Deregulating Transportation While antitrust law may have been intended to increase competition, much other regulation had the opposite effect. As Americans grew more concerned about inflation in the 1970s, regulation that reduced price competition came under renewed scrutiny. In a number of cases, government decided to ease controls in cases where regulation shielded companies from market pressures. Transportation was the first target of deregulation. Under President Jimmy Carter (1977-1981), Congress enacted a series of laws that removed most of the regulatory shields around aviation, trucking, and railroads. Companies were allowed to compete by utilizing any air, road, or rail route they chose, while more freely setting the rates for their services. In the process of transportation deregulation, Congress eventually abolished two major economic regulators: the 109-year-old Interstate Commerce Commission and the 45-year-old Civil Aeronautics Board.