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44-476: Caltrans manages the state's highway system , which includes the California Freeway and Expressway System , supports public transportation systems throughout the state and provides funding and oversight for three state-supported Amtrak intercity rail routes ( Capitol Corridor , Pacific Surfliner and San Joaquins ) which are collectively branded as Amtrak California . In 2015, Caltrans released

88-552: A Task Force Committee on Transportation to study the state transportation system and recommend major reforms. One of the proposals of the task force was the creation of a State Transportation Board as a permanent advisory board on state transportation policy; the board would later merge into the California Transportation Commission in 1978. In September 1971, the State Transportation Board proposed

132-693: A ceremony performed by Rev. J. Thomson of the Unity Church. Hill was a Massachusetts native living in Los Angeles as early as 1888. The 1900 Los Angeles census shows McCarroll as June Hill, physician, married three years but no husband in household. According to the 1910 census, 1900 was the year of McCarroll's second marriage to James R. Robertson. McCarroll attended a medical college in Chicago, then eventually moved back to Southern California in 1904 with her second husband, James R. Robertson. They had hoped that

176-484: A cost of $ 163,000 (equivalent to $ 2.3 million in 2023 ). Later the idea was adopted worldwide. On April 24, 2002, to honor her contribution to road safety, California officially designated the stretch of Interstate 10 near Indio east of the Indio Boulevard/Jefferson Street exit as "The Doctor June McCarroll Memorial Freeway." In October 2003, a memorial plaque honoring McCarroll was placed on

220-489: A local government wants to add landscaping in the center median or install additional traffic lights or other traffic control devices, it can immediately do so itself rather than having to negotiate with Caltrans. Not all cities have been prepared to accept such routes from Caltrans simultaneously, so many have been decommissioned from the state system one fragment at a time. In the case of the San Francisco Bay Area,

264-524: A new mission statement: "Provide a safe, sustainable, integrated and efficient transportation system to enhance California's economy and livability." The earliest predecessor of Caltrans was the Bureau of Highways, which was created by the California Legislature and signed into law by Governor James Budd in 1895. This agency consisted of three commissioners who were charged with analyzing the roads of

308-587: A small concrete obelisk next to the intersection of Indio Boulevard and Fargo Street in Indio, California . The plaque is located at GPS coordinates 33°43.260′N 116°13.040′W  /  33.721000°N 116.217333°W  / 33.721000; -116.217333 . The Federal Highway Administration has acknowledged Kenneth I. Sawyer of the Marquette County Road Commission in Michigan for painting

352-462: A statewide system, and are known as State Route X (abbreviated SR X ). United States Numbered Highways are labeled US X , and Interstate Highways are Interstate X . Under the code, the state assigns a unique Route X to each highway, and does not differentiate between state, US, or Interstate highways. The California Highway Patrol (CHP) is tasked with patrolling all state highways to enforce traffic laws. California's highway system

396-491: A truck on the paved highway. It did not take me long to choose between a sandy berth to the right and a ten-ton truck to the left! Then I had my idea of a white line painted down the center of the highways of the country as a safety measure. McCarroll soon communicated her idea to the local chamber of commerce and the Riverside County Board of Supervisors, with no success. Finally, she took it upon herself to hand-paint

440-543: A white stripe down the middle of the road, thus establishing the actual width of the lane to prevent similar accidents. Through the Indio Women's Club and many similar women's organizations, McCarroll launched a vigorous statewide letter writing campaign on behalf of her proposal. In November 1924, the idea was adopted by the California Highway Commission and 3,500 miles (5,600 km) of lines were painted at

484-585: Is covered by District 3. State highways in California The state highway system of the U.S. state of California is a network of highways that are owned and maintained by the California Department of Transportation (Caltrans). Each highway is assigned a Route (officially State Highway Route ) number in the Streets and Highways Code (Sections 300–635) . Most of these are numbered in

