Roads and freeways in metropolitan Detroit

Roads and Freeways in Metropolitan Detroit

Interstate 75 markerM-10 marker

Highway markers for I‑75 and M‑10

Map of Detroit Metro Area freeways
System information
Formed: 1805[1]
Highway names
Interstates: Interstate nn (I‑nn)
US Routes: US Highway nn (US nn)
State: M‑nn
System links

The roads and freeways in metropolitan Detroit comprise the main thoroughfares in the region. The freeways consist of an advanced network of interconnecting freeways which include Interstate highways. The Metro Detroit region's extensive toll-free freeway system, together with its status as a major port city, provide advantages to its location as a global business center.[2] There are no toll roads in Michigan.[3]

Detroiters may refer to freeways by the formal name more often where one has been designated rather than route number. Other freeways without formal names are known by the number such as I‑275 and M‑59. M‑53, while not officially designated may be locally referred to by its name "Van Dyke". Detroit area freeways are typically sunken below ground level to permit local traffic to pass over the freeway and for appearance.[4]

Augustus Woodward's plan following the 1805 fire for Detroit's baroque styled radial avenues and Grand Circus Park.

Following a historic fire in 1805, Judge Augustus B. Woodward devised a plan similar to Pierre Charles L'Enfant's design for Washington, D.C.. Detroit's monumental avenues and traffic circles fan out in a baroque styled radial fashion from Grand Circus Park in the heart of the city's theater district, which facilitates traffic patterns along the city's tree-lined boulevards and parks.[5] The 'Woodward plan' proposed a system of hexagonal street blocks, with the Grand Circus at its center. Wide avenues, alternatively 200 feet (61 m) and 120 feet (37 m), would emanate from large circular plazas like spokes from the hub of a wheel. As the city grew these would spread in all directions from the banks of the Detroit River. When Woodward presented his proposal, Detroit had fewer than 1,000 residents. Elements of the plan were implemented. Most prominent of these are the five main "spokes" of Woodward, Michigan, Gratiot, Grand River and Jefferson Avenues.

The Mile Road System in Metro Detroit and Southeast Michigan facilitates ease of navigation in the region. It was established as a way to delineate east–west roads through the Detroit area and the surrounding rural rim. The Mile Road system, and its most famous road, 8 Mile Road, came about largely as a result of the Land Ordinance of 1785, which established the basis for the Public Land Survey System in which land throughout the Northwest Territory was surveyed and divided into survey townships by reference to a baseline (east–west line) and meridian (north–south line). In Southeast Michigan, many roads would be developed parallel to the base line and the meridian, and many of the east–west roads would be incorporated into the Mile Road System.

The Mile Road System extended easterly into Detroit, but is interrupted, because much of Detroit's early settlements and farms were based on early French land grants that were aligned northwest-to-southeast with frontage along the Detroit River and on later development along roads running into downtown Detroit in a star pattern, such as Woodward, Jefferson, Grand River, Gratiot, and Michigan Avenues, developed by Augustus Woodward in imitation of Washington, D.C.'s system. As Detroit grew, several Mile Roads were given new names within the city borders, while some roads incorporated as part of the Mile Road System have traditionally been known by their non-mile names. It is unclear if they ever bore mile numbers formally.

The baseline used in the survey of Michigan lands runs along 8 Mile Road, which is approximately eight miles directly north of the junction of Woodward Avenue and Michigan Avenue in downtown Detroit. As a result, the direct east–west portion of Michigan Avenue, and M‑153 (Ford Road) west of Wyoming Avenue, forms the "zero mile" baseline for this mile road system.

The precise point of origin is located in Campus Martius Park, marked by a medallion[6] embedded in the stone walkway. It is situated in the western point of the diamond surrounding Woodward Fountain,[7] just in front of the Fountain Bistro.

Freeways

View of southbound lanes of Northwestern Highway in Metro Detroit passing beside John C. Lodge Freeway M‑10 which is sunken below street level in front of the Southfield Town Center
Satellite image of the terminus at I‑275 nicknamed the "mixing bowl"

Other selected major roads

Mile roads traveling north

Mile roads within Wayne County

The mile roads that cross through Wayne County are designated as follows:

Note that the 0-4 Mile roads are not signed and never referred to as Mile Roads; it remains unclear if they were ever signed as Mile Roads. There is a Three Mile Drive in the far eastern portion of Detroit and going into Grosse Pointe Park, but it is unclear if this was ever intended to be a part of the Mile Road System.

