Ayn Rand said America’s greatest invention was the expression “to make money.” She explained that in every other country, money was something you “got,” or “took.” Only in America was money treated as something that was created. It’s not a zero-sum game.
Car lights are so bright now, that white line is critical.
When I first started driving it was difficult to judge lane location. I may be more vulnerable to the effects of oncoming headlights. The white line on the right side was just becoming a thing.
I definitely remember thinking how great it was when it was on the road I was using versus the ones without it.
Having spent many a night out in the boondocks on some dark highway, I salute John V. N. Dorr.
They saved my life one night on a curvy mountain highway. I was blinded by an instantaneous blizzard. The only thing I could see was my headlights shining on the white line by looking down and ahead about 10 or 20 feet or so. It lasted about 3 minutes but it seemed like hours. I was surprised that I was alive when it ended.
Reflective white paint is probably used.
The paywall stopped my reading for now.
Edward N. Hines, decades earlier, came up with the idea of the line down the middle of the road to keep passing cars from hitting each other, day or night.
I grew up on the edge of Hines Park (now in the middle of Rashida Tlaib’s district). It sickens me to think what’s happenee to the area that was *correctly* called the Arsenal of Democracy in the 40s. That term morphed over time, but that was the original usage.
Henry Ford built Hydra-matic and the Willow Run Airport next to it in 1941 to build B-24s. The plant floor had a natural 2% grade and B-24s rolled slowly under their own weight from one end of the plant to the other. They rolled out of the plant door onto the tarmac of Willow Run, were fueled up, and took off for service.
At peak operation through much of the war a new B-24 took once an hour, 24/7.
After the war GM took the plant over to manufacture power trains, and until the mid-90s it was the largest plant operating under one roof in the world.
It also helps when you are a little buzzed.
Way back when there was Driver’s Ed in high school our teacher was a single guy, maybe 25. He would come into class hungover on Monday morning and say ‘What a weekend, I never would have made it home at night if it wasn’t for those white lines on the side of the road’. This was when the white lines were still new enough that people talked about them.
I have wondered why no one has invented glow in the dark paint for roads. When the roads are wet the lines can disappear.
The real genius who came up with those small reflective squares mounted within those lines. On very dark nights, particularly when it’s raining, those things are life savers!
Should I also mention (because it appeared in the article) that Jonas Salk developed the polio vaccine in Thomas Francis’ lab at the University of Michigan?
I always called it the “fog line”.
I shall henceforth call it the Dorr line. And encourage all to follow suit.
9 months out of the year in these parts the whole road is white!
Was recently on the interstate when a huge storm hit - raining so hard I could barely see. Just slowed down and kept it between the white line and the dotted line and I was fine. The lines on the road have undoubtedly saved thousands of lives.
White line fever: Merle Haggard.
Those white lines helped me drive to Alaska safely. If the line disappeared, slow down, frost heave ahead!
Botts’ bots were an even better invention when it comes to road safety.
The invention of the sewing machine doesn’t get enough credit. The first mass produced sewing machines were invented by Americans Elias Howe and Isaac Singer and they became wealthy.
Even today, most people are touching something sewn by a sewing machine 23 hours and 50 minutes a day. The 10 minutes is while showering.
I saw a video that had orange glow in the dark lines on the highway.