This volume investigates the primary economic and regulatory challenges facing the American transportation sector at the dawn of the 1980s. Gayton E. Germane, a professor at the Stanford Graduate School of Business, compiles a series of expert analyses to address the shifting landscape of infrastructure, energy efficiency, and government oversight. The text provides a framework for understanding how deregulation and changing market demands necessitated a reevaluation of national transit priorities.

Experts recognize this work as a significant snapshot of the transition toward deregulation in the American transportation sector. Readers frequently note the academic density of the prose, which serves as a foundational reference for understanding the policy debates of the era.