I. IS THE SITUATION HOPELESS?<br > EDITOR S INTRODUCTION<br > How gloomy is the mass transit situation? This first see-<br > don discusses existing mass transit facilities. It sketches the<br > development of U.S. transit and traces the decline that fol-<br > lowed $Vorld War II.<br > The articles in this section provide background for all<br > that follows elsewhere in die book. As the final article by<br > Thomas E. Lisco notes， individual choices as to what form<br > of transportation to use depend on the shape o~ the com-<br > munity， one s pocketbook， and the ease or difficulty of driv-<br >!ng and perking. Thus the form the transit picture will take<br >m a specific area depends on dozens of individual local<br >circumstances. The solution that would suit Moline prob-<br >ably wouldn t suit Pittsburgh.<br > Tile first article is an overview of urban mass transit，<br >with stress on the need to mesh planning for cars with other<br >forms of transit. The second article， from the Christian Sci-<br >ence Monitor， oEers details of what the transit tangle means<br >for a specific city， Boston. An article from Congressional<br >Digest details the scope of existing urban transportation--<br >how many vehicles， what kind， carrying how many passen-<br >gers how far， and so forth. Next， also from Congressional<br >Digest， is ai1 article tracing tile development of the present<br >Federal role in transit from the earliest years of the Repub-<br >lic to the present.<br > An excerpt fronl President Lyndon B. Johnson s mes-<br >sage to Congress urging creation of a Department of Trans-<br >portation provides a broad survey of past needs and responses<br >as well as present and future realities in transportation.<br >(The Department was established as a Cabinet office on<br >October 15， 1966.) The final selection in this section is an<br > 11<br >