Forty five years later DOT has grown to a $77 billion a year federal bureaucracy; the U.S. has the lowest accident fatality record in history, and the Highway Trust Fund is broke because users won't pay for it.
Over the weekend the U.S. Department of Transportation celebrated its 45 anniversary since President Lyndon B. Johnson signed the law that created it by combining 31 agencies and their bureaus into DOT.
“In a large measure, America’s history is a history of her transportation,” Johnson said on October 15, 1966.
“Our early cities were located by deep water harbors and inland waterways; they were nurtured by ocean vessels and by flatboats. The railroad allowed us to move east and west. A thousand towns and more grew up along the railroad’s gleaming rails.
“The automobile stretched out over cities and created suburbia in America. Trucks and modern highways brought bounty to remote regions. Airplanes helped knit our Nation together, and knitted it together with other nations throughout the world,” said Johnson.
Johnson called out three areas DOT should concentrate on:
- To improve the safety in every means of transportation, safety of our automobiles, our trains, our planes, and our ships.
- To bring new technology to every mode of transportation by supporting and promoting research and development; and
- To solve our most pressing transportation problems.
Forty five years later DOT has grown into a $77 billion a year federal bureaucracy, and the U.S. the lowest accident fatality record in history. (See U.S. Budget Deficit Officially at $1.299 Trillion in FY 2011 )
About Ken Zino
Ken Zino, editor and publisher of AutoInformed, is a versatile auto industry participant with global experience spanning decades in print and broadcast journalism, as well as social media. He has automobile testing, marketing, public relations and communications experience. He is past president of The International Motor Press Assn, the Detroit Press Club, founding member and first President of the Automotive Press Assn. He is a member of APA, IMPA and the Midwest Automotive Press Assn.
He also brings an historical perspective while citing their contemporary relevance of the work of legendary auto writers such as Ken Purdy, Jim Dunne or Jerry Flint, or writers such as Red Smith, Mark Twain, Thomas Jefferson – all to bring perspective to a chaotic automotive universe.
Above all, decades after he first drove a car, Zino still revels in the sound of the exhaust as the throttle is blipped during a downshift and the driver’s rush that occurs when the entry, apex and exit points of a turn are smoothly and swiftly crossed. It’s the beginning of a perfect lap.
AutoInformed has an editorial philosophy that loves transportation machines of all kinds while promoting critical thinking about the future use of cars and trucks.
Zino builds AutoInformed from his background in automotive journalism starting at Hearst Publishing in New York City on Motor and MotorTech Magazines and car testing where he reviewed hundreds of vehicles in his decade-long stint as the Detroit Bureau Chief of Road & Track magazine. Zino has also worked in Europe, and Asia – now the largest automotive market in the world with China at its center.
