We're getting closer to the holiday season which means some people may still be traveling to see their families. It's a tough year and there may be less traffic than normal but you can expect to see drivers heading home at some point. We may not even think about it all that often, but it's the paint, or surface markings, on the road that help us get to our destinations safely and also direct the flow of proper road use to protect pedestrians as well. Now, there are some drivers out there that like to pretend that they don't exist, but they do, and Michigan was the very first state to use markers on our roads.

A brief look into the history of road markings will show you that the first time paint was used on a road was 109 years ago. Icstriping.com explains what the inspiration was behind the markings and where it was first established:

The first documented use of a painted centerline was recorded along Trenton’s River Road in Wayne County, Michigan at around this time. It was Michigan’s Edward N. Hines, the chairman of the Wayne County’s Board of Roads, who first insisted that there had to be a solid demarcation line on the county’s roads. He came to this conclusion after seeing a milk wagon leave a white trail along a road.

This set into motion a movement that would see painted centerlines being mandatorily established on rural state highways in Michigan, Oregon, and California, as they continue:

Engineer Kenneth Ingalls Sawyer spearheaded the project of painting a white center line on the highway we now know as County Road 492 in Marquette County, Michigan

Today, the advancement of road markings continues to advance and keep people more safe than ever on the road, all thanks to the inspiration coming from Michigan. Now if we could just get some good roads...

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