A Woman Painted a Mile-Long White Line on a California Highway in 1920. She Changed Road Safety Forever

She wasn’t the first to propose it, but her advocacy helped make road markings a global standard within a decade.

Mile long white line on a California highway
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Javier Jiménez

Senior Writer

Head of science, health and environment at Xataka. Methodologist turned communicator, I write about science, ideas and social change. LinkedIn

In the fall of 1917, June McCarroll was driving near Indio, California, when a 10-ton truck barreled toward her head-on. The vehicle, speeding down the center of the road, forced her off.

A reckless era for roads. At the time, roads were a free-for-all. Vehicles were clunky and unreliable, and roads were often in terrible shape. But McCarroll wasn’t new to this reality.

As the only doctor in the Coachella Valley, she had spent more than a decade traveling between San Bernardino and the Salton Sea. This wasn’t her first accident, nor would it be her last. But as she sat on the roadside, an idea struck her: What if we painted a line down the middle of the road?

An uphill battle for a simple idea. For five years, McCarroll fought to convince local officials that a thin stripe in the middle of the road could make traffic safer and more efficient. She took her case to chambers of commerce and highway departments across the county—only to be ignored.

Frustrated, she painted a white line on a mile of what is now Highway 99. Still, nothing changed.

Then, she turned to the Indio Women’s Club. Within months, women’s clubs across California rallied behind the idea, mobilizing support at the state level. By 1924, they had successfully lobbied for a bill in the state legislature.

A movement that reshaped the world. It didn’t take long for the California State Highway Commission to adopt the idea, painting 3,500 miles of roads with centerlines.

Was this the first time a road had been painted for safety? No. Even in the U.S., earlier cases exist—such as Wayne County, Michigan. But McCarroll’s story is one of the first documented instances of grassroots activism leading to widespread road safety reforms.

Though other examples predate it, the California movement sparked a domino effect, making lane markings a global standard. And it all started with McCarroll.

Image | Sixteen Miles Out (Unsplash)

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