TTM web

Texas road transportation history

presented by the Texas Transportation Museum, San Antonio

1858 – The Butterfield Overland Mail Service begins running from St. Louis to San Francisco.

1868 – Houston gets mule drawn street cars

1876 – Fort Worth gets mule drawn street cars

1897 – First automobile demonstrated in Houston, first streets in that city paved.

1891 – Houston street car service is electrified.

1902 – First car in Lockhart, owned by Emil Seeliger

1905 – 80 automobiles in Houston

1909 – First Ford dealerships opened in Fort Worth, San Antonio and other cities to sell and service the Model T introduced one year earlier

1910 – 3,500 miles of paved roads in Texas

1911 – First chapter of the “Good Roads Association,” in Texas, part of the National Highways Association.

1917 – Texas Highway Department created. Texas is one of the last three states to form a DOT. It would have lost out on Federal funding without one. (Massachusetts was the first, in 1894.)

1917 – First road designated as a Texas State Highway

1917 – 197, 720 motor vehicles are registered in Texas

1922 – The first electronically linked traffic lights in the USA are installed in Houston TX.

1923 – Gasoline tax at one cent per gallon introduced in Texas. 75% of revenue is to fund road construction and maintenance and 25% is to go to education.

1923 – Texas state speed limit is set at 35 MPH.

1927 – Texas becomes #1 oil producing state

1929 – One automobile for every 4.3 Texans

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