Editing Great Society (section)

===Transportation===
Transportation initiatives started during President Johnson's term in office included the consolidation of transportation agencies into a cabinet-level position under the [[United States Department of Transportation|Department of Transportation]].<ref>{{cite web |first=R. Dale |last=Grinder|url=http://dotlibrary.dot.gov/Historian/history.htm |title=The United States Department of Transportation: A Brief History |publisher=U.S. Department of Transportation |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20040717162622/http://dotlibrary.dot.gov/Historian/history.htm |archive-date=July 17, 2004 |url-status=dead}}</ref> The department was authorized by Congress on October 15, 1966, and began operations on April 1, 1967. Congress passed a variety of legislation to support improvements in transportation including The [[Urban Mass Transportation Act of 1964]] which provided $375&nbsp;million for large-scale urban public or private rail projects in the form of matching funds to cities and states and created the [[Urban Mass Transit Administration]] (now the [[Federal Transit Administration]]), [[High Speed Ground Transportation Act of 1965]] which resulted in the creation of [[Metroliner (train)|high-speed rail between New York and Washington]], and the [[National Traffic and Motor Vehicle Safety Act of 1966]]—a bill largely taken credit for by [[Ralph Nader]], whose book ''[[Unsafe at Any Speed]]'' he claims helped inspire the legislation.