REGULATION AND DEREGULATION

Transportation in the United States is subject to economic and social regulation of bewildering complexity and is administered by a variety of institutions in pursuit of numerous desired ends. This paper describes the nature of current state- and federal-level transportation regulation, especially economic regulation. Because the future of transport regulation has been called into question, the paper also discusses proposals for deregulation and investigates their potential impacts. Finally, issues are raised about the relation of regulatory change to state transportation planning and program administration and to state agencies charged with these duties. It is reasonable to believe that transport regulation will gradually become less at the national level and that state regulation will be subject to similar pressures and relax rather than increase. The outlook for energy regulation and for social regulation is less certain, but relaxation of federal controls in those fields appears more likely than is the maintenance of the status quo. The general atmosphere in transport markets will thus become more competitive. Special state issues will likely include the following: 1. How to ensure transport safety with new, perhaps less profitable, perhaps smaller, and possibly more, innovative firms; 2. How to analyze and supply subsidies for desired public purposes in the absence of internal cross subsidy by transportation firms; 3. How to produce neutral public policy toward transport rights-of-way and infrastructure; 4. How to plan and allocate public facilities needed by transport firms in the changed markets resulting from deregulation; and 5. How to obtain and distribute information of interest to consumers plus information needed for planning in a fast-moving deregulated atmosphere. (Author)