ABSTRACT
Public transportation in the United States has a long history of successful cooperation and collaboration between federal, state, and local government. It starts at the top, with the U.S. Department of Transportation (DOT) developing and managing policies designed to promote safety and efficiency in air, road, rail, and marine travel and transportation. Established in 1966, the department and its nearly dozen agencies are responsible for highway planning, development, and construction; urban mass transit; railroads; aviation; and the safety of waterways, highways, and oil and gas pipelines. Many of these aspects of public transportation depend on a publicly provided infrastructure in the form of roads, maintained waterways, air traffic control, pipelines, major hydroelectric dams and transmission networks, and related system components.
