View source for My experience with private roads and why libertarians have no idea what they're talking about

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Hello fellow statists. I figure I'd take some time during my Sunday afternoon to bless you with some of my turds of wisdom and experience with a topic I frequently see here and on libertarian discussion boards.
Some Background: Several years ago before going to the production side of the industry (logging, mills, etc.), I was a forestry intern for a major timber company that owns millions of acres across the world. This was not a "make coffee for your boss" deal. I was actively managing land and spending time in the field every day, interacting with government officials, and essentially being groomed for a full time position before deciding to go to a different outfit. I learned a great deal about land use.
My main job was generally silviculture (managing contracts for roughly half a million acres of tree farm) but I spent a fair amount of time in our engineering department and land use departments. These are the guys that set up timber sales, build roads, and handle property access issues.
The "who will build the roads?" question has become an inside joke for libertarians. So much so that they don't even debate or discuss it anymore. They just regurgitate "privatize everything!" without any thought to the implications or how this gets done in the real world. From my 2-3 years on Reddit, I've also noticed most of them don't even understand the basics of property management issues or that private roads even exist. So here's my breakdown...
Complex private roads networks already exist in the US: My state has thousands and thousands of miles of privately built and owned logging roads for secondary transport of wood fiber from the landing to their destination. There are even mills located at the end of logging roads where you will never hit a public highway.
They are barely regulated: I live in a state with some of the strictest harvest practices in the country. Outside of fish passage and some rules on unstable slopes, there are no limits on truck weights or how your road can be built. A lot of the mainlines are built on top of old railroad beds (rail logging was big in my state before the 40's) where they actually punched through large hills and over streams to flatten the land. Down in the southern US, it's even less burdensome. You can basically point a bulldozer where ever you want and make one.
Easements, easements, easements: For all the talk about privatization of roads, it's unbelievable how many libertarians I've seen online and in real life who don't even know what easements are. If you've ever shared a driveway with neighbors in a rural area, you might know what I'm talking about.
For tree farms, it's on a huge scale. Roads go through multiple ownerships and parcels. Legal contracts have to be written up between owners for access. Payment can be anything. Commonly it can be a one time fee to access a timber sale, agreeing to keep the road in good condition, paying per truck, paying per thousand board feet, the possibilities go on and on.
Even for the purposes of logging, easements are a huge mess. Entire departments exist just to handle road access issues. I've gone over hundreds of easements and while most are simple, others are not. My state is a checkerboard of private, state, and federal land. All of which require easements. This reduces redundancy of roads which means more space to farm trees.
They're expensive: Holy shit are they expensive. It's a huge burden, even for a multinational corporation and shortcuts will always be taken. I drove on some pretty sketchy cliffs to get to certain harvest units. I've never heard a libertarian explain how the cost would be managed in their ideal world. Remember, no large corporations exist without government in Libertopia (haha, I know).
Keep in mind, these aren't even paved roads. They're just gravel with barely enough room to squeeze a log truck through.
Gates, gates, gates: I can't tell you how many hours I spent unlocking, locking, and going through multiple and often redundant gates between property owners. The thought of highway-level traffic volumes going through these roads is laughable. Don't even get me on started on key management.
Security: Yup, just like public roads, we have to pay for security to keep riff raff out. Another huge cost.
Public access: There is almost zero incentive to allow these roads to be open to the public. With my master keys, I could easily maneuver through multiple counties without ever hitting a public road, but the rest of the public - nope. The liability and security issues are too much. Occasionally some would be opened up for hunting season, but that is slowly going away.
So to wrap this up, the next time somebody tells you that private roads have never been given a chance, they're full of shit or just ignorant. This industry has used them for over a century in the western US along with private railroads and secondary transport in private waterways. They serve their purpose for one reason only - to get logs off the landing and to a mill. The only other industry I can think of that would have large road systems would be mining and I'd wager they deal with the same issues we do.
To think private business could handle the requirements of all of society's transportation needs is absolutely ridiculous, especially since they don't have the ability to use eminent domain.
At some point, I'd also like to discuss other issues from my business point of view that relate to libertarianism. Especially the topics of public lands, the history of environmental law, and labor.
Anybody who knows the history of the timber industry knows that a lot of libertarian ideas have already been tried in the western US and were a disaster. For people, for the environment, and for markets. Private towns, company stores, "homesteading," the list goes on. It's already been done.
tl;dr: Private road systems exist in the US. The thought of them being on a mass scale for society is ridiculous. Libertarians have strong opinions on topics they know nothing about.
And as always your questions and angry comments are welcome.
Edit: Thanks to the people who bothered to read and for the feedback. I honestly wish this hadn't been x-posted. People in other subs think I'm trying to win converts or something with this.... by posting it in the ELS circlejerk. I'm going on vacation, but I'll occasionally be on mobile.
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