Randal O'Toole

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Randal O'Toole is an American economist and public policy expert. He has held the position of director at the Oregon-based Thoreau Institute since 1975. Since 1995, he has been associated with the Cato Institute as an adjunct scholar. The majority of O'Toole's work has focused on environmental policy, particularly public land use and regional and urban development.

Early in his career, O'Toole worked with environmental groups to oppose the U.S. National Forest Service's subsidized sales of public forest timber to the logging 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 strategies. 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. His 1996 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 solutions to urban planning and design in his writing and teaching. He has campaigned against smart growth policies and light rail systems in several U.S. states and in Winnipeg, Manitoba.

O'Toole has held fellowships at Yale University, and served as a visiting professor at the University of California, Berkeley and Utah State University. He is an avid cyclist who always rides a bicycle to and from work, and advocates alternative means of transportation where possible.