California State Automobile Association
Encyclopedia
American Automobile Association
AAA , formerly known as the American Automobile Association, is a federation of 51 independently operated motor clubs throughout North America. AAA is a not-for-profit member service organization with more than 51 million members. AAA provides services to its members such as travel, automotive,...
(AAA) National Federation. As the names states, it serves members in Northern California
Northern California
Northern California is the northern portion of the U.S. state of California. The San Francisco Bay Area , and Sacramento as well as its metropolitan area are the main population centers...
, Nevada
Nevada
Nevada is a state in the western, mountain west, and southwestern regions of the United States. With an area of and a population of about 2.7 million, it is the 7th-largest and 35th-most populous state. Over two-thirds of Nevada's people live in the Las Vegas metropolitan area, which contains its...
, and Utah
Utah
Utah is a state in the Western United States. It was the 45th state to join the Union, on January 4, 1896. Approximately 80% of Utah's 2,763,885 people live along the Wasatch Front, centering on Salt Lake City. This leaves vast expanses of the state nearly uninhabited, making the population the...
.
History
The California State Automobile Association traces its history to a 1900 meeting of car buffs in San Francisco's Cliff House.Recognizing the need for better roads (America had very few paved roadways outside of cities), signage, and more friendly laws, those car owners formed the Automobile Club of California (ACC) to deal with barriers that hindered acceptance of the auto throughout the state.
The club’s efforts began to pay off in 1905, when the legislature passed a set of uniform regulations governing the use of motor vehicles on California highways. This established the state, rather than individual local jurisdictions, as the authority on motor vehicle law and did away with a jumble of local regulations.
In 1907, ACC merged into the newly founded California State Automobile Association, which formally affiliated with the American Automobile Association (AAA) in that same year. The new club’s (stated) focus was “Good Roads and Just Legislation.”
CSAA sent teams of cartographers to survey California's roads for the production of maps, with the first ones produced in 1909. The organization also helped post thousands of porcelain-on-steel traffic sign
Traffic sign
Traffic signs or road signs are signs erected at the side of roads to provide information to road users. With traffic volumes increasing over the last eight decades, many countries have adopted pictorial signs or otherwise simplified and standardized their signs to facilitate international travel...
s throughout the state and continued to do so until the State of California took over the task in the early 1950s.
CSAA began to offer automobile insurance in 1913 and homeowner's insurance in 1974.
In 1933, CSAA opened its first office in Nevada, and thereafter became the designated AAA affiliate in that state. In 1994, CSAA acquired the Automobile Club of Utah.
The club changed its name to AAA Northern California, Nevada & Utah, or AAA NCNU, for marketing purposes in 2008. However, it still legally retains the California State Automobile Association name.