About us

1904 - The Automobile Club of Seattle is formed September 23.

1905 - The club helps draft the state’s first traffic code, requiring licensing, a muffler, “one lighted lamp during darkness,” good and efficient brakes and a horn.

1906 - The signing of streets, roads and highways receives its initial impetus when the club and members donate 500 directional road signs.

1907 - The club’s first organized road trip was to Cohasset Beach in November.

1909 - The club promotes automobile travel in Mount Rainier National Park, leading the way to motoring being allowed in other national parks.

1910 - The club publishes its first tour book featuring destinations in western Washington.

1918 - The Aero Club of the Northwest, which was headed by Bill Boeing, rents desk space in the Auto Club’s Seattle office building. This sparks the auto club’s interest in air travel and concerns about adequate access to airports that will one day be built in the same state.

1922 - The club dispatches mapping crews to survey all highways as far as Salt Lake and Denver, up through the national parks in Montana and into Alberta and British Columbia. Washington’s first AAA School Safety Patrol was formed, two years after the introduction of the nationwide program.

1926 - The club contracts with “reputable garages” to offer emergency road service for members.

1927 - The Automobile Club Insurance Agency begins selling automobile insurance policies to members.

1930 - The club begins offering “air travel services” and advertises “trip planning anywhere in the world.”

1940 - Lt. Col. Dwight D. Eisenhower joins the club while stationed at Ft. Lewis.

1942 - Members urged to take shorter Sunday drives in light of national tire and gas rationing programs. Club provides trip routings for troops, military supplies and military families.

1952 - Club supports a plan to build freeway linking Tacoma, Seattle and Everett, stating that future traffic demands make such a freeway imperative.

1956 - The travel agency holds its first group tour, “Hula Holiday” to Hawaii, for 87 members.

1962 - The club offers special World’s Fair motel/hotel reservations that bring in 300 requests daily. The club also sponsors a special day at the fair for 1,500 school safety patrol students.

1971 - Club inaugurates local loop tours map series, drawn by an in-house cartographer.

1975 - The club launches “Gas Watchers Program” in response to national gasoline shortages caused by oil embargoes.

1981 - Club inspects auto repair shops and offers members Approved Auto Repair recommendations.

1982 - The club sponsors classes for the National Institute of Automotive Service Excellence, which trains and certifies mechanics.

1984 - The AAA Travel Agency charters the Concorde supersonic jet for the return trip on its first flight to the West Coast.

1991 - The club provides complimentary road service to Seahawk fans as part of the fan rescue program.

1992 - The club extends road service to some recreational vehicles as PlusRV.

1995 - AAA Washington reaches 500,000 members

1996 - The club goes online with its first website hosted by AOL, and acquires its own website a year later.

1998 - Membership cards are changed into plastic, and AAA sponsors passing legislation to lower illegal BAC levels to .08 (from .1).

2004 - AAA Washington/Inland has more than 830,000 members and nationally there are over 45 million AAA members.

2009 - AAA Washington partnered with Travelocity with the most advanced booking and information sources on the Internet.

2010 - AAA Washington hits a milestone with more than 1 million members and nationally there are over 52 million AAA members.

2012 - Emergency Road Service extended to cover bicycle service for all members.

2016 - AAA Washington Corporate Office moves to new building in Factoria neighborhood of Bellevue.

2017 - Celebrated 100-year of incorporation in Washington State (based on incorporation date of Automobile Club of Western Washington in 1917).

2020 - AAA School Safety Patrol program turns 100.

2021 - Heather Snavely named AAA Washington’s President and CEO, the first woman to lead the organization, upon the retirement of Kirk R. Nelson.