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528-680: Is disputed by the Federal Highway Administration and the Michigan Department of Transportation as two Michigan men painted centerlines before her. She was born in Lewis County, New York . She was a nurse (later a physician) with the Southern Pacific Railroad in the early 20th century. According to a historic marker in Indio, California , after a near-collision in her Model T in 1917, "She personally painted

572-634: Is governed pursuant to Division 1 of the California Streets and Highways Code , which is one of the 29 California Codes enacted by the state legislature. Since July 1 of 1964, the majority of legislative route numbers , those defined in the Streets and Highways Code, match the sign route numbers . For example, Interstate 5 is listed as "Route 5" in the code. On the other hand, some short routes are instead signed as parts of other routes — for instance, Route 112 and Route 260 are signed as part of

616-487: The 5 to L.A. "), while the former use the number alone (e.g. "taking 80 to San Francisco ") or less frequently, with "I-" in the case of interstate freeways. The Southern California usage of the definite article is seen as stereotypical of Southern California "surfer" culture, and has been parodied in the recurring Saturday Night Live sketch " The Californians ". When the Southern California freeway system

660-649: The Federal-Aid Highway Act of 1956 for the construction of its portion of the Interstate Highway System . Over the next two decades after Collier-Burns, the state "embarked on a massive highway construction program" in which nearly all of the now-extant state highway system was either constructed or upgraded. In hindsight, the period from 1940 to 1969 can be characterized as the "Golden Age" of California's state highway construction program. The history of Caltrans and its predecessor agencies during

704-711: The Imperial / Riverside County line and Interstate 10 east of Indio was initially signed as State Route 86S until it was eventually transferred to SR 86. Likewise, the freeway replacement for State Route 180 in Fresno was initially referred to as State Route 180S . The first legislative routes were defined by the State Highway Bond Act in 1909, passed by the California State Legislature and signed by Governor James Gillett . These, and later extensions to

748-743: The National Environmental Policy Act and the California Environmental Quality Act forced Caltrans to devote significant time, money, people, and other resources to confronting issues such as "air and water quality, hazardous waste, archaeology, historic preservation, and noise abatement." The devastating 1971 San Fernando earthquake compelled the agency to recognize that its existing design standards had not adequately accounted for earthquake stress and that numerous existing structures needed expensive seismic retrofitting . Maintenance and construction costs grew at twice

792-401: The 1970s, as its institutional focus shifted from highway construction to highway maintenance. The agency was forced to contend with declining revenues, increasing construction and maintenance costs (especially the skyrocketing cost of maintaining the vast highway system built over the past three prior decades), widespread freeway revolts , and new environmental laws . In 1970, the enactment of

836-635: The 20th century was marked by many firsts. It was one of the first agencies in the United States to paint centerlines on highways statewide; the first to build a freeway west of the Mississippi River ; the first to build a four-level stack interchange ; the first to develop and deploy non-reflective raised pavement markers, better known as Botts' dots ; and one of the first to implement dedicated freeway-to-freeway connector ramps for high-occupancy vehicle lanes . In 1967, Governor Ronald Reagan formed

880-507: The Caltrans district responsible for that region is granted permission to retain in the State highway system routes that run on conventional (non freeway or expressway) roadways unless a freeway is built to bypass the surface street route. One cultural difference between Northern and Southern Californians is that the latter tend to put the definite article "the" before highway numbers (e.g. "taking

924-604: The Department of Engineering into the Department of Public Works, which continued to have a Division of Highways. That same year, three additional divisions (now districts) were created, in Stockton, Bishop, and San Bernardino. In 1933, the state legislature enacted an amendment to the State Highway Classification Act of 1927, which added over 6,700 miles of county roads to the state highway system. To help manage all

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968-439: The Department of Transportation, of which the most important was the Department of Public Works and its Division of Highways. The California Department of Transportation began official operations on July 1, 1973. The new agency was organized into six divisions: Highways, Mass Transportation, Aeronautics, Transportation Planning, Legal, and Administrative Services. Caltrans went through a difficult period of transformation during

