How pavements could be funded and operated in future years

This chapter discusses how pavements could be funded and operated in future years. It observes that a pavement should maximise the benefits it delivers to users and the adjacent community, and minimise construction, maintenance, operating and replacement costs and any costs imposed on the broader community. A pavement is one of the means by which some broader set of user and community objectives are met; they have been commonly under-funded and poorly maintained. Construction and maintenance were usually a local matter and received little priority as most of the beneficiaries lived outside the adjoining area. In the 20th century, governments began using a tax on fuel to fund the construction and maintenance of pavements. There are many current examples of where pavement management is still being poorly addressed, and very few examples of it being properly addressed. Perhaps the best examples are some of the current toll roads where the application of sound business practices appears to be avoiding many of the problems associated with the more common “public” pavements which are funded indirectly and managed via political processes with their associated short-term electoral and financial cycles. From the first footpath, paved ways have increasingly pervaded all aspects of the manner in which our land-based world operates. Although now a major part of our daily existence, their contribution has been rarely noted, let alone lauded.