need to ask question to our more advance (in age) members

[vash]

WTF was an auto-club?

i know AAA is an autoclub..or was an autoclub. how were they funded? 100% member fee funding?

i know they did highway projects back in the day. like signs. until 1947, all California signs were done by various autoclubs. how the heck did they pay for that?

there is very little on the google.

[pwd72s]

Hey, I'm old..born in '43, but I'm not that old..

[stevej37]

[sammyg2]

Originally Posted by vash

WTF was an auto-club?

i know AAA is an autoclub..or was an autoclub. how were they funded? 100% member fee funding?

i know they did highway projects back in the day. like signs. until 1947, all California signs were done by various autoclubs. how the heck did they pay for that?

there is very little on the google.

Three wars back we called Sauerkraut "liberty cabbage" and we called liberty cabbage "super slaw" and back then a suitcase was known as a "Swedish lunchbox." Of course, nobody knew that but me. Anyway, long story short... is a phrase whose origins are complicated and rambling:

My story begins in nineteen-dickety-two. We had to say “dickety” because the Kaiser had stolen our word “twenty”.
(I chased that rascal to get it back, but gave up after dickety-six miles.
What are you cackling at, fatty? Too much pie, that's your problem! Now, I'd like to digress from my prepared remarks to discuss how I invented the terlet...

You see, back in those days, rich men would ride around in Zeppelins, dropping coins on people, and one day I seen J.D. Rockefeller flying by. So I run of the house with a big washtub and... hey! Where are you going?

Anyway, about my washtub. I'd just used it that morning to wash my turkey, which in those days was known as a walking-bird. We'd always have walking-bird on Thanksgiving, with all the trimmings: cranberries, injun eyes, yams stuffed with gunpowder.
Then we'd all watch football, which in those days was called baseball...

Like the time I caught the ferry over to Shelbyville. I needed a new heel for my shoe, so, I decided to go to Morganville, which is what they called Shelbyville in those days.
So I tied an onion to my belt, which was the style at the time.
Now, to take the ferry cost a nickel, and in those days, nickels had pictures of bumblebees on 'em. “Give me five bees for a quarter,” you'd say.

Now where were we? Oh yeah: the important thing was I had an onion on my belt, which was the style at the time.
They didn't have white onions because of the war. The only thing you could get was those big yellow ones...
there's an interesting story behind this nickel. In 1957, I remember it was, I got up in the morning and made myself a piece of toast. I set the toaster to three: medium brown.

I first took a fancy to Mrs. Bouvier because her raspy voice reminded me of my old Victrola. Oh, it was a fine machine with a vulcanized rubber listening tube which you crammed in your ear. The tube would go in easier with some sort of lubricant like linseed oil.

Not many people know this, but I owned the first radio in Springfield. Not much on the air then, just Edison reciting the alphabet over and over. “A” he'd say; then “B.” “C” would usually follow...

Then after World War Two, it got kinda quiet, 'til Superman challenged FDR to a race around the world. FDR beat him by a furlong, or so the comic books would have you believe. The truth lies somewhere in between.

I'm sorry, what was the question?






(credit to Abe Simpson)

[Zeke]

I'm an AAA member and I get the regional mag each month. IIRC, they used to maintain certain roads and hi-ways. I think the AAA had some doing is establishing the first real road from our northern SoCal vally to Bakersfield. Now called the Ridge Route.

"The road got its name because it followed the ridge line of the mountains, a crossing so difficult that one time there was serious talk of splitting the state in two. Southern California interests, including the Auto Club, worked to make the road a reality and preserve the state as one. The road was finished in 1915. Today, you can still drive a portion of the original Ridge Route - more than 30 miles of bad road, spectacular views , and history."
—Ridge Route Scholar

[sammyg2]

AAA is similar to the NRA, in that it is a private organization of members.

American Automobile Association
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Founded
March 4, 1902; 116 years ago
Chicago, Illinois, U.S.

