Widely recognized as one of the great innovators in highway development, Hines was a charter member of the Wayne County Road Commission in 1906 and was its chairman for most of the ensuing 32 years of his life. He instituted construction in 1909 of the first full mile of concrete ever built, the strip of Woodward Avenue in Detroit between Six and Seven Mile Roads. In 1911 he conceived the centerline for highways, an invention which has been called the most important single traffic safety device in the history of auto transportation. He was a national leader in the landscaping of highway right-of-way and was an organizer of the League of American Wheelmen, the forerunner of today's good-roads organizations.