The vast majority of passenger travel in the United States occurs by automobile for shorter distances and airplane or railroad for longer distances. Most cargo in the U.S. is transported by, in descending order, railroad, truck, pipeline, or boat; air shipping is typically used only for perishables and premium express shipments. Transportation is the largest source of greenhouse gas emissions in the United States.
Ownership and jurisdiction The overwhelming majority of roads in the United States are owned and maintained by state and local governments. Federally maintained roads are generally found only on federal lands (such as national parks) and at federal facilities (like military bases). The Interstate Highway System is partly funded by the federal government but owned and maintained by individual state governments. There are a few private highways in the United States, which use tolls to pay for construction and maintenance. There are many local private roads, generally serving remote or insular residences.
Passenger and freight rail systems, bus systems, water ferries, and dams may be under either public or private ownership and operation. Civilian airlines are all privately owned. Most airports are owned and operated by local government authorities, but there are also some private airports. The Transportation Security Administration has provided security at most major airports since 2001.
The U.S. Department of Transportation and its divisions provide regulation, supervision, and the federal funding portion for all aspects of transportation, except for customs, immigration, and security, which are the responsibility of the U.S. Department of Homeland Security. Federal funding is typically allocated by a five-year transportation bill. Each state has its own Department of Transportation, which builds and maintains state highways, and depending upon the state, may either directly operate or supervise other modes of transportation.
Aviation law is almost entirely the jurisdiction of the U.S. federal government; the Federal Aviation Administration regulates all aspects of civil aviation, air traffic management, certification and compliance, and aviation safety.
Motor vehicle traffic laws are enacted and enforced by state and local authorities, with the exception of roads located on federal property (such as national parks and military bases) or in the unorganized U.S. territories.
The United States Coast Guard is the primary enforcer of law and security on U.S. waterways, inland as well as coastal, but economic jurisdiction over coastal tidelands is shared between state and federal governments.
Mode share
Passenger Mode of passenger transport Passenger-miles(millions) Percent Highway — total 4,273,876 86.93% Passenger vehicles, motorcycles 3,692,760 75.11% Trucks 268,318 5.46% Buses 312,797 6.36% Air Carriers 580,501 11.81% Rail — total 37,757 0.77% Transit 19,832 0.40% Commuter 11,121 0.23% Intercity/Amtrak 6,804 0.14% All other modes (e.g., ferryboats) 4,156 0.08%Source: 2012 estimates by the Bureau of Transportation Statistics Passenger transportation is dominated by a network of over 3.9 million miles of highways which is pervasive and highly developed by global standards. Passenger transportation is dominated by passenger vehicles (including cars, trucks, vans, and motorcycles), which account for 86% of passenger-miles traveled. The remaining 14% was handled by planes, trains, and buses.A "passenger-mile" is one passenger transported one mile. For example, one vehicle traveling 3 miles carrying 5 passengers generates 15 passenger-miles. Public transit use is highly concentrated in large older cities, with only six above 25% and only New York City above 50% of trips on transit. Airlines carry almost all non-commuter intercity traffic, except the Northeast Corridor where Amtrak carries more than all airlines combined.
The world's second largest automobile market, the United States has the highest rate of per-capita vehicle ownership in the world, with 865 vehicles per 1,000 Americans.
Bicycle usage is minimal with the American Community Survey reporting that bicycle commuting had a 0.61% mode share in 2012 (representing 856,000 American workers nationwide).
Cargo Mode of Freight Shipments 2011 Ton miles(billions) Percent of Total Truck 2,337 40.24% Rail 1,518 26.13% Water 434 7.47% Air & Air/Truck 11 0.19% Pipeline 1,018 17.53% Multiple modes 489 8.43% Other & Unknown 93 1.60% Total 5,807 100%Source: 2011 estimates by the Bureau of Transportation Statistics
Freight transportation is carried by a variety of networks. The largest percentage of US freight is carried by trucks (60%), followed by pipelines (18%), rail (10%), ship (8%), and air (0.01%). Other modes of transportation, such as parcels and intermodal freight accounted for about 3% of the remainder. Air freight is commonly used only for perishables and premium express shipments. The difference in percentage of rail's share by ton-miles and by weight (10% vs 38%) is accounted for by the extreme efficiency of trains. A single railroad locomotive may pull fifty boxcars full of freight while a truck only pulls one. Trucks surpass trains in the weight category due their greater numbers, while trains surpass trucks in the ton-miles category due to the vast distances they travel carrying large amounts of freight.
Usually cargo, apart from petroleum and other bulk commodities, is imported in containers through seaports, then distributed by road and rail. The quasi-governmental United States Postal Service has a monopoly on letter delivery (except for express services) but several large private companies such as FedEx and UPS compete in the package and cargo delivery market.
Safety
The U.S. government's National Center for Health Statistics reported 33,736 motor vehicle traffic deaths in 2014. This exceeded the number of firearm deaths, which was 33,599 in 2014.
