Randal O'Toole (born 1952) is an American
public policy
Public policy is an institutionalized proposal or a Group decision-making, decided set of elements like laws, regulations, guidelines, and actions to Problem solving, solve or address relevant and problematic social issues, guided by a conceptio ...
analyst. The majority of O'Toole's work has focused on public lands, land-use regulation, and transportation, particularly
light rail
Light rail (or light rail transit, abbreviated to LRT) is a form of passenger urban rail transit that uses rolling stock derived from tram technology National Conference of the Transportation Research Board while also having some features from ...
. He frequently criticizes proposals for
passenger rail
A passenger train is a train used to transport people along a railroad line, as opposed to a freight train that carries goods. These trains may consist of unpowered passenger railroad cars (also known as coaches or carriages) push-pull train, ...
systems.
He had been associated with the
Cato Institute
The Cato Institute is an American libertarian think tank headquartered in Washington, D.C. It was founded in 1977 by Ed Crane, Murray Rothbard, and Charles Koch, chairman of the board and chief executive officer of Koch Industries.Koch ...
as an adjunct scholar since 1995 and a senior fellow from 2007 to 2021. O'Toole was the McCluskey Visiting Fellow for Conservation at
Yale University
Yale University is a Private university, private Ivy League research university in New Haven, Connecticut, United States. Founded in 1701, Yale is the List of Colonial Colleges, third-oldest institution of higher education in the United Stat ...
in 1998, and has served as a visiting scholar at the
University of California, Berkeley
The University of California, Berkeley (UC Berkeley, Berkeley, Cal, or California), is a Public university, public Land-grant university, land-grant research university in Berkeley, California, United States. Founded in 1868 and named after t ...
(1999) and
Utah State University
Utah State University (USU or Utah State) is a public university, public land grant colleges, land-grant research university with its main campus in Logan, Utah, United States. Founded in 1888 under the Morrill Land-Grant Acts as Utah's federal ...
(2000). O'Toole studied economics at the University of Oregon at the graduate level for three years but did not receive a degree, he also holds a B.S. Degree in forest management and geology from the University of Oregon.
O'Toole's private consultancy is known as the Thoreau Institute.
O'Toole usually refers to himself as "The Antiplanner". He was fired by the Cato Institute in December 2021.
Work
Early in his career, O'Toole worked with environmental groups to oppose the
United States Forest Service
The United States Forest Service (USFS) is an agency within the United States Department of Agriculture, U.S. Department of Agriculture. It administers the nation's 154 United States National Forest, national forests and 20 United States Natio ...
's subsidized sales of public forest timber to the timber industry. His book ''Reforming the Forest Service'' built on his experience during this effort, and proposed a number of free-market solutions to management of U.S. public land and timber. He has written analyses of the usage and development plans of a number of U.S. national forests, working with state environmental agencies and other groups.
In the 1990s, O'Toole emerged as an outspoken critic of
New Urbanist design and
smart growth
Smart growth is an urban planning and transportation theory that concentrates growth in compact walkable urban centers to avoid sprawl. It also advocates compact, transit-oriented, walkable, bicycle-friendly land use, including neighborhood ...
strategies after learning in 1995 of a county plan to rezone his neighborhood to allow higher density and mixed use development.
O'Toole contends that these development strategies—in which regulatory measures and tax incentives are employed to encourage denser development, more efficient land use, and greater use of public transportation—ignore the desires and preferences of most housing consumers and ultimately waste public funds. He has campaigned against smart growth policies and
light rail
Light rail (or light rail transit, abbreviated to LRT) is a form of passenger urban rail transit that uses rolling stock derived from tram technology National Conference of the Transportation Research Board while also having some features from ...
systems in several
U.S. states as well as in
Winnipeg, Manitoba
Winnipeg () is the capital and largest city of the Provinces and territories of Canada, Canadian province of Manitoba. It is centred on the confluence of the Red River of the North, Red and Assiniboine River, Assiniboine rivers. , Winnipeg h ...
, and
Ottawa, Ontario
Ottawa is the capital city of Canada. It is located in the southern Ontario, southern portion of the province of Ontario, at the confluence of the Ottawa River and the Rideau River. Ottawa borders Gatineau, Gatineau, Quebec, and forms the cor ...
.
His 2001 book, ''The Vanishing Automobile and Other Urban Myths'', was written as a detailed critique of these styles of planning. He continues to advocate for
free market
In economics, a free market is an economic market (economics), system in which the prices of goods and services are determined by supply and demand expressed by sellers and buyers. Such markets, as modeled, operate without the intervention of ...
solutions to urban planning and design in his writing and teaching.
O'Toole has written four books published by the Cato Institute. ''The Best-Laid Plans'' argues that long-range comprehensive government planning necessarily relies on fads and fails to account for current and future public desires and needs.
''Gridlock'' looks at the history of transportation in America and argues that the future is in autonomous personal vehicles, not rail transit or high-speed rail. ''American Nightmare'' examines the history of housing in America and argues that zoning and, more recently, growth-management planning represents efforts by the middle- and upper-classes to separate themselves from the working class. ''Romance of the Rails'' looks at the history of urban and intercity rail transit in the United States to argue that they once worked but no longer work today.
Personal life
He moved from
Bandon, Oregon to
Camp Sherman, Oregon, where he runs the "Thoreau Institute."
While critical of government subsidies to all forms of transportation, O'Toole is a fan of passenger trains and an amateur rail historian. He currently runs a web site, Streamliner Memories, to share scanned copies of his personal library of railroadiana. However, O'Toole believes trains are merely historical and too outdated to ever be useful after the invention of airplanes.
[https://ti.org/antiplanner/?p=21525]
Selected publications
Urban planning
* ''The Vanishing Automobile and Other Urban Myths'' (Thoreau Institute, 2001)
"A Desire Named Streetcar: How Federal Subsidies Encourage Wasteful Local Transit Systems" Policy Analysis 559: 1–16.
* ''The Best-Laid Plans'' (Cato Institute 2007)
* ''Gridlock: Why We're Stuck in Traffic and What to Do About It'' (Cato Institute 2010)
* ''American Nightmare: How Government Undermines the Dream of Homeownership'' (Cato Institute 2012) .
Forestry
* ''Reforming the Forest Service'' (Island Press, 1988)
* ''The Citizens' Guide to the Forest Service Budget''
self-published/Thoreau Institute
* ''The Citizens' Guide to the Timber Industry''
Railroad History
*
* ''Romance of the Rails: Why the Passenger Trains We Love Are Not the Transportation We Need'' (Cato Institute 2018) .
References
External links
Website including "Antiplanner"Streamliner MemoriesCato Institute profile for O'Toole!-- Still listed, as a former member (3/2022) -->
*
{{DEFAULTSORT:Otoole, Randal
Living people
American libertarians
People from Bandon, Oregon
1952 births
Cato Institute people
Economists from Oregon
21st-century American economists