Provided is an overview of the Nation's transportation system which identifies future investments required to maintain and develop its infrastructure. The contents of this study were used in support of the National Transportation Policy Statement, issued by the Department of Transportation during March 1990. It is organized around a framework in which transportation is viewed as an integral part of our socioeconomic system. The future development of transportation will be influenced by the same factors affecting the rest of the system, namely, demographic changes, the future course of the economy, the energy supply, and preservation of the environment.

The development of U.S. urban transportation policy over the past half-century illustrates the changing relationships among federal, state, and local governments. This comprehensive text examines the evolution of urban transportation planning from early developments in highway planning in the 1930s to today’s concerns over sustainable development, security, and pollution control. Highlighting major national events, the book examines the influence of legislation, regulations, conferences, federal programs, and advances in planning procedures and technology. The volume provides in-depth coverage of the most significant event in transportation planning, the Federal-Aid Highway Act of 1962, which created a federal mandate for a comprehensive urban transportation planning process, carried out cooperatively by states and local governments with federal funding. Claiming that urban transportation planning is more sophisticated, costly, and complex than its highway and transit planning predecessors, the book demonstrates how urban transportation planning evolved in response to changes in such factors as the environment, energy, development patterns, intergovernmental coordination, and federal transit programs. This updated, revised, and expanded edition features two new chapters on global climate change and managing under conditions of constrained resources, and covers the impact of the most recent legislation, 50 years after the Highway Act of 1962, emphasizing such timely issues as security, oil dependence, performance measurement, and public-private sector collaboration.

Transportation Statistics Annual Report is a summary of the state of the transportation system and its consequences, the quality of statistics used to characterize the transportation system, and planned efforts by the U.S. Department of Transportation's Bureau of Transportation Statistics (BTS) to improve the quality of the statistics. BTS was established by Congress to compile, analyze, and make accessible information on the nation's transportation system; to collect information on intermodal transportation and other related areas as needed; and to enhance the quality and effectiveness of the Department of Transportation's statistical programs through research, the development of guidelines, and the promotion of improvements in data acquisition and use.