Roads and freeways in metropolitan Detroit


The Detroit metropolitan area in southeast Michigan is served by a comprehensive network of roads and highways. Three primary Interstate Highways pass through the region, along with three auxiliary Interstates, and multiple state and U.S. Highways. These are supplemented by the Mile Road System, a series of local roads spaced one mile apart on a perpendicular grid.
Many of the grid's east-west roads are known by numbers, such as 8 Mile Road, the system's baseline and Detroit's northern border. Intersecting this grid are five diagonal spokes, major arterial roads which travel from downtown to the suburbs. Most major roads in the city and suburbs follow this grid, though streets in some areas deviate.

History

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. The Woodward plan proposed a system of hexagonal street blocks, with the Grand Circus at its center. Wide avenues, alternatively and, 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.
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.
The Mile Road grid 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 and meridian. 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 baseline used in the survey of Michigan lands runs along 8 Mile Road, which is approximately 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 west of Wyoming Avenue, forms the zero mile baseline for this mile road system. While the roads are almost precisely aligned with cardinal directions, there are slight discrepancies—for example, the eastern terminus of 8 Mile Road in St. Clair Shores is at 42.45°N, whereas its western terminus is south, at 42.42°N.
The precise point of origin is located in Campus Martius Park, marked by a medallion embedded in the stone walkway. It is situated in the western point of the diamond surrounding Woodward Fountain, just in front of the Fountain Bistro.

Freeways

  • —runs generally northeast-southwest through Downriver, before turning northwest in downtown Detroit, following this path through Oakland County to the north. Continues to Flint and Sault Ste. Marie north of Metro Detroit, and to Toledo to the south, eventually ending in Miami, Florida.
  • —major east-west route. Travels east from Ann Arbor through the southwestern suburbs ; runs northeast-southwest across Detroit, before turning north to run through Macomb County, and northeast to its end in Port Huron. Flanked by a service drive through most of Detroit. The segment of I-94 from Ypsilanti to Detroit was one of America's earlier limited-access highways, originally built to link Dearborn with factories at Willow Run during World War II.
  • —begins at the Ambassador Bridge downtown; runs east-west through western Detroit and Livonia; turns north to run concurrently with I-275 along Livonia's western edge, before turning northwest again in Novi, passing through Wixom and Livingston County as it heads west toward Lansing. Known as Jeffries Freeway, and flanked by service drive, east of I-275. Segment from Outer Drive to Davison Avenue has local and express lanes, the only such setup in Michigan.
  • —spur of I-75; major north-south route in the western suburbs, passing Metro Airport. Runs from I-75 in Monroe County to I-96/I-696 interchange in Novi. Originally intended to travel north from the I‑696/I‑96/I‑275/M‑5 junction to rejoin I‑75 in Springfield Township; the northward extension was cancelled, though partially replaced by M-5 in the 1990s.
  • —short spur of I-75 in downtown Detroit, running from I-75 to Jefferson. Among the shortest Interstate routes nationwide.
  • —spur of I-96; major east-west route in the suburbs immediately north of Detroit. Runs from I-96/I-275 interchange in Farmington Hills to I-94 in Roseville. Flanked by service drive from Lahser Road east. Taken together, I‑275 and I‑696 form a beltway around Detroit.
  • —splits from Grand River west of Middlebelt to follow a short freeway segment through Farmington and Farmington Hills to the I-96/I-275/I-696 interchange in Novi. Continues north to Pontiac Trail as a signalized expressway, constructed from 1994 to 2002.
  • —short freeway through Highland Park connecting I-75 and M-10 with Woodward. Continues as arterial road at both ends, with M-8 designation continuing west to I-96. Opened in 1942, this was the first modern depressed limited-access freeway in America.
  • File:SouthfieldMichiganSkyline1.jpg|thumb|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—begins at Jefferson Avenue in downtown Detroit; runs largely parallel to I‑75 from Downtown Detroit to Wyoming Avenue, where it turns northwesterly and largely maintains this trajectory through the Mixing Bowl interchange with I-696 and US 24 in Southfield. Continues as Northwestern Highway, a surface boulevard, from I-696 west to its end at Orchard Lake Road in Farmington Hills. Flanked by a service drive for most of its freeway length.
  • —east-west route through western suburbs, connecting I-96 to Ann Arbor.
  • —north-south freeway from I-94 to M-10, mostly running through Detroit's west side. Flanked by a service road for its entire freeway length. Continues as a surface arterial road, Southfield Road, at both ends, carrying the M-39 designation through Fort Street to the south.
  • —splits from Van Dyke Avenue at 18 Mile; runs as freeway, with few exits, north to Romeo.
  • —runs as freeway from Pontiac east to Utica, where it becomes Hall Road, a major arterial road along the 20 Mile alignment. Arterial road west of Pontiac, through Waterford and White Lake, ending at I-96 in Howell.

