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Several counties in the state of Michigan use a Mile Road System to name different roads and streets. The most commonly known system is that of Detroit, including 8 Mile Road, the dividing line between Detroit and its northern suburbs as well as Wayne County and Oakland, Macomb and Washtenaw counties.
In Bay County, roads west of the Saginaw River are numbered with the river (or, north of the river, State Street) marking the origin.
Going east from the county line between Calhoun and Kalamazoo counties. Many of the roads are known by both their mile names and their traditional names.
In Grand Traverse County, the mile roads are numbered from the location of the Boardman River and the ghost town of Keystone, named after its location at an important point on the river.
Fulton Street is the north–south dividing line of the city of Grand Rapids. But since Fulton Street is on a half-section line, Michigan Street is the baseline in Kent County, not Fulton Street.
In Manistee County, roads are numbered north from the village of Eastlake
Wayne County is the most populous county in the U.S. state of Michigan. As of 2020, the United States Census placed its population at 1,793,561, making it the 19th-most populous county in the United States. The county seat is Detroit. The county was founded in 1796 and organized in 1815. Wayne County is included in the Detroit-Warren-Dearborn, MI Metropolitan Statistical Area. It is one of several U.S. counties named after Revolutionary War-era general Anthony Wayne.
Oakland County is a county in the U.S. state of Michigan. It is a principal county of the Detroit metropolitan area, containing the bulk of Detroit's northern suburbs. Due to the county's government complex spanning two municipalities, its seat of government is shared between Pontiac and Waterford. Its largest city is Troy. As of the 2020 Census, its population was 1,274,395, making it the second-most populous county in Michigan, and the largest county in the United States without a city of 100,000 residents.
Macomb County is a county located in the eastern portion of the U.S. state of Michigan, bordering Lake St. Clair, and is part of northern Metro Detroit. As of the 2020 Census, the population was 881,217, making it the third-most populous county in the state. The county seat is Mt. Clemens. Macomb County is part of the Detroit-Warren-Dearborn, MI Metropolitan Statistical Area. The city of Detroit is located on the county's southern border. Macomb County contains 27 cities, townships and villages, including three of the top ten most-populous municipalities in Michigan as of the 2020 census: Warren (#3), Sterling Heights (#4) and Clinton Township (#8). Most of this population is concentrated south of Hall Road (M-59), one of the county's main thoroughfares.
Shelby Charter Township, officially the Charter Township of Shelby, is a charter township located in Macomb County in the U.S. state of Michigan. The township is an affluent northern suburb of Detroit. As of the 2020 census, the population was 79,408, up from 73,804 in 2010. Shelby Charter Township is one of the fastest-growing communities in Metro Detroit.
M-1, also known as Woodward Avenue, is a north–south state trunkline highway in the Metro Detroit area of the US state of Michigan. The highway, called "Detroit's Main Street", runs from Detroit north-northwesterly to Pontiac. It is one of the five principal avenues of Detroit, along with Michigan, Grand River, Gratiot, and Jefferson avenues. These streets were platted in 1805 by Judge Augustus B. Woodward, namesake to Woodward Avenue. The Federal Highway Administration (FHWA) has listed the highway as the Automotive Heritage Trail, an All-American Road in the National Scenic Byways Program. It has also been designated a Pure Michigan Byway by the Michigan Department of Transportation (MDOT), and was also included in the MotorCities National Heritage Area designated by the US Congress in 1998.
Interstate 696 (I-696) is an east–west auxiliary Interstate Highway in the Metro Detroit region of the US state of Michigan. The state trunkline highway is also known as the Walter P. Reuther Freeway, named for the prominent auto industry union head by the Michigan Legislature in 1971. I-696 is a bypass route, detouring around the city of Detroit through the city's northern suburbs in Oakland and Macomb counties. It starts by branching off I-96 and I-275 at its western terminus in Farmington Hills, and runs through suburbs including Southfield, Royal Oak and Warren before merging into I-94 at St. Clair Shores on the east end. It has eight lanes for most of its length and is approximately 10 miles (16 km) north of downtown Detroit. I-696 connects to other freeways such as I-75 and M-10. Local residents sometimes refer to I-696 as "The Autobahn of Detroit".
