40 Fun Facts About U.S. Department of Transportation

Which everyday system, standardized by railroads in 1883, does the Department of Transportation now oversee?

Time zones became the Department of Transportation's job when Congress handed it authority over the nation's clocks. It also regulates when daylight saving time is observed.

Which armed service sat within the Department of Transportation from 1967 until 2003?

The Coast Guard left for Homeland Security after 36 years; it had begun life in the Treasury Department, collecting customs duties at American seaports.

Which agency was created inside the Department of Transportation after 9/11, then moved to Homeland Security?

The TSA, short for Transportation Security Administration, took over airport screening and switched departments in March 2003, less than two years after it was set up.

Which future North Carolina senator became the first female Secretary of Transportation in 1983?

Elizabeth Dole ran the department for Ronald Reagan until 1987, then joined a second Cabinet as Labor Secretary under George H. W. Bush.

Vince and Larry, who fronted federal road safety ads from the 1980s, were what kind of characters?

Crash test dummies Vince and Larry survived slapstick wrecks in magazines and on television to show why buckling up matters. NHTSA kept the campaign running until 1999.

The national 55 mph speed limit that Congress enacted in 1974 was an emergency response to which event?

An oil embargo by Arab producers in 1973 made saving fuel a national emergency. The limit outlived the shortage and was not fully repealed until 1995.

On American roads, the five-sided pentagon sign shape is reserved for warnings near which kind of place?

Schools get the only five-sided warning sign in the Federal Highway Administration's manual, and its outline resembles a one-room schoolhouse.

On the Interstate Highway System, odd-numbered routes such as I-95 generally run in which direction?

North–south routes carry odd numbers that climb from the West Coast to the East Coast, while even numbers mark the roads that cross the country sideways.

Whose 1965 book Unsafe at Any Speed helped lead Congress to pass a landmark car safety law in 1966?

Ralph Nader took aim at the Chevrolet Corvair, and the Senate hearings that followed led to the agency drivers now know as NHTSA.

Which Secretary of Transportation, who took office in 2025, first found fame on MTV's The Real World: Boston?

Sean Duffy was also a champion lumberjack, winning speed-climbing titles in his Wisconsin hometown before turning to law and politics.

Which president persuaded Congress to create the Department of Transportation during his Great Society years?

Lyndon Johnson acted after his aviation chief, Najeeb Halaby, urged him to give transportation its own place in the Cabinet.

On which unofficial holiday did the Department of Transportation officially begin operating in 1967?

April Fools' Day 1967 was day one for the new department, which Congress had authorized the previous October.

The Interstate Highway System is officially named for which president, who signed its 1956 funding act?

Dwight D. Eisenhower knew bad roads first-hand: as a young officer he joined a 1919 Army truck convoy that needed 62 days to cross the country.

Which former mayor of South Bend, Indiana, became Secretary of Transportation in 2021?

Pete Buttigieg was confirmed by the Senate 86–13, which made him the first openly gay Cabinet secretary in American history.

Which passenger railroad, running since 1971, has the Secretary of Transportation on its board?

Amtrak is tied to Washington in another way too: the federal government holds all of the company's preferred stock.

In 1981 President Reagan fired more than 11,000 striking FAA employees who did which job?

Air traffic controllers who ignored a back-to-work order were dismissed and barred from federal jobs, a ban that lasted until 1993, leaving the agency to train thousands of replacements.

Since January 1968, federal safety standards have required which device at every seating position in new cars?

Seat belts had to be fitted from 1968, but wearing one stayed voluntary until New York passed the first state law in 1984.

A 1984 federal law cut highway money for any state that refused to raise the minimum legal age for what?

Buying alcohol before 21 soon became illegal nationwide, because holdout states stood to lose 10 percent of their federal road funds.

Cash for Clunkers, a 2009 rebate run by the Department of Transportation, made dealers do what to each traded-in car?

Destroy its engine: dealers had to wreck the motor so that no clunker could be resold or stripped for working parts.

Which longest-serving Secretary of Transportation was the only Democrat in George W. Bush's Cabinet?

