1960s

The Business and Transportation Agency was formed from the departments and boards of Aeronautics, Highway Patrol, Corporations, Housing and Community Development, Insurance Motor Vehicles, Public Works (which included the Division of Highways), Real Estate, Savings and Loan, and State Banking.

The Highway Transportation Agency was renamed the Transportation Agency.

Governor Edmund G. Brown on May 14, signed Senate Bill 64 into law. The bill provided for renumbering the state highway system, effective July 1, 1964.

The Collier-Unruh Act was passed and authorized the first rapid transit funding. The bill allowed counties to increase the in-lieu tax by one-half cent to develop rapid transit systems. The legislature also increased the gasoline tax to 7 cents a gallon.

California established the Highway Transportation Agency that consisted of the Department of Public Works (which included the Division of Highways), Department of Motor Vehicles, and the California Highway Patrol.

 

The 1960 Winter Olympics in Squaw Valley served as impetus to build Interstate 80. Interstate 80 became the first all-weather, trans-Sierra Nevada highway and was nationally recognized as a major engineering achievement.

"Botts Dots" raised pavement markers were developed during the 1960s and named for Elbert Dysart Botts, a Caltrans engineer credited with overseeing the research that led to their development.