1  How Many Layers Are There?

Transportation is considered a vital part of how a country operates.

It should then come to be no surprise that there is a lot of bureaucracy.

1.1 The big picture

flowchart TD
  A[Congress] --> B[USDOT]

  B --> C[FHWA]
  B --> D[FTA]
  B --> E[FRA]
  B --> F[FAA]
  B --> G[NHTSA]
  B --> H[FMCSA]
  B --> I[PHMSA]

  C --> J[State DOTs]
  D --> J
  E --> J
  F --> J
  G --> J
  H --> J
  I --> J

  J --> K[MPOs]
  J --> L(RPOs)
  J --> M[City and County DOTs]
  J --> N[Transit Agencies]

  %% Clickable links
  click A "https://www.congress.gov"
  click B "https://www.transportation.gov"
  click C "https://www.fhwa.dot.gov"
  click D "https://www.transit.dot.gov"
  click E "https://railroads.dot.gov"
  click F "https://www.faa.gov"
  click G "https://www.nhtsa.gov"
  click H "https://www.fmcsa.dot.gov"
  click I "https://www.phmsa.dot.gov"
  click J "https://wikipave.org/index.php/List_of_Departments_of_Transportation_(DOTs)"
  click K "https://www.planning.dot.gov/mpo/"

Above is the very abstracted, big picture of how the transportation bureaucratic system is set up.

At the top is Congress and at the bottom are the local government entities. In the middle are the federal and state organizations.