Private Road to Sustainable Mobility?

This paper examined possibilities for harmonizing the objectives of two metropolitan transportation infrastructure policy trends: sustainability and privatization. The paper linked these trends through the theory of fiscal federalism, hypothesizing that metropolitan highway public–private partnerships (PPPs) can reinforce sustainability if supported by a fiscal federalist institutional environment. Case studies from seven countries revealed a primary challenge for metropolitan highway PPPs: balancing objectives for market efficiency at the project level with sustainability concerns at the metropolitan level, especially network spillovers and social equity. Ultimately, the analytical approach inhibited discerning whether fiscal federalism was the cause or result of a “good” project. A project's physical form apparently mattered in reconciling market and sustainability objectives.