The world’s first painted road centerline was created in Michigan. In 1911, Wayne County’s legendary road commissioner Edward N. Hines had an idea after seeing a leaky milk wagon leave a white trail down a Detroit street. If a milk drip could make a line… why not paint one to keep drivers in their lane? Michigan first tested it on a dangerous curve along River Road near Trenton and Wyandotte — and the world copied it. By the 1920s, Michigan was also helping pioneer the rules: dashed lines for passing, solid lines for no-passing, and the combinations we still use today.
And in 1913, Michigan started it's first road repair construction and men have been standing on the side of the highway ever since....
