Putting the brakes on 'non-essential' travel: 1940s wartime mobility, prosperity, and the US Office of Defense Transportation

摘要

The United States Office of Defense Transportation (ODT) existed a short seven and a half years during and immediately after World War Ⅱ. It had a single mission to accomplish: co-ordinate all domestic transport for the successful prosecution of the war. Within three years of accomplishing its mission the ODT quietly disbanded and was forgotten by the American people. Its low profile and its quiet departure obscure the unprecedented way in which the ODT changed Americans' travel behaviour during the booming war economy years of 1942-45 and the frustration and opposition its policies provoked. This article explores the history of the agency and describes how it frustrated Americans' dreams of mobility just when they regained the means to rekindle their love of the automobile.