On this day, May 20, in 1899, a New York City cab driver became the first person to be stopped and jailed for speeding in the United States.
Jacob German, 26, a taxi cab driver for the Electric Vehicle Company, was traveling in what was called a horseless carriage on Lexington Avenue.
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A New York City policeman on a bicycle pulled German over and charged him with driving at the “breakneck speed” of 12 mph.
A year later, Connecticut passed the first U.S. state law regulating motor vehicles. It set a speed limit of 12 mph in cities and 15 mph outside.
The law was not the first U.S. speed limit, just the first for automobiles.
— Scott McCabe