1012-454: The State of California into 12 districts, supervised by district offices. Most districts cover multiple counties ; District 12 ( Orange County ) is the only district with one county. The largest districts by population are District 4 ( San Francisco Bay Area ) and District 7 ( Los Angeles and Ventura counties). Like many state agencies, Caltrans maintains its headquarters in Sacramento , which

1056-701: The additional work created by this massive expansion, an eleventh district office was founded that year in San Diego. The enactment of the Collier–Burns Highway Act of 1947 after "a lengthy and bitter legislative battle" was a watershed moment in Caltrans history. The act "placed California highway's program on a sound financial basis" by doubling vehicle registration fees and raising gasoline and diesel fuel taxes from 3 cents to 4.5 cents per gallon. All these taxes were again raised further in 1953 and 1963. The state also obtained extensive federal funding from

1100-479: The construction of a state highway system in 1910, and the first California Highway Commission was convened in 1911. On August 7, 1912, the department broke ground on its first construction project, the section of El Camino Real between South San Francisco and Burlingame , which later became part of California State Route 82 . The year 1912 also saw the founding of the Transportation Laboratory and

1144-464: The creation of a state department of transportation charged with responsibility "for performing and integrating transportation planning for all modes ." Governor Reagan mentioned this proposal in his 1972 State of the State address , and Assemblyman Wadie P. Deddeh introduced Assembly Bill 69 to that effect, which was duly passed by the state legislature and signed into law by Reagan later that same year. AB 69 merged three existing departments to create

1188-402: The creation of seven administrative divisions, which are the predecessors of the 12 district offices in use as of 2018. The original seven division headquarters were located in: In 1913, the California State Legislature began requiring vehicle registration and allocated the resulting funds to support regular highway maintenance, which began the next year. In 1921, the state legislature turned

1232-436: The definition of Route 580 is broken into non-contiguous segments. The state may relinquish segments of highways and turn them over to local control. If the relinquished segment is in the middle of the highway's route, the local jurisdiction is usually required to install and maintain signs directing drivers to the continuation of that highway; they are not generally required to do so if the relinquishment effectively truncates

1276-521: The desert climate would help him recuperate from tuberculosis, but Robertson died in 1914. Within two years, she had remarried, this time to Frank Taylor McCarroll, the local station manager for the Southern Pacific Railroad. From 1907 to 1916, she was the only physician regularly practicing in the vast desert between the Salton Sea and Palm Springs . She was also the only physician serving

1320-451: The first highway centerline in 1917 on what was then M-15 (part of the modern County Road 492 ). Photographs from 1917 of the Michigan location clearly show the centerline in place during that summer, before McCarroll's fall 1917 incident. The first centerline was painted by Edward N. Hines in the Detroit area in 1911 on a city street, so neither can lay claim to the very first centerline in

1364-841: The first known stripe in California on Indio Boulevard, then part of U.S. Route 99 , during 1917." McCarroll was born and raised in the Adirondacks . McCarroll's mother Adaline died December 9, 1867, when McCarroll was only five months old. By the 1880 census, her now remarried father, and his family was living in Emporia, Kansas , where he served a time as mayor. By 1888 her father had abandoned his second wife and son in Kansas and moved to Los Angeles, California, where McCarroll later joined him. On December 31, 1896, June Adaline Whittelsey, age 29, married Timothy Preston Hill, age 36, in Los Angeles, in

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1408-453: The five Indian reservations in the area on behalf of the Bureau of Indian Affairs. In the fall of 1917, McCarroll was driving on the road leading to her office near Indio, California , on a stretch of highway that would later be incorporated into U.S. Route 99 ; the highway remains today as part of Indio Boulevard. She was run off the road by a truck, as she recalled many years later: My Model T Ford and I found ourselves face to face with

1452-402: The governor on November 25, 1896, the legislature replaced the Bureau with the Department of Highways. Due to the state's weak fiscal condition and corrupt politics, little progress was made until 1907, when the legislature replaced the Department of Highways with the Department of Engineering, within which there was a Division of Highways. California voters approved an $ 18 million bond issue for

