U.S. Department of Transportation
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40 free U.S. Department of Transportation trivia questions with answers — trivia quiz, new questions added Oct 2026.
The U.S. Department of Transportation touches almost every trip an American takes, whether by car, plane, train or ship. It is also one of the younger Cabinet departments, and its story is full of fun facts that surprise even people who live by its rules every day. This quiz covers how the department came to be, the men and women who have led it, the agencies under its roof, and the safety rules that changed what a new car looks like. You will also meet a few oddities, from famous public service ads to jobs nobody expects a transport department to have. It is written for curious drivers, frequent flyers, civics students and anyone who likes knowing how the government actually works. Every answer comes with a short explanation, so you leave with a fact or two worth repeating.
30 of 40 questions with answers and explanations. Play the quiz
Q 01Which everyday system, standardized by railroads in 1883, does the Department of Transportation now oversee?
Time zones
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.
Q 02Which armed service sat within the Department of Transportation from 1967 until 2003?
Coast Guard
The Coast Guard left for Homeland Security after 36 years; it had begun life in the Treasury Department, collecting customs duties at American seaports.
Q 03Which agency was created inside the Department of Transportation after 9/11, then moved to Homeland Security?
TSA
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.
Q 04Which future North Carolina senator became the first female Secretary of Transportation in 1983?
Elizabeth Dole
Elizabeth Dole ran the department for Ronald Reagan until 1987, then joined a second Cabinet as Labor Secretary under George H. W. Bush.
Q 05Vince and Larry, who fronted federal road safety ads from the 1980s, were what kind of characters?
Crash test dummies
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.
Q 06The national 55 mph speed limit that Congress enacted in 1974 was an emergency response to which event?
An oil embargo
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.
Q 07On American roads, the five-sided pentagon sign shape is reserved for warnings near which kind of place?
Schools
Schools get the only five-sided warning sign in the Federal Highway Administration's manual, and its outline resembles a one-room schoolhouse.
Q 08On the Interstate Highway System, odd-numbered routes such as I-95 generally run in which direction?
North–south
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.
Q 09Whose 1965 book Unsafe at Any Speed helped lead Congress to pass a landmark car safety law in 1966?
Ralph Nader
Ralph Nader took aim at the Chevrolet Corvair, and the Senate hearings that followed led to the agency drivers now know as NHTSA.
Q 10Which Secretary of Transportation, who took office in 2025, first found fame on MTV's The Real World: Boston?
Sean Duffy
Sean Duffy was also a champion lumberjack, winning speed-climbing titles in his Wisconsin hometown before turning to law and politics.
Q 11Which president persuaded Congress to create the Department of Transportation during his Great Society years?
Lyndon Johnson
Lyndon Johnson acted after his aviation chief, Najeeb Halaby, urged him to give transportation its own place in the Cabinet.
Q 12On which unofficial holiday did the Department of Transportation officially begin operating in 1967?
April Fools' Day
April Fools' Day 1967 was day one for the new department, which Congress had authorized the previous October.
Q 13The Interstate Highway System is officially named for which president, who signed its 1956 funding act?
Dwight D. Eisenhower
Q 21The Highway Trust Fund, which pays for federal road and transit projects, is filled mainly by a tax on what?
Gasoline
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.
Q 22A 1991 highway law required which safety feature in every new car by 1998?
Air bags
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.
Q 23Since the 1986 model year, new American cars have had to carry which extra lamp, mounted high at the rear?
Third brake light
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.
Q 14Which former mayor of South Bend, Indiana, became Secretary of Transportation in 2021?
Pete Buttigieg
Pete Buttigieg was confirmed by the Senate 86–13, which made him the first openly gay Cabinet secretary in American history.
Q 15Which passenger railroad, running since 1971, has the Secretary of Transportation on its board?
Amtrak
Amtrak is tied to Washington in another way too: the federal government holds all of the company's preferred stock.
Q 16In 1981 President Reagan fired more than 11,000 striking FAA employees who did which job?
Air traffic controllers
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.
Q 17Since January 1968, federal safety standards have required which device at every seating position in new cars?
Seat belts
Seat belts had to be fitted from 1968, but wearing one stayed voluntary until New York passed the first state law in 1984.
Q 18A 1984 federal law cut highway money for any state that refused to raise the minimum legal age for what?
Buying alcohol
Buying alcohol before 21 soon became illegal nationwide, because holdout states stood to lose 10 percent of their federal road funds.
Q 19Cash for Clunkers, a 2009 rebate run by the Department of Transportation, made dealers do what to each traded-in car?
Destroy its engine
Destroy its engine: dealers had to wreck the motor so that no clunker could be resold or stripped for working parts.
Q 20Which longest-serving Secretary of Transportation was the only Democrat in George W. Bush's Cabinet?
Norman Mineta
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.
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.
Q 24Which 17-character code, standardized by NHTSA in 1981, is stamped on every car sold in America?
VIN
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.
Q 25NHTSA's safety ratings, printed on every new car's window sticker, award up to five of which symbol?
Stars
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.
Q 26The FAA makes hobbyists register which flying devices once they weigh more than 0.55 pounds?
Drones
Drones over that weight, about 250 grams, must be registered and labelled with their registration number before they fly.
Q 27A Department of Transportation safety agency oversees roughly 3.4 million miles of which energy-carrying network?
Pipelines
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.
Q 28Until 1987 the FAA itself owned Washington National and which other airport, named for a secretary of state?
Dulles
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.
Q 29A Department of Transportation agency runs two locks on which waterway linking the Great Lakes to the Atlantic?
St. Lawrence Seaway
St. Lawrence Seaway ships pass through 15 locks between Montreal and Lake Erie, and Canada operates all the rest.
Q 30A Department of Transportation academy at Kings Point, New York, trains officers for which service?
Merchant Marine
Merchant Marine cadets at Kings Point included women from 1974, two years before the military academies admitted them.