Someone once asked me if all of the transportation policy history articles I have written for ETW were collected in one place. They were not, so now they are.

Multi-Part Series:

A Conversation With Alan Boyd, the First U.S. Secretary of Transportation

• Part 1  (February 5, 2016)
• Part 2 (February 11, 2016)
• Part 3 (February 18, 2016)
• Plus: Book Review – Alan Boyd’s New Autobiography (August 24, 2016)

Creation of the U.S. Department of Transportation

• Documentary History (links to dozens of original source documents and oral histories). Followed by 50 Years Ago Today articles:
• LBJ Sends Transportation Message to Congress (March 2, 2016)
• House of Representatives Debates, Amends, Passes Department of Transportation Act (August 30, 2016)
• President Johnson Signs Bills Creating NHTSA (September 9, 2016)
• LBJ Signs Law Creating USDOT (October 14, 2016)
• The First Transportation Appropriations Act (October 17, 2017)

ISTEA at 25

• Part 1 – The Bush Administration’s Legislative Proposal (December 23, 2016)
• (future parts are on hold pending a trip to the George HW Bush Library (FOIA request still in the works) and the opening of the Moynihan papers)

What’s the Purpose of Mass Transit? (Urban Development, or Transportation)?

• Part 1 – Proposals for federal urban transportation policy, 1958-1962 (June 28, 2018)
• Part 2 – The 1964 transit act, the creation of HUD, and the creation of DOT (July 6, 2018)
• Part 3 – The 1967-1968 debate on moving transit from HUD to DOT (July 11, 2018) (along with a 371-page PDF file containing 55 original HUD, DOT, Budget Bureau, and LBJ White House documents)
• Part 4 – The 1971 Nixon proposal for a Department of Community Development (July 18, 2018)

Mending or Ending the Highway Trust Fund – The Great Debate of 1978

• Part 1 – The 1977 Carter proposal, Brock Adams’ accrual accounting plan, Ways and Means deliberation (September 14, 2018)
• Part 2 – Mass transit and the Senate, the 1978 highway-transit bill, lessons learned (September 21, 2018)

The Gas Tax at 100

• Federal Gasoline Tax Debate, 1864-1918 (February 22, 2019)
• Oregon Enacts America’s First-Ever Motor Fuel Tax, February 25, 1919 (February 25, 2019)

Pre-1960s Attempts to Create a U.S. Department of Transportation

• Part 1 – Defining “Transportation,” 1923-1942 (April 3, 2019)
• Part 2 – The Federal Transportation Agency of 1946 (April 9, 2019)
• Part 3 – The Hoover Commission Task Forces (Robert Moses vs. the Brookings Institution) (May 3, 2019)
• Part 4 – The Hoover Commission Rejects a Separate DOT (August 21, 2020)
• Part 5 – Truman Moves Public Roads and Maritime to Commerce (August 27, 2020)
• Part 6 – Ike’s Cabinet Committee Disobeys Orders (July 22, 2021)
• (more to come, shortly)

The First Time the Highway Trust Fund Went Broke

• Part 1 – The 1958 Highway Act Makes Spending Unsustainable (August 21, 2019)
• Part 2 –Ike Requests a 50% Gas Tax Increase, Which No One Likes (September 2, 2019)
• Part 3: Eisenhower Wears Down Resistance, Congress Fractures, and Compromise Is Reached (September 9, 2019)
• Along with a (much shorter) summary article with conclusions: 60 Years Ago Today – Eisenhower Requests First Highway Trust Fund Bailout (September 9, 2019)

Eisenhower’s Transportation Policies

• Federal Highway Policy Under President Eisenhower, 1953-1954 (September 9, 2020)
• Federal Highway Policy Under President Eisenhower, 1955-1956 (September 9, 2020)
• Federal Highway Policy Under President Eisenhower, 1957-1961 (September 14, 2020)
• Federal Aviation Policy Under President Eisenhower (September 8, 2020)
• The St. Lawrence Seaway and Federal Maritime Policy Under President Eisenhower (September 3, 2020)
• Federal Railroad Policy Under President Eisenhower (September 9, 2020)
• Federal Urban Mass Transit Policy Under President Eisenhower (September 12, 2020)

Amtrak at 50

• The Rail Passenger Service Act of 1970 (October 30, 2020)
• Defining the “Basic System” of Service Routes (March 11, 2021)
• How McKinsey Designed A National Railroad (April 27, 2021)

Transit’s First “Fiscal Cliff: – The Fight for Operating Subsidies

• Part 1: 1966-1968 (April 13, 2023)

Individual Articles or Papers:

Federal Bridge Policy: Past and Future (August 15, 2007) (Reprinted from Transportation Weekly)

The “Transportation Trust Fund” Idea, 40 Years On… (April 11, 2011) (Reprinted from Transportation Weekly)

The 100th Anniversary of Federal Aid for Highways (July 25, 2012) (Reprinted from Transportation Weekly)

January 21, 1913: The First Congressional Hearing on Highway Aid (January 21, 1913) (Reprinted from Transportation Weekly)

History of the Tolling Ban on Federal-Aid Highways (May 6, 2014) (Reprinted from Transportation Weekly)

Reagan Devolution: the Real Story of the 1982 Gas Tax Increase (together with a 506-page PDF compilation of original source documents) (May 27, 2015)

The Tradition of HTF Bill “Triggers” (July 22, 2015)

Volatile Revenues for Transportation Trust Funds: A Cautionary Tale (September 9, 2015)

Trump City: The Earmark that Changed the Rules (September 10, 2015)

What Can DC Metro’s Past Tell Us About Its Future? (Book review of The Great Society Subway by Zachary Schrag) (May 12, 2016)

A History of Infrastructure Bank Proposals (August 3, 2016)

The 1977 Origins of “Buy American” and “Hire American” Policies (January 18, 2017)

Reagan’s 1987 Highway Bill Veto (together with a 321-page PDF compilation of original source documents) (March 29, 2017)

30 Years of Debate on Air Traffic Control Corporatization (May 4, 2017)

History of Mass Transit Discretionary Grants and How They Have Been Funded (August 9, 2017)

Ten Years of Highway Trust Fund Bankruptcy: Why Did It Happen, and What Have We Learned? (September 5, 2018)

The Johnson-Nixon Mass Transit Bill of 1968-1969 (July 11, 2019)

History of the Harbor Maintenance Trust Fund (November 6, 2019)

The Last Time VMT Dropped This Sharply – WWII Gas Rationing (April 8, 2020)

Case Study: How Inflation Can Nullify Transportation Funding Increases (February 18, 2022)

A History of the Secretary’s Ability to Approve (or Disapprove) Highway Projects (March 4, 2022)

The Creation of Contract Authority: June 1922 (June 3, 2022)

Counterintuitive: What If Access to Dedicated Revenues Actually Holds You Back? (September 30, 2022)

The Federal Tax on Driving an Automobile: 1942-1946 (December 9, 2022)

A History of the Perimeter Rule at Washington Reagan National Airport (June 16, 2023)

Why Does the Federal Lands “Sliding Scale” Still Exist? (August 25, 2023)

The History of the Inland Waterways Trust Fund (August 31, 2023)