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AAA Hoosier Motor Club was originally organized in 1902 as a social group called the Flat Tire Club.
At that time, there were only 23,000 automobiles registered in the United States.
Initially, group members participated in weekend social trips while garbed in linen dusters, caps and goggles. They brought picnic lunches and, most of the time, were accompanied by a “service car,” which carried spare parts, tires--which frequently wore out after 70 miles--and gasoline.
In those days, Richmond was a two-day drive from the capitol city while Crawfordsville was a full-day venture.
The group re-organized in 1911 and changed its name to the Hoosier Motor Club. Six years later, in 1917, the 500-member club affiliated with the American Automobile Association (AAA).
Early club organizers and officials included Carl G. Fisher, founder and creator of the Indianapolis Motor Speedway; Charles A. Bookwalter, mayor of Indianapolis from 1901-03 and then again from 1906-09 and Frederick M. Ayers, of L.S. Ayres & Co; among others.
The Hoosier Motor Club office was originally located in Indianapolis’ Claypool Hotel before being moved to the Spink-Arms Hotel on Vermont Ave.
In January of 1918, membership had increased to 1,250 and by 1925, there were 7,000 members in the club.
Headquarters moved from 1840 N. Meridian St. to 40 West 40th Street in 1928 but that location would eventually become the club’s Butler-Tarkington service center.
Membership numbers continued to increase substantially as the 26,000 mark was surpassed in 1952. Nearly three years later, membership had grown to 45,840 and by 1963 the club boasted 80,000 members.
The 100,000 mark was surpassed in 1965 and an additional 50,000 members were added during the next nine years.
The club’s first branch office opened in Jeffersonville in 1965 (now Clarksville). Soon thereafter, in 1967, offices were added in Richmond and Anderson followed by one in Muncie in 1968.
Later, the Lafayette Auto Club and Terre Haute Auto Club merged with the Hoosier Motor Club, which resulted in additional branch offices in Kokomo, Bloomington, Crawfordsville and Columbus during the 1970s.
In 1982, during its 80th anniversary year, AAA Hoosier Motor Club surpassed the 200,000-member milestone and two years later, club headquarters was moved to its current location at 3750 Guion Road near W. 38th Street in Indianapolis.
The club also added a service center in New Castle in 1987.
Although the auto club initially began as a social group, it quickly evolved into an early legislative power during those early years while addressing issues that included the ownership and use of motor vehicles, road development, the implementation of directional signs, auto theft, and safety.
The creation of a state highway department originated from a motor club-sponsored bill that was passed into law in 1919. The club was also heavily involved in the passage of a bill that required motorists to use dimmers as well as another that made the “unlawful taking of an auto” a felony that same year.
Prior to the establishment of an actual state highway department, AAA Hoosier Motor Club claimed responsibility for the erection of road directional and street signs, which involved painted white bands strategically positioned on existing light poles. Those were later replaced with updated signs that were created by the new state highway department.
While working in conjunction with the Indianapolis Police Department, the club was an early proponent of school safety awareness by initiating local school safety programs in the early 1920s in conjunction with the formation of AAA’s “Schoolboy Patrol.” Later, the Hoosier Motor Club began to supply patrol belts and materials for school safety patrol boys and girls.
The club still supports that initiative today, along with its “School’s Open-Drive Carefully” program which provides thousands of pieces of traffic safety literature, posters and bumper stickers, free of charge, to schools and law-enforcement agencies.
Though not widely-publicized, AAA sanctioned and served as the governing body of the Indianapolis 500 during its early years. In fact, Hoosier Motor Club members erected 600 directional signs in 1928 to direct race visitors to the Indianapolis Motor Speedway.
By 1929, the need for an established road service program in the state was growing so AAA Hoosier Motor Club purchased its first service trucks in order to provide members with free tow-in service.
In 1955, mobile radio units were installed in those trucks to facilitate service calls. That year, they responded to 37,121 calls for help.
By comparison, club trucks responded to 152,944 calls in 1989 and the club initiated a self-contained fleet operation in November, 1990.
Worldwide travel service was made available to Hoosier Motor Club members in 1949.
In 1960, 39,000 “routings,” now referred to as TripTiks, were issued to members by the club’s auto travel department.
AAA Hoosier Motor Club celebrated its 100th birthday March 4, 2002.
Leaders of the club since World War II have included only five individuals: Todd Stoops, Secretary-Manager 1924-52; former Lt. Governor Richard T. James, Secretary-Manager, 1952-65, James W. Parks, who was named president and CEO in 1966; Mark H. Brown and current president and CEO, Terry R. Farias.
Today, there are 15 branch offices that provide AAA service to Hoosier Motor Club members who reside within the club’s 50-county Indiana territory.
The club has remained very active in governmental issues over the years while successfully lobbying for legislation relative to seat belt usage, graduated drivers’ licensing, drunk driving and other traffic safety related issues. In fact, since 2000, AAA Hoosier Motor Club has been a major legislative force in Indiana while successfully lobbying for both a new booster seat law and a revised/improved version of the state’s seat belt law, in particular.
Additionally, as a widely-recognized leader in child passenger safety, the club has steadily maintained an employee-based group of nationally-certified child passenger safety seat technicians over the last few years who have provided complimentary safety seat inspections to both AAA members and non-members alike.
Collectively, club technicians have inspected more than 2,000 car seats!
AAA Hoosier Motor Club also now boasts a nationally-recognized Approved Driving School Network in which commercial driving schools are inspected by club personnel and, if approved, granted affiliation with the club in order to encourage new drivers in the state to take advantage of pre-licensing education.
The Hoosier Motor Club now stands as a 405,000 member affiliate of AAA, which is the largest motoring and traveling organization in the world with more than 51 million members in the U.S. and Canada.
It responds to more than 200,000 emergency road service calls and distributes thousands of TripTiks every year.
Additionally, in January of 2007, AAA Hoosier Motor Club joined ACA Holdings, Inc., a holding company originally launched by the California State Automobile Association (CSAA) and AAA Arizona in 2005.
With the addition of the Hoosier Motor Club, the partnership, headquartered in San Francisco, CA, is now comprised of six AAA clubs and collectively operates in 11 states: California, Nevada, and Utah (CSAA), Oklahoma and South Dakota (AAA Oklahoma), Montana, Wyoming and Alaska (AAA Mountain/West), Arizona (AAA Arizona), Indiana (AAA Hoosier Motor Club) and Ohio (AAA Northwest Ohio).
ACA Holdings, Inc. serves more than 6 million AAA members.
“There aren't many businesses that can say they've been in operation for 100 years,” said AAA Hoosier Motor Club President and CEO Terry R. Farias. “We're proud of our history and excited about our future. Our members have made us an icon in the state of Indiana and while we’re certainly happy with what we’ve accomplished, we realize there’s still a lot of work that needs to be done.”
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