[AFAIK]

I saw a thread about this but cannot locate it now. Since bumping dormant topics is unpopular I’ll start fresh.

--How would pavements work in a Libertarian society?--

I live in Cambodia where roads and pavements officially belong to the state and are legal rights of way but the social convention is for the land/ ground floor property owner to build, maintain and prioritise uses. (Today many major roads are cared for by a state (Japan and China fund many projects).)

Some maintain pavements that are conductive to pedestrian traffic flows. Some landscape the pavement blocking pedestrians. Some businesses place furniture or stock on the pavement. Some rent the pavement to vendors- This is common outside state owned properties such as schools and temples. Pavements in front of vacant properties are usually neglected.

The property owner gets priority over parking. It is acceptable to block the road and pavement with parked vehicles if you leave one lane open. If you park beside the curb 5 meters from the business you plan to visit the owner of the unvisited business will give you a dirty look. Repeat offenders receive stern words. Do it again and you may return to a vandalised car. (Try offering a small payment.)

*EDIT*
I forgot to mention something.
In the previous decade (2000- 2009) the govt. made repairs to many roads. Local commune-level civil-servants arranged funding from property and business owners located alongside the road and used this money to repave dirt/ gravel/ rubble or pot holed roads. Many property/ business owners make efforts to build or maintain the roads beside their properties. For their own quality of life and/ or to attract customers.
*EDIT*

Homesteading and easement rights allow the country to function in a low-tax low-spending state.

Some background;

April 1975- Year Zero. Phnom Penh evacuated. Private property records and paper currency destroyed.
December 1978- Vietnamese forces invade.
Jan 1979- Vietnamese reach Phnom Penh. Khmer Rouge forces retreat to mountains and borders. Private property ownership allowed. First come-first serve for properties in PP, which was previously off-limits to most. Rice used as a medium of exchange for small transactions.

There are few taxes and the govt. has “negative” sovereignty as it relies on foreign donors for much of its budget. Those taxes that do exist are relatively low with the exception of import taxes- 100% on private vehicles for instance.

[Nunt]

--How would pavements work in a Libertarian society?--

Pavements can work in many ways. The pavement could be owned by a corporation who owns the street, it could be owned by residents who have houses adjecent to the street, it can be owned by shops who desire to be accessible.

Anyway, one need not to look very far to find private pavements: inside shopping malls, around big stores and their parking lots, around larger industrial buildings, around large residential buildings. Those pavements are all privatly owned and maintained in accordance to the needs om the owner. Inside a shopping mall you will find a very fancy pavement, around an industrial complex you may just find a dirt road. Access may be open to all, or may be limited.

[AFAIK]

What did you think of my conclusions regarding homesteading and easement rights?

Phnom Penh has a population nearing 2 million. The only pavements the state goes out of its way to maintain are along the boulevards the elites use on a regular basis, narrow strips of parkland/ open space and one street that is heavily used by tourists. Bridges, roundabouts and traffic islands often have a pavement (and are on routes used by elites).

[Poelmo]

There'd probably be commercial toll roads, and they'd probably gouge you on the strategic roads...

[AFAIK]

^ That's one possibility Poelmo.

It's also possible that the toll roads would run parallel to free to access roads owned by the commons. The British govt. considered allowing private entities to build and operate a toll road running directly alongside the M6.

[Eran]

There'd probably be commercial toll roads, and they'd probably gouge you on the strategic roads...

If they tried, they would quicly find less-gouging competition taking their business away.

[Poelmo]

If they tried, they would quicly find less-gouging competition taking their business away.

IIRC the surface of the world of the Earth is finite and it's a basic fact of topology (as we're not talking about wormholes) that there's only one fastest route between two points in space, so there's bound to be some headroom for the businesses that get hold of strategic roads, of course if they overdo it they will eventually cause people to use secondary roads, but life is good when you own a strategic road. The Khyber Pass, Suez Canal, Panama Canal or Gibraltar would be worth their weight in gold.

[Eran]

there's only one fastest route between two points in space, so there's bound to be some headroom for the businesses that get hold of strategic roads

What are you talking about?

Try Google maps. It always shows several widely-dispersed routes with only small timing differences between them.

On major inter-city roads, you can easily locate two roads within a few hundred meters of each other, covering virtually the same distance.

In practice, roads are very rarely ruler-like straight lines connecting strategic points in the shortest possible distance.

The Khyber Pass, Suez Canal, Panama Canal or Gibraltar would be worth their weight in gold.

Recent discussions about digging a canal to compete with Panama comes to mind.

One of the basic principles if libertarian legal theory is that you can only homestead (acquire justified ownership in) unowned and unused physical resources. If a land area (such as the Khyber Pass) has been used for generations, it cannot be completely privatised.

Panama and Suez, of course, are man-made, and can well be owned by whoever dug them.