M-3, known for most of its length as Gratiot Avenue, is a north–south state trunkline highway in the Detroit metropolitan area of the US state of Michigan. The trunkline starts in Downtown Detroit and runs through the city in a northeasterly direction along one of Detroit's five major avenues. The highway passes several historic landmarks and through a historic district. It also connects residential neighborhoods on the city's east side with suburbs in Macomb County and downtown.
M-5, commonly referred to as Grand River Avenue and the northern section as the Haggerty Connector, is a 27.9-mile-long (44.9 km) state trunkline highway in the Metro Detroit area of the US state of Michigan. The highway runs through suburbs in Oakland and Wayne counties in addition to part of Detroit itself. It starts in Commerce Township as a north–south divided highway and freeway called the Haggerty Connector and connects with Interstate 96 (I-96) in Novi. The freeway then turns southeasterly to bypass the suburb of Farmington as an east–west highway. The freeway ends on the southeast side of Farmington, and M-5 follows Grand River Avenue as boulevard into Detroit. The eastern terminus is at the five-way intersection between Grand River Avenue, Cass Avenue, and Middle Street in Downtown Detroit, where it had been extended to in May 2016 from an interchange with I-96 on the northwest side of the city. The trunkline passes between suburban residential subdivisions and along urban commercial areas while serving 17,200–68,800 vehicles on average each day.
US Highway 16 (US 16), also called Grand River Avenue for much of its length in the state, was one of the principal roads prior to the post-World War II construction of freeways in the state of Michigan. Before the creation of the United States Numbered Highway System in 1926, the highway had been designated as a state highway numbered M-16. The modern route of Grand River Avenue cuts across the Lower Peninsula in a northwest–southeast fashion from near Grand Rapids to Detroit. Before the late 1950s and early 1960s, US 16 followed other roads between Muskegon and Grand Rapids, and then Grand River Avenue through Lansing to Detroit. In the years immediately preceding the creation of the Interstate Highway System, US 16 was shifted from older roads to newer freeways. Later, it was co-designated as an Interstate. When the gap in the freeway was filled in around Lansing, the US 16 designation was decommissioned in the state. The freeway was solely designated Interstate 96 (I-96) east of Grand Rapids and I-196 west of that city.
M-10 is a state trunkline highway in the Metro Detroit area of Michigan in the United States. Nominally labeled north-south, the route follows a northwest-southeast alignment. The southernmost portion follows Jefferson Avenue in downtown Detroit, and the southern terminus is at the intersection of Jefferson and M-3 next to the entrance to the Detroit–Windsor Tunnel. The northern terminus is in West Bloomfield Township at the intersection with Orchard Lake Road. The highway has several names as it runs through residential and commercial areas of the west side of Detroit and into the suburb of Southfield. It is called the John C. Lodge Freeway, James Couzens Highway, and Northwestern Highway. One segment has also been named the Aretha Franklin Memorial Highway.
M-15 is a north–south state trunkline highway in the US state of Michigan. The southern terminus is a junction with US Highway 24 (US 24) just south of Clarkston on the northwestern edge of the Detroit metropolitan area. The trunkline is a recreational route running north and northwest to the Tri-Cities area. The northern terminus is the junction with M-25 on the east side of Bay City. The total length is about 73+2⁄3 miles (118.6 km) between the two regions.
M-102 is an east–west state trunkline highway in the US state of Michigan that runs along the northern boundary of Detroit following 8 Mile Road. The highway follows the Michigan Baseline, a part of the land survey of the state, and the roadway is also called Base Line Road in places. As a county road or city street, 8 Mile Road extends both east and west of the M-102 designation, which leaves 8 Mile on the eastern end to follow Vernier Road. The western terminus of M-102 is at the junction of 8 Mile Road and M-5 and the opposite end is at Vernier Road and Interstate 94 (I-94). The 8 Mile Road name extends west to Pontiac Trail near South Lyon with a discontinuous segment located west of US Highway 23 (US 23). The eastern end of 8 Mile Road is in Grosse Pointe Woods, near I-94, with a short, discontinuous segment east of Mack Avenue.
