LEGAL FOUNDATION FOR HIGHWAYS AND PUBLIC TRANSIT
In the United States, government has since early times assumed the responsibility for providing and regulating roads and streets for public use. This concept, and the principles of law that support it, developed in Great Britain and, even earlier, with the Romans.' Fundamental authority for and control over roads, excepting the 6% on federal lands, rest at the state rather than the federal level. Thus, the constitution of each state, and the acts of each state legislature in carrying out the provisions of that constitution, provide the foundations for highway policy. Within the limits of its constitutional powers, the legislature may delegate its authority for roads to a state highway or transportation commission or director, and to county, township, district, and city authorities. However, control over all highway matters in a given state rests primarily in the state constitution and the legislature. It follows that existing plans for highway administration, finance, and other affairs may be modified by suitable state legislative action. Likewise, with exceptions related to the regulation of interstate commerce, the individual states control highway use.
Public transportation also is controlled at the state or local and not the national level. Originally it was provided by private enterprises operating under franchises granted by state or local jurisdictions. However, today most public transportation is provided by public agencies under authority granted by the respective state legislatures.
The role of the federal government in most highway and transportation matters is almost completely different from that of the states. Congress, however, exercise authority parallel to that of the state legislatures over the mileage i federal lands. On the other hand, it does not have jurisdiction over state and local roads in the several states. Its sole but very considerable power comes through control of the substantial sums of money granted to the individual states or local transit operations under the provisions of a continuing series of federal- aid highway and mass transportation acts, and, in 1978, a combined Surface Transportation Act.
A few among the many federal levers include: (a) restricting the use of federal-aid funds to designated groups of roads designed and constructed to approved standards; (b) requiring that the states provide matching funds; (c) possibly withholding allotted federal aid from a state that has given insufficient maintenance to a road constructed earlier with federal-aid funds or which violates some other federal provision, and (d) stipulating the conditions under which block grants for transit will be made. Thus, through curbs on the use of its money, the federal government has consistently given direction to the high-way and transit policies of the individual states. In contrast to the United States, where primary responsibility for highways and public transportation rests with the individual state governments, the central government of many countries retains direct control of at least the major high-ways and sometimes the transit systems.
Title Post: LEGAL FOUNDATION FOR HIGHWAYS AND PUBLIC TRANSIT
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Author: aditya
Rating: 100% based on 99998 ratings. 5 user reviews.
Author: aditya
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