Headquarters
1000 AAA Drive
Heathrow, Florida, United States

Products
Maps, Travel guides, Car batteries

Services
Roadside assistance, Auto repair, Travelling, Motoring advice, Traffic safety, Others

Website
www.aaa.com

The American Automobile Association (AAA – pronounced "Triple A") is a federation of motor clubs throughout North America. AAA is a privately held national member association, and service business with over 58 million members

[1] in the United States and Canada.[2] AAA provides services to its members, including roadside assistance and others. Its national headquarters are in Heathrow, Florida.[3]

History
The American Automobile Association (the "AAA" or "Triple-A") was founded on March 4, 1902, in Chicago, Illinois, when in response to a lack of roads and highways suitable for automobiles,[4] nine motor clubs with a total of 1,500 members banded together to form the Triple-A. Those individual motor clubs included the Chicago Automobile Club, Automobile Club of America, Automobile Club of New Jersey, and others.[5] The Automobile Club of Buffalo joined in 1903.[6]

In 1904, the AAA merged with the very first American automobile organization, the American Motor League under the direction of the first chairman, Augustus Post.[7][8]

The first AAA road maps were published in 1905. AAA began printing hotel guides in 1917. The Triple-A began its School Safety Patrol Program in 1920, the first of the association's driver safety programs, which provided local schools with materials, including badges and ID cards[9] to train and organize students into a patrol force. The AAA Foundation for Traffic Safety, which conducts studies on motorist safety, was established as a separate entity in 1947.[citation needed]

AAA created an organization called the Racing Board, and later known as the Contest Board, in 1902 to officiate the Vanderbilt Cup international automobile race in Long Island, New York. The Racing Board sanctioned the Indianapolis 500 and awarded national racing championships in 1905, 1916, 1920–1941, and 1946–1955.[10] After the 1955 Le Mans disaster, AAA decided that auto racing distracted from its primary goals, and the United States Automobile Club was formed to take over the race sanctioning/officiating. In 2005, AAA re-entered racing as a sponsor of ISC-owned tracks. In 2006, AAA's foray into racing expanded when it made a three-year commitment to sponsor Roush Racing's number 6 car on the NASCAR Nextel Circuit


In 1935, AAA published Sportsmanlike Driving, the first course outline for high school teachers. In 1936, AAA published the first driver education curriculum for use in high schools (also titled Sportsmanlike Driving, now known as Responsible Driving).[11] AAA has updated its driver training courses throughout the years and many clubs currently offer their own driving schools, or work with other companies to provide AAA’s driving curriculum.[12]

Knowing that vehicles pose a hazard to pedestrians, in 1936 AAA began a pedestrian safety program with a grant from the Automotive Safety Foundation. AAA went on to commission and publish (1938) an extensive study of pedestrian safety for the purpose of reducing pedestrian fatalities and injuries. AAA’s Pedestrian Protection Program began in 1937 and focuses national attention on pedestrian safety needs by recognizing cities, counties and states that have demonstrated successful pedestrian safety programs.[13]

The AAA Foundation for Traffic Safety was established as a separate entity in 1947, and continues to conduct research related to traffic and pedestrian safety.[citation needed]

AAA has also provided services to the U.S. government in times of war. During the 1940s, AAA offered its services to the Advisory Commission of the Council of National Defense[14] in anticipation of becoming involved in World War II. AAA President Thomas P. Henry was appointed consultant in the transportation unit of the Defense Council, and AAA pledged resources, including highway information, to national defense planning efforts as it had during World War I.[15]

Reductions in manufacturing because of the war increased the need for conservation in automobiles and their related products. AAA's efforts at conservation included supporting the manufacture of synthetic rubber in anticipation of a war-related tire/rubber shortage, urging motorists to reduce their driving speed to conserve fuel (1942); and backing a scrap rubber campaign (1942). In 1944, AAA’s Keep 'em Rolling campaign sponsored a cross-country tour featuring cars equipped with synthetic tires. The tour demonstrated the reliability of tires made with synthetic rubber.[16] In doing its part to assist in the war effort, AAA placed its mapping facilities at the disposal of the Army department; conducted motor pool driver education (1943); secured an order from the War Production Board that stopped the sale of certain anti-freeze solutions harmful to motors (1943); launched a campaign to alleviate a growing shortage of auto mechanics (1943); monitored tire and gasoline rationing (1943); and established, in cooperation with the Red Cross and military hospitals, a driver training program for veterans with artificial limbs (1944). AAA also assisted in the development of a manual on Uniform Traffic Control Devices and their operation during wartime (1942).[17]

[Jim Richards]

[Crowbob]

I’m pretty old and can’t answer the question. Nothing new there.

However, being old eliminates the need for asking a buncha questions. The OP is one such question.