View of the Lodge Freeway (M‑10) passing underneath the Cobo Center in downtown Detroit

Note: On Detroit's far east side, which is aligned according to the French colonial long lot system rather than the Northwest Ordinance survey grid, Cadieux, Moross, and Vernier Roads are not extensions of 6 Mile Road, 7 Mile Road and 8 Mile Road, respectively. East McNichols (6 Mile) ends at Gratiot Avenue, with traffic continuing to Cadieux two miles (3 km) away via Seymour Street and Morang Drive. East 7 Mile Road ends as a short four-lane one-way side street at Kelly Road, two blocks east of where Moross veers off from 7 Mile, taking most traffic with it. Most traffic on 8 Mile Road continuing east of Kelly Road veers onto Vernier Road; 8 Mile continues as a side street eastward for a short distance past Harper Avenue. This is a common misconception by residents of Detroit, Harper Woods and Grosse Pointe, as Cadieux, Moross and Vernier appear to be extensions of their mile-road neighbors, but are in fact roads in their own right.

In the city of Detroit, residents only refer to 3 of the mile roads; 6, 7, & 8 Mile. 6 Mile Road is signed as "McNichols" throughout the city of Detroit, but is often referred to as "6 Mile" by residents. 5 Mile road, on the other hand, is almost always referred to as "Fenkell" (which is how it is signed in Detroit), and only very rarely as "5 Mile". The dual naming of McNichols is an occasional source of confusion to out-of-town travelers.

Although not signed as such, Detroit also has roads along half-mile grid lines:

Mile roads within Washtenaw County

Few of the mile roads continue west into Washtenaw County.

Mile roads within Livingston County

Few of the mile roads continue west into Livingston County.

Mile roads within Oakland County

The mile roads in the southernmost part of Oakland County are known only by their numbers. From 15 Mile Road northward, however, all mile roads have local names, sometimes several. And like Macomb County and Detroit, some roads are placed at half-mile intervals.

Mile roads within Macomb County

Through Macomb County, most of these road names are not carried over, and nearly all of the Mile Roads are known by their mile numbers. One notable exception is Hall Road, which is part of M‑59 and almost never referred to as 20 Mile Road. In Macomb County 16 Mile Road and Metropolitan Parkway are used interchangeably.

Note: there were some roads listed as xx-half Mile Roads, and placed in between the roads, such as 13 Mile Road, 131⁄2 Mile Road, 14 Mile Road, in that succession for example. Some are signed as such.

Mile roads within St. Clair County

Through St. Clair County, none of these mile number names are carried over, as a result, all of the Mile Roads are known by their road names.

Mile roads within Lapeer County

The system continues uninterrupted in sequence up to 38 Mile Road, on the Macomb County/Lapeer County boundary near Almont, Michigan and Van Dyke Road (M‑53). However, although not signed as mile roads, major roads still lie at one-mile (1.6 km) intervals for several miles into Lapeer County.

8 Mile Road

Main article: 8 Mile Road

Locally, 8 Mile Road is considered the political and social dividing line between the city of Detroit and its northern suburbs. (It marks most of the northern boundary of both Detroit and Wayne County.) In 2002 this local notoriety was promoted to international attention, reflected in the name of Eminem's acclaimed film, 8 Mile.

16 Mile Road

The alignment for 16 Mile Road through Oakland and Macomb Counties is composed of five named roads:

Walnut Lake Road turns slightly southward in West Bloomfield and runs parallel to Quarton Road .5 miles (0.80 km) to the south, between Inkster and Franklin Roads. West and East Quarton Roads are disconnected slightly by Telegraph Road due to Gilbert Lake. Walnut Lake Road ends at Haggerty Road in Commerce Township and the grid-alignment of 16 Mile Road remains non-existent through much of the township. Buno Road continues this grid alignment in Milford

Addresses

With a few exceptions, one can determine which mile roads an address is between on major north–south roads north of Five Mile/Fenkell by using the formula:

[(first two numbers of the address)-5] / 2
Example: 34879 Gratiot Avenue [(34-5)/2]= 14.5 which indicates the address is between 14 Mile and 15 Mile roads.

In the early days of Detroit-area house numbering, surveyors calculated position on the grid of mile roads to define addresses. The resulting system, adopted in 1921 and sometimes referred to as the Detroit Edison system, generally assigns 2000 addresses to each mile. (There are often gaps in the numbering; for instance, east addresses 9000 to 10999 and north addresses 2300 to 5599 [at Ford Road] are skipped). Addresses in the Detroit area tend to be much higher than in many other major cities, with numbers in the 20000s common within the city limits and in the inner-ring suburbs. Typically, addresses of single family homes on adjacent lots on the grid system, both within Detroit and in the suburbs, are incremented by 8, 10, 12 or more rather than by 2 as is the case in most other large cities in the United States.

Addresses are generally numbered outwards from Woodward Avenue (south of McNichols Road) and John R. Street (north of McNichols) for numbers on east–west roads and from the Detroit River (east of the Ambassador Bridge), a Norfolk Southern Railway/CSX Transportation railroad line between the Ambassador Bridge and the Rouge River, the Rouge River itself north to just past Michigan Avenue in Dearborn, an imaginary line from there to the eastern end of Cherry Hill Road and Cherry Hill Road for numbers on north–south streets, with the numbers increasing the further one is from these baselines.

