By the time Standard Oil Co. divided itself
into a set of regional oil companies, which
soon to become monopoly-like companies themselves,
it was controlling about 95 percent of
the oil refining and distribution market.
1910: 458,000 registered passenger cars on the roads.
1911: Supreme Court declared that Standard Oil Company was a monopoly and ordered it to split up. Standard Oil eventually gave birth to other oil giants such as BP, ExxonMobile, Chevron, and Sunoco.
1914: WW I erupted. Government began to gear its self towards the war.
1916: Federal Road Act passed.
FRA provided grants to states for improvement of postal roads. Rural roads received a good chunk of the funds.
1917: All 48 states established some form of state road departments in order to deal with the federal government and receive funding (only a year before, only 36 states had such an agency).
The U.S. entered the WW I. A huge stress was placed on railroads, which carried a majority of the transportation load during the war but not without problems. Partly due to the corrupt or inefficient management practices, at times, railroads could not adequately meet the war time demand. The federal government stepped in to temporarily take control of the whole operation.
These persisting shortcomings and problems experienced with the railroad infrastructure and
companies were partly responsible for the great push for highways and emphasize on motor-vehicle transport in the near future.