In 2020 there was % more road fatalities in the US than in the European Union, or % less in the EU than in the US, with nearly 38,680 in the US, and nearly 18,800 in the EU.
+U.S. passenger fatalities per billion passenger-miles2002-2007Bureau of Transportation Statistics, National Transportation Statistics . Passenger-miles by mode: Table 1-40, p. 74. Air and car fatalities: Table 2-1, p. 125. Transit fatalities: Table 2-32, p. 168. Railroad fatalities: Table 2-39, p. 181. Only fatalities among on-board passengers are counted.Mode Passengerfatalities Passenger-miles(millions) Fatalitiesper billion milesPassenger car 127,124 15,958,620 M 7.97Light rail 79 9,980 M 7.92Motor bus 399 117,982 M 3.38Commuter rail 105 59,736 M 1.76Heavy rail (subway) 106 86,900 M 1.22Railroad (intercity) 36 33,234 M 1.08Airline 113 3,326,286 M 0.03
History
18th century In the late 18th century, overland transportation was by horse, while water and river transportation was primarily by sailing vessel. The United States population was centered on its Atlantic coast, with all major population centers located on a natural harbor or navigable waterway. Low population density between these centers resulted in a heavy reliance on coastwise and riverboat shipping.
The first government expenditures on highway transportation were funded to speed the delivery of overland mail, such as the Boston Post Road between New York City and Boston. Due to the distances between these population centers and the cost to maintain the roads, many highways in the late 18th century and early 19th century were private turnpikes.
Other highways were mainly unimproved and impassable by wagon at least some of the year. Economic expansion in the late 18th century to early 19th century spurred the building of canals to speed goods to market. One such prominent example was the Erie Canal.
19th century Numerous modes of transportation fought for supremacy throughout the Industrial revolution of the 19th century. Canals swiftly took the role of turnpikes, stagecoaches, and wagon routes, which in turn were shortly replaced by steam-powered riverboats. During this period, the advancement in transportation inspired many artists to display the grand contrast from the past to the new. Taking a look at Samuel Colman's work, one piece in particular, Storm King on the Hudson (1866) displayed both the older sailboats and the grand steamboats that were overtaking the Hudson River.
Access to water transportation shaped the geography of early settlements and boundaries. For example, the Erie Canal escalated the boundary dispute called the Toledo War between Ohio and Michigan in the 1830s. The disputed Erie Triangle was awarded to Pennsylvania, giving that state access to Lake Erie. Most of West Florida was given to Mississippi and Alabama to guarantee their access to the Gulf of Mexico.
Development of the mid-western and southern states drained by the Mississippi River system (Mississippi, Ohio and Missouri Rivers) was accelerated by the introduction of steamboats on these rivers in the early 19th Century. These three rivers (among others) also form the borders of several states. Prior to the introduction of steamboats, transit upstream was impractical because of strong currents on parts of these waterways. Steamboats provided both passenger and freight transportation until the development of railroads later in the 19th Century gradually reduced their presence.
The rapid expansion of railroads brought the canal boom to a sudden end, providing a quick, scheduled and year-round mode of transportation that quickly spread to interconnect the states by the mid-19th century. During the industrialization of the United States after the Civil War, railroads, led by the transcontinental rail system in the 1860s, expanded quickly across the United States to serve industries and the growing cities. During the late 19th century, railroads often had built redundant routes to a competitor's road or built through sparsely populated regions that generated little traffic. These marginal rail routes survived the pricing pressures of competition, or the lack of revenue generated by low traffic, as long as railroads provided the only efficient economical way to move goods and people across the United States. In addition to the intercity passenger network running on Class I and II railroads, a large network of interurban (trolley or "street running") rail lines extended out from the cities and interchanged passenger and freight traffic with the railroads and also provided competition.
20th century
The advent of the automobile signaled the end of railroads as the predominant transportation for people and began a new era of mobility in the United States. The early 20th century Lincoln Highway and other auto trails gave way in the 1920s to an early national highway system making the automobile the primary mode of travel for most Americans. Interurban rail service declined, followed by trolley cars due in part to the advent of motorized buses and the lack of dedicated rights-of-way but also by deliberate efforts to dismantle urban rail infrastructure.
The scarcity of industrial materials during World War II slowed the growth of automobile manufacturing briefly and contributed to the nation's declining rail network. In the 1950s, however, the United States renewed building a network of high-capacity, high-speed highways to link its vast territory. The most important element is the Interstate Highway system, first commissioned in the 1950s by President Dwight D. Eisenhower and modeled partly after the Italian autostrada and the German Autobahn system.
By 1945, after the end of World War II, nearly every city in America had at least one electric tram company providing intra-city transportation. There were an estimated 36,377 light rail vehicles in operation. Increased automobile ownership cut this number by 1/3 by 1965.