{UAH} What is the history of traffic law in the United States?

What is the history of traffic law in the United States?

1 Answer

Twyla Naythias, worked at Trucking

Answered Jul 27, 2014 · Author has 873 answers and 4.1m answer views

Prior to the 20th century, there weren't any traffic laws as there wasn't really any need - in 1900, there were fewer than 10,000 cars in the entire world and few navigable roads.  A mere decade later, however, there were over 130,000 cars, 35,000 trucks, and 150,000 motorcycles in the United States alone.

For the most part, regulations (which had previously concerned horse-drawn wagons and locomotives) were minimal and highly localized.  But the explosion of vehicles in the 1920s, taking advantage of the infrastructure improvements made for WWI, quickly had over 10 million each cars, trucks, and motorcycles travelling from city to city and state to state - leading to a mass outbreak of chaos as regulations and signage variegated wildly and bewildered non-local drivers.

Some places drove on the left (a hold-over from the days of horseback) while others drove on the right (for passengers' convenience), traffic cops used different signals in different cities, traffic signs and lights came in all shapes and colors...  It was a madhouse!  Fortunately, few vehicles could exceed 40 MPH, but it was already clear something had to be done.

In 1927, the American Association of State Highway Officials published the two collections of regulations for uniform road construction, signage, and traffic regulations - one for urban environments and one for rural.  Unfortunately, these were often contradictory and - even by the standards of the day - considerably lacking.  These were finally unified, revised, and expanded to form the 1932 Manual on Uniform Traffic Control Devices.

By the 1950s, following WWII and further improvements to US roadways (including the start of the Interstate Highway System), most of what we now take for granted concerning traffic regulations were firmly in place.  Motorcycles had largely fallen out of favor, owing to the creature comforts of cars (including radios and air conditioning), with more than 70 million cars and 30 million trucks packing the roadways.

Of course, this wasn't without unforeseen problems.  People were used to driving narrow, twisting roads at relatively slow speeds (usually under 45 MPH) - wide, straight highways with 60-90 MPH traffic were terrifying!  Most people gradually adapted to the new system, though some never did.  Even today, inexperienced drivers are often terrified of freeway driving.

Short form of the above, it took roughly 20 years (1912 to 1932) to mold the chaos of "that new-fangled horseless carriage" into the standards which have evolved (though not changed significantly) over the past 80+ years.

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Gwokto La'Kitgum

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