    Diagonal spoke arterial roads

Listed clockwise from southwest to northeast.
  • —runs southwest from Campus Martius Park through southwestern Detroit before turning due south in the suburbs. It forms a major commercial corridor in the Downriver region before ending at I-75 near Flat Rock.
  • —begins at Campus Martius Park; runs due west along the 0 Mile alignment; turns southwest at I-94, with Ford Road following its prior path. Forms the basis for Dearborn's commercial districts, and carries on through the western suburbs and past Willow Run Airport. West of Metro Detroit, US 12 continues west through Michigan, then through Chicago and west across the United States to its end in Washington state.
  • —runs directly northwest from downtown Detroit through the city's west side to Farmington, where it turns west, assuming the position of 10 Mile. Turns northwest again at Halsted Road, and runs through Novi toward Livingston County. Designated M-5 from Cass Avenue to just west of Middlebelt Road, where M-5 breaks from Grand River to follow a freeway. West of Detroit, Grand River continues through Brighton, Howell, and Lansing, eventually ending near Grand Rapids.
  • —widely considered the Detroit area's main north-south thoroughfare, and designated as a National Scenic Byway and Pure Michigan Byway. Runs from downtown Detroit northwest through Midtown, New Center, and Highland Park, then through a series of small suburbs, including Ferndale, Royal Oak, Birmingham, and Bloomfield Hills, before ending at a large loop in Pontiac. Widely known as the site of the Woodward Dream Cruise, a classic car cruise held on the route every August.
  • —runs straight northeast from downtown Detroit through Mt. Clemens, serving as a major thoroughfare through Detroit's east side and much of urbanized Macomb County. Continues northeast through rural Macomb and St. Clair counties to its end in Port Huron.
  • Jefferson Avenue —scenic highway running along the shore of the northwesternmost end of Lake Erie, the Detroit River, and Lake St. Clair. Forms a major corridor through Downriver, much of Detroit, the Grosse Pointes, and eastern Macomb County, with an interruption at Selfridge Air National Guard Base. Feeds into M-29 at its northern end, and continues to Port Huron and points north; to the south, Jefferson becomes U.S. Turnpike Road, which, in turn, leads into Dixie Highway and continues to Monroe.
  • begins in Detroit at Gratiot Avenue and ends at Hall Road.

    East-west mile roads

Detroit and western suburbs

Listed from south to north. Mile roads south of 5 Mile are referred to exclusively by their names, not by mile numbers.
  • 0 Mile——runs from I-94 west to M-14. Forms major commercial corridor through much of western Wayne County, particularly Canton. Alignment followed by Michigan Avenue from Campus Martius to Wyoming Avenue.
  • 1 Mile—Warren Avenue/Street/Road—begins at Mack Avenue in Grosse Pointe Farms; major street through much of Detroit, running parallel to Mack, roughly to the northwest. Turns to follow grid west of I-96, and runs west to Washtenaw County, eventually ending in Ann Arbor Township after an interruption near M-14.
  • 2 Mile—Joy Road. Whitmore Lake Road in Ann Arbor Township to Linwood Street in Detroit. Interrupted twice, first between Hines Drive and Wayne Road on the Westland/Livonia city limit and again on either side of Napier Road at the border between Wayne and Washtenaw Counties, where Plymouth-Ann Arbor Road occupies the alignment.
  • Ann Arbor Road—splits from Plymouth Road near Newburgh, and continues west as roughly Mile through Beck, before turning southwest.
  • 3 Mile—Plymouth Road—runs from Grand River Avenue in Detroit to downtown Plymouth. Runs off-grid west of the Ann Arbor Road split in Livonia.
  • 4 Mile—Schoolcraft Road—runs from Ewald Circle in Detroit west to Northville Road. Service drive for I-96 from Evergreen to Newburgh.
  • 5 Mile Road —runs from Rosa Parks Boulevard in Detroit to just south of Whitmore Lake, with brief interruption at Northville Road and a gap between Spencer and Nollar Roads in Whitmore Lake. Forms border between Plymouth Township and Northville Township. Unpaved from Napier Road west.
  • 6 Mile Road —runs from Gratiot to Whitmore Lake. The section between Conner Street/Outer Drive and French Street was removed when City Airport was expanded. Unpaved sections in Washtenaw, and like 5 Mile, has a gap between Spencer and Nollar Roads.
  • 7 Mile Road—runs from Kelly Road in eastern Detroit to Whitmore Lake, with brief interruption in Northville.
  • 8 Mile Road——northern border of Detroit and Wayne County; widely considered the socioeconomic dividing line between the city and its northern suburbs. Divided highway, designated M-102 from Vernier to Grand River. Runs west to Whitmore Lake. Nationally known as the namesake of the 2002 film 8 Mile.