on June 22, 2022.

The End of America’s Middle East

The region’s four major countries have all forfeited Washington’s trust.