Automobile Club of Southern California
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| Headquarters | Los Angeles, California |
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Region served
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Southern California |
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Parent organization
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American Automobile Association |
| Website | http://www.calif.aaa.com |
The Automobile Club of Southern California is the Southern California affiliate of the American Automobile Association (AAA) federation of motor clubs. The Auto Club was founded on December 13, 1900, in Los Angeles as one of the nation's first motor clubs dedicated to improving roads, proposing traffic laws, and improvement of overall driving conditions. Today, it is the single largest member of the AAA federation, with 6.2 million members in its home territory of Southern California, a total of 13.6 million members across all subsidiaries in 20 states, and an annual budget in excess of $4 billion.
The Auto Club was an early advocate for the construction of the Ridge Route, the first highway through the Tehachapi Mountains and San Gabriel Mountains, which directly linked Los Angeles to Bakersfield and the Central Valley. The completion of the Ridge Route greatly facilitated automobile travel through this significant mountain barrier.
Starting around 1910, the Auto Club sent teams of cartographers to survey the state's roads for the production of maps and to create a uniform signing system. The Auto Club posted thousands of porcelain-on-steel traffic signs throughout the state and continued to do so until the State of California took over the task in the mid-1950s. The signs were produced by a local company that manufactured porcelain-on-steel bathtubs. A few of these signs remain in service today, though they are extremely rare.
The year 1923 marked the completion of the Auto Club's main office on the corner of Figueroa Street and Adams Boulevard in downtown Los Angeles. Designed by architects Sumner P. Hunt and Silas R. Burns, and built in the Spanish Colonial Revival style, the building now serves as the Los Angeles branch office. The club's headquarters are still in Los Angeles but its administrative offices are in Costa Mesa.
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Wikipedia