The highest addresses used in the Detroit system are the range 79000 to 80999, for north–south roads beyond 37 Mile Road in northern Macomb County, and from 81000 to the high 81900s in the portion of the city of Memphis that bulges about 0.5 miles (0.80 km) into St. Clair County. For many years, the Guinness World Book of Records incorrectly listed 81951 Main Street (M‑19) in Memphis as the highest street address number anywhere, but higher numbers are in use elsewhere, such as Prairie Creek Redwoods State Park at 127011 Newton B. Drury Scenic Parkway in Orick, California.

The westernmost street within the city of Detroit is Five Points Street, which is a north-south half-mile road located along the border with Redford Charter Township halfway between Telegraph and Beech-Daly Roads and runs 2.5 miles (4.0 km) north from Puritan Street to 8 Mile Road. The easternmost point of the city is located in the intersection of Mack Avenue and Kingsville Street, which is located 1 mile (1.6 km) east-southeast of Interstate 94 along the border with Grosse Pointe Farms and Grosse Pointe Woods. The city's southernmost point is within the median of Outer Drive at the intersection of the borders with Ecorse and Lincoln Park just east of Bassett Street, eight-and-a-half-blocks east-southeast of Fort Street.

Even though many suburbs also use the Detroit system, there are several that instead use their own numbering systems, including Birmingham, Ecorse, Ferndale, Lincoln Park, Mount Clemens, Pontiac, River Rouge, Trenton and Wyandotte. Royal Oak also uses a numbering system separate from Detroit's, its system has a baseline for north–south numbers at 11 Mile Road and one for east–west numbers at Main Street.

Mile roads traveling south

The grid continues south of Ford Road, although not numbered as part of the Mile Road System. None of these roads connect to Detroit. Further south and west, and through Downriver, the roads tend to fall off the grids more often, for several reasons, including their proximity to the state of Ohio, remnants of the French ribbon farms and natural features preventing straight road building.

Similar to McNichols Road in Detroit, Wyandotte residents refer to Northline Road (south 8 Mile) as such, although it is signed as Ford Avenue within the city.

The north–south mile grid

There are many roads through Wayne, Oakland, Macomb and even Monroe, Washtenaw and Livingston counties that parallel the Michigan Meridian, creating a grid-type system. Like the east–west Mile Road System, the north–south grid roads lose cohesion to the grid in much of Detroit, the Grosse Pointes, eastern Downriver, and in the lake-filled areas of Oakland County.

Proceeding west from Lake St. Clair:

Irregularities in the gridline alignment

There are some notable irregularities to the gridline system as described above. This is similar to enclaves and exclaves in terms of geographical discrepancies.

East–west

8 Mile

9 Mile

10 Mile

11 Mile

14 Mile

Mutual

This section covers irregularities involving areas where an east–west and north–south road would otherwise intersect. All roads involved with a domino effect will be involved in a single summary.

See also

References

  1. ↑ Lingeman, Stanley D. (April 6, 2001). Michigan Highway History Timeline 1701–2001: 300 Years of Progress. Lansing, MI: Library of Michigan. p. 1. OCLC 435640179.
  2. ↑ World Trade Center Detroit/Windsor. "Regional Advantages for International Business" (PDF). World Trade Center Detroit/Windsor. Retrieved September 3, 2007.
  3. ↑ Michigan Department of Transportation (April 17, 2002). "Why Doesn't Michigan Have Toll Roads?". Michigan Department of Transportation. Retrieved September 5, 2007.
  4. ↑ Bessert, Christopher J. (January 31, 2009). "Early Willow Run, Detroit Industrial & Edsel Ford Expressways". Michigan Highways. Retrieved January 30, 2010.
  5. ↑ Baulch, Vivian M. (June 13, 1999). "Woodward Avenue, Detroit's Grand Old 'Main Street'". The Detroit News. Retrieved January 31, 2010.
  6. ↑ Detroit 300 Conservancy (2006). "Photograph of Point of Origin medallion". Detroit 300 Conservancy. Archived from the original (JPG) on July 15, 2006.
  7. ↑ Detroit 300 Conservancy (2006). "Campus Martius Park site plan". Detroit 300 Conservancy.
  8. ↑ Michigan Legislature (2001). "Michigan Memorial Highway Act (Excerpt) Act 142 of 2001, 250.1098 Rosa Parks Memorial Highway". Legislative Council, State of Michigan. Retrieved August 18, 2006.
  9. ↑ Greenwood, Tom (November 1, 2002). "Ribbon Cutting Opens New Road". The Detroit News.

Further reading

  • Cantor, George (2005). Detroit: An Insiders Guide to Michigan. Ann Arbor, MI: University of Michigan Press. ISBN 0-472-03092-2. 
  • Fisher, Dale (1994). Detroit: Visions of the Eagle. Grass Lake, MI: Eyry of the Eagle Publishing. ISBN 0-9615623-3-1. 
  • —— (2005). Southeast Michigan: Horizons of Growth. Grass Lake, MI: Eyry of the Eagle Publishing. ISBN 1-891143-25-5. 

External links

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