The first U.S. speeding ticket was given on May 20, 1899 to an electric taxi driver who had reached the dangerously unacceptable speed of 12 miles per hour on a New York City street.
The ticket, written by NYC police officer Bicycle Roundsman Schuessler, was given to electric taxi driver Jacob German, who was behind the wheel of one of the approximately 60 electric taxis that were plying the streets of the Big Apple around that time. With early cars having top speeds barely in the double digits, it can be tough for modern man to remember how great of an advancement in technology early automobiles were. After all, back then, these cars were competing with horse-drawn carriages.
William Jackson Palmer, who founded Colorado Springs, was injured in a horse riding accident he used an electric car. He did not like gasoline cars. He bought an electric car, would have it drive him to the mountains until the batteries ran out and then have a team of horses pull him home. He died in 1909.