Norman Mineta held the post for more than five years, and the international airport in his hometown of San Jose, California, now carries his name.

The Highway Trust Fund, which pays for federal road and transit projects, is filled mainly by a tax on what?

Gasoline buyers have paid into the fund since 1956, when it was set up to finance the Interstates; diesel is taxed at a higher rate per gallon.

A 1991 highway law required which safety feature in every new car by 1998?

Air bags had to protect both front occupants of cars and light trucks built after September 1, 1998, under a law better known for funding roads.

Since the 1986 model year, new American cars have had to carry which extra lamp, mounted high at the rear?

Third brake light is the everyday name for the centre high mount stop lamp, which American and Canadian regulators made compulsory at the same time.

Which 17-character code, standardized by NHTSA in 1981, is stamped on every car sold in America?

VIN stands for vehicle identification number, and the format leaves out the letters I, O and Q so they are never confused with the numerals 1 and 0.

NHTSA's safety ratings, printed on every new car's window sticker, award up to five of which symbol?

Stars are the currency of NHTSA's New Car Assessment Program, and a federal rule makes automakers print them on each car's price sticker.

The FAA makes hobbyists register which flying devices once they weigh more than 0.55 pounds?

Drones over that weight, about 250 grams, must be registered and labelled with their registration number before they fly.

A Department of Transportation safety agency oversees roughly 3.4 million miles of which energy-carrying network?

Pipelines regulated by the department's PHMSA deliver about 65% of the energy Americans use. The same agency polices nearly a million daily shipments of hazardous materials.

Until 1987 the FAA itself owned Washington National and which other airport, named for a secretary of state?

Dulles and its older neighbor were run directly by the federal government until a regional airports authority took them over on a 50-year lease.

A Department of Transportation agency runs two locks on which waterway linking the Great Lakes to the Atlantic?

St. Lawrence Seaway ships pass through 15 locks between Montreal and Lake Erie, and Canada operates all the rest.

A Department of Transportation academy at Kings Point, New York, trains officers for which service?

Merchant Marine cadets at Kings Point included women from 1974, two years before the military academies admitted them.

Which lawyer was the first Secretary of Transportation and later president of Airbus's North American arm?

Alan Boyd was chosen in November 1966, months before the department he was to lead had opened its doors.

The Department of Transportation's research center in Cambridge, Massachusetts, is named for which former governor?

John Volpe left the governor's office to become Richard Nixon's Transportation Secretary and later served as ambassador to Italy.

The boulevard to Denver International Airport is named for which Transportation Secretary and former Denver mayor?

Federico Peña pushed for the new airport as mayor, then led both the Transportation and Energy departments under Bill Clinton.

Which Republican congressman from Illinois served as Barack Obama's first Secretary of Transportation?

Ray LaHood was one of only two Republicans in the original Obama Cabinet, alongside Defense Secretary Robert Gates.

Highway Gothic is the unofficial name of which federal standard seen along nearly every American road?

Sign lettering in this plain sans-serif style was developed during World War II by the Public Roads Administration, the forerunner of today's FHWA.

Which Washington neighborhood near Nationals Park has housed the Department of Transportation since 2007?

Navy Yard gained the department's new headquarters on New Jersey Avenue in 2007, a year before the Nationals' baseball stadium opened in the same neighborhood.

A 1956 mid-air collision between two airliners over which landmark prompted Congress to create the FAA?

Grand Canyon skies were uncontrolled airspace in 1956, where pilots were simply expected to see and avoid each other; all 128 people aboard the two planes died.

Which accident-investigation board answered to the Department of Transportation until Congress freed it in 1975?

NTSB investigators often had to judge the FAA, a sister agency inside the same department, so Congress cut the tie to end the conflict.

In 1976 Transportation Secretary William Coleman approved trial American landings for which supersonic airliner?

Concorde got its testing period from Coleman in February 1976, and British and French jets were crossing the Atlantic to Washington by late May.

Which Transportation Secretary in Donald Trump's first term had already served eight years as Labor Secretary?

Elaine Chao was the first Asian American woman to serve in a presidential Cabinet, and the only member of George W. Bush's to stay for all eight of his years.