As America celebrates its 250th anniversary, every media outlet has tried to find a different angle.
The Wall Street Journal came up with our nation’s “most valuable inventions.”
They noted many: the light bulb. The internet. The telephone. The iPhone. Airplanes. Refrigerators. Costco. The microchip. Chocolate-chip cookies.
But the greatest — at least, according to writer Ben Cohen — is the white line on the right side of the road.
He explains:
In the 1950s, around the time Jonas Salk cracked the polio vaccine, a metallurgist named John V. N. Dorr became the champion of a different lifesaver: a white line on the right side of the road.
For years, Dorr told anyone who would listen — and everyone who wouldn’t — about his simple way of making highways safer. A line on the side of the road, he argued, would give drivers somewhere to aim their eyes at night other than oncoming headlights. It was both cheap and incredibly effective, which made it a brilliant investment. Over time, his revolutionary stripe of paint would reach billions of people and guide drivers across the planet.
To this day, you depend on it without knowing anything about it.
John V.N. Dorr (Photo courtesy of Wall Street Journal, from the Dorr Foundation)
Of course, “06880” is “where Westport meets the world.” The WSJ story — and this one — include a very important local connection.
Dorr — whose eponymous company was based in Westport, though the story does not mention it — realized that drivers naturally hugged the center line. That led to frequent collisions, especially at night and in poor weather.
And if they couldn’t stick to the center, they swerved to the side. But they didn’t know where the shoulder was.
Dorr’s proposal: paint a line on the right side of the road.
This simple white line — shown here on Compo Road South 3 days ago — was devised in 1952 in Westport.
In 1952, he proposed his idea to Connecticut’s highway commissioner. “The man in charge of Connecticut’s roads told him to get lost,” reports the Journal.
Now comes our moment in the national spotlight. (Hat tips to “06880” readers Jonathan Rosenoer, David Smith, Joseph Scordato, Eileen Lavigne. Michelle Sagalyn, Linda Stern, and Craig and Brooke Mogan, all of whom sent a link to the WSJ story.)
The next time he suggested it, he wrote to the Westport Town Crier newspaper in 1953 and offered to pay for “a demonstration test of a few miles.”
This time, he got a more welcoming response.
“Dr. Dorr’s suggestion,” the paper wrote in an editorial, “is a dandy.”
Before long, Connecticut was testing his dandy idea on a few miles of the Merritt Parkway between Greenwich and Stamford. The study found that Dorr’s line nudged cars away from the center line, into the middle of their lanes, and narrowed the speed gap between day and night. In other words, the study found scientific evidence that a single line could dramatically alter human behavior.
John Dorr’s amazing creation, on the first road it was tested: the Merritt Parkway. (Photo courtesy of Wall Street Journal)
Dorr — by then in his 80s — began pitching his idea relentlessly: to the highway commissioners of all 48 states, engineering publications, governors, a Broadway star, even former president Herbert Hoover.
It worked.
“In less than a decade,” the Wall Street Journal says, “Dorr’s line was so popular that people wondered how they ever lived without it.”
But wait! There’s more!
The WSJ does not mention it, but John V.N. Dorr is not Westport’s only contributor to road safety.
Years before, our town was home to William Phelps Eno. Known as “The Father of Traffic Safety,” he devised the stop sign, pedestrian crosswalk, traffic circle, 1-way street, taxi stand and pedestrian safety island. He designed traffic plans for New York, Paris and London.
He did it all in Westport, in a handsome Saugatuck Avenue building near the Norwalk town line.
And — you can’t make this up — Eno did it all despite never learning to drive. (Click here for his fascinating Wikipedia page.)
So there you have it: Westport’s place, as home of America’s most important invention(s) of the past 250 years.( Click here to read the full Wall Street Journal story.)
And then — because this is Westport, and our drivers often disregard traffic lights, stop signs and everything else, including white lines — drive safely!
(“06880” is indeed “Where Westport meets the world.” If you enjoy stories like this — or anything else on our hyper-local blog — please click here to support our work. Thank you!)
William Phelps Eno was honored with a plaque at the old Westport YMCA.
Great seeing you at the fireworks Dan and thank you for this amazing informational article as always. 06880 is my morning go to thank you so much for always keeping us in the know 👍
Fascinating story!
Wonderful story, Dan! That white line is a godsend, especially at night with today’s high-test headlights. Who knew that something most of us take for granted had such a cool backstory. FYI: I presume this man was the same John Dorr who co-founded the Dorr-Oliver Laboratories located on Ford Rd until the mid ‘80s? BTW: Was that the same property Bridgewater Associates occupied for a number of years—and that Glendenning owned before that? Or was it located farther up Ford Rd? Anyway, Dorr was a fascinating, brilliant and tenacious man.
Thanks, Prill. And yes: The same Dorr, the same property. It’s a magnificent spot!
My friend’s father, Charles Lamb worked as an engineer for Dorr-Oliver many years. (He still lives in Westport, was a former RTM member, and Grand Marshall in 2024). He specialized in machines that separate solids from liquids. One application being sewage treatment plants; another unsung invention that makes modern life better.
Grest article. I will now pay more attention to that white line. My great uncle was a care taker at the Enos Estate on old Saugatuck Ave.
I read this post early this morning but did not have time to respond then. I had been researching Nell Dorr and Dorr – Oliver for a totally different reason. I was wondering if Nell Dorr was his daughter. Turns out Nell Dorr was his third wife. I grew up on Calumet Road, and we used to love to ride our bikes on Clinton Ave down to the Ford on Ford Road We would pretend we were driving the Red Coats off. My father in his youth claimed that he used to drive his car across the Ford. I also remember that there was a sort of “cable car” in the trees that an employee used to get from his house to Dorr Oliver. I think I remember that I was told it was Mr. Dorr himself. Thanks Dan. Now every day I am out in the car I can remember my Hometown and thank Mr. Dorr for the white stripe on the right. This is long. When I successfully finish my research on Nell Dor I will share with you Dan.