Randal O'Toole

Randal O'Toole (born 1952) is an American public policy analyst. The majority of O'Toole's work has focused on public lands, land-use regulation, and transportation, particularly light rail. He is a strong opponent of passenger rail and proposals to build such systems.

He had been associated with the Cato Institute 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 in 1998 and has served as a visiting scholar at the University of California, Berkeley (1999) and Utah State University (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'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 strategies after learning in 1995 of a county plan to rezone his neighborhood to allow higher density and mixed use development.

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 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. 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

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.

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 (self-published/Thoreau Institute)

Railroad History

Romance of the Rails: Why the Passenger Trains We Love Are Not the Transportation We Need (Cato Institute 2018) .