1496-400: The highway at one end, or is done as part of the process to re-route a highway. The state may also delete a highway completely and turn over an entire state route to local control. Business routes are not maintained by the state unless they are also assigned legislative route numbers. A route or sections of a route may also be considered unrelinquished - a new alignment has been built, or

1540-479: The inflation rate in this era of high inflation; the reluctance of one governor after another to raise fuel taxes in accordance with inflation meant that California ranked dead last in the United States in per capita transportation spending by 1983. During the 1980s and 1990s, Caltrans concentrated on "the upgrading, rehabilitation, and maintenance of the existing system," plus occasional gap closure and realignment projects. For administrative purposes, Caltrans divides

1584-506: The legislative definition has changed to omit the section, but the state still owns the roadway — and are officially Route XU . For example, State Route 14U is an old alignment of State Route 14 whose control has not yet been transferred to the City of Santa Clarita . Some new alignments are considered supplemental and have a suffix of S. For example, an expressway replacement for State Route 86 between approximately three miles north of

1628-558: The longer State Route 61 , and Route 51 is part of Interstate 80 Business . Concurrences are not explicitly codified in the Streets and Highways Code; such highway segments are listed on only one of the corresponding legislative route numbers — for example, the I-80 / I-580 concurrency, known as the Eastshore Freeway , only falls under the Route 80 description in the highway code while

1672-867: The mid-1900s. In 1934, after the major expansion of the state highway system in 1933 by the California Legislature, California sign route numbers were assigned by the California Division of Highways (predecessor to Caltrans). The California sign route numbers were assigned in a geographical system, completely independent of the legislative routes. Odd-numbered routes ran north–south and even-numbered routes ran east–west. The routes were split among southern California (ACSC) and central and northern California (CSAA) as follows: For instance, State Route 1 and State Route 4 were in central and northern California, and State Route 2 and State Route 3 (since moved) were in southern California. A rough grid

1716-407: The route numbers was more common. The list of routes, as defined in the California Streets and Highways code, is split into the following pages: June McCarroll June McCarroll (June 30, 1867 – March 30, 1954) is credited by the California Department of Transportation with the idea of delineating highways with a painted line to separate lanes of highway traffic, although this claim

1760-442: The state and making recommendations for their improvement. At the time, there was no state highway system, since roads were purely a local responsibility. California's roads consisted of crude dirt roads maintained by county governments, as well as some paved streets in certain cities, and this ad hoc system was no longer adequate for the needs of the state's rapidly growing population. After the commissioners submitted their report to

1804-736: The system, were numbered sequentially. No signs were erected for these routes. The United States Numbered Highways were assigned by the American Association of State Highway Officials (AASHO) in November 1926, but posting did not begin in California until January 1928. These were assigned to some of the main legislative routes in California. Initially, signs were posted by the Automobile Club of Southern California (ACSC) and California State Automobile Association (CSAA), which had been active in signing national auto trails and local roads since

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1848-592: Was built in the 1940s and early 1950s, local common usage was primarily the freeway name preceded by the definite article, such as "the Hollywood Freeway". It took several decades for Southern California locals to start to commonly refer to the freeways with the numerical designations, but usage of the definite article persisted. For example, it evolved to "the 605 Freeway" and then shortened to "the 605". This did not occur in Northern California, where usage of

1892-500: Was made, aligning them with the sign routes. Some changes were also made to the sign routes, mostly related to decommissionings of U.S. Routes in favor of Interstates. Since the 1990s, many non- freeway routes, especially in urban areas , have been deleted and turned over to local control. This transfers the cost of maintaining them from state to local budgets, but also gives local governments direct control over urban arterial roads that carry primarily local traffic. Once transferred, if

1936-402: Was used inside the two regions, with the largest numbers — all less than 200 (except for State Route 740 , which was related to State Route 74 ) - in eastern California (north–south) and near the border between the two regions (east–west). The Interstate Highway System numbers were assigned by AASHO in late 1959. In 1963 and 1964, a total renumbering of the legislative routes

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