M-59 is an east–west state trunkline highway that crosses the northern part of Metropolitan Detroit in the US state of Michigan. It runs between Howell at Interstate 96 (I-96) and I-94 on the Chesterfield–Harrison township line near the Selfridge Air National Guard Base. While primarily a multi-lane surface highway, it is a full freeway from just east of downtown Pontiac near Opdyke Road to just east of the Mound Road/Merrill Road exit in Utica. The various surface highway segments are named either Highland Road, Huron Street or Hall Road, with the latter known as an area for shopping and dining. The rural sections west of Pontiac pass through Oakland County lake country, passing through two state recreational areas.
M-53 is a north–south state trunkline highway in the US state of Michigan that connects Detroit to The Thumb region. The highway starts in Detroit at a connection with M-3 and ends in Port Austin, Michigan at M-25. In between, the trunkline passes through the northern suburbs of Metro Detroit, connects to freeways like Interstate 69 (I-69) and provides access to rural farmland. In Macomb County, M-53 follows the Christopher Columbus Freeway and POW/MIA Memorial Freeway, while the remainder of the highway is known as Van Dyke Avenue in the metro area or Van Dyke Road elsewhere. The highway has also been named the Earle Memorial Highway for one of the pioneers of the Good Roads Movement and Michigan's highway system.
US Highway 24 is a United States Numbered Highway that runs from Minturn, Colorado, to Independence Township, Michigan. In Michigan, it is also known as Telegraph Road and runs for 79.828 miles (128.471 km) as a major north–south state trunkline highway from Bedford Township at the Ohio state line through Metro Detroit. The highway runs through three counties in southeastern Michigan, Monroe, Wayne and Oakland, as it parallels the Lake Erie shoreline and bypasses Metro Detroit on the west. Telegraph Road connects several suburbs together and passes through the western edge of Detroit before it terminates northwest of Clarkston at an interchange with Interstate 75 (I-75).
M-97 is a state trunkline highway in the U.S. state of Michigan. It runs from Detroit to north of Mt. Clemens following Groesbeck Highway. The highway starts south of 7 Mile Road and runs northeasterly through Macomb County suburbs to Hall Road, which takes the place of 20 Mile Road in the Mile Road System. In between the termini, Groesbeck Highway runs through suburban residential and commercial areas.
Note: A fully interactive online map of the Lincoln Highway and all of its re-alignments, markers, monuments and historic points of interest can be viewed at the Lincoln Highway Association Official Map website.
There are six business routes of US Highway 131 in the state of Michigan, and previously there was one bypass route and an additional business route. All of the business routes are former sections of US Highway 131 (US 131). These former sections of the mainline highway, along with the necessary connecting roads, allow traffic to access the downtowns business districts of cities bypassed by sections of US 131 built since the 1950s. The extant business loops connect to Constantine, Three Rivers, Kalamazoo, Big Rapids, Cadillac, and Manton. The former bypass route in Grand Rapids allowed traffic to bypass that city's downtown at a time when US 131 still ran through the heart of the city, and the later business route connected through downtown while US 131 ran on a freeway bypassing the central business district.
US Highway 25 (US 25) was a part of the United States Numbered Highway System in the state of Michigan that ran from the Ohio state line near Toledo and ended at the tip of The Thumb in Port Austin. The general routing of this state trunkline highway took it northeasterly from the state line through Monroe and Detroit to Port Huron. Along this southern half, it followed undivided highways and ran concurrently along two freeways, Interstate 75 (I-75) and I-94. Near the foot of the Blue Water Bridge in Port Huron, US 25 turned north and northwesterly along the Lake Huron shoreline to Port Austin.
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.