Transportation in Ann Arbor, Michigan is served by several highways, Amtrak and intercity bus lines, and the Ann Arbor Municipal Airport. Local public transportation is provided by Ann Arbor Area Transportation Authority (AAATA).
The streets in downtown Ann Arbor conform to a grid pattern, though this pattern is less common in the surrounding areas. Major roads branch out from the downtown district like spokes on a wheel to the highways surrounding the city. The city is belted by three freeways: I-94, which runs along the southern and western portion of the city; U.S. Highway 23 (US 23), which primarily runs along the eastern edge of Ann Arbor; and M-14, which runs along the northern edge of the city. Other nearby highways include US 12 (Michigan Ave.), M-17 (Washtenaw Ave.), and M-153 (Ford Rd.).
Several of the major surface arteries lead to the I-94/M-14 interchange in the west, US 23 in the east, and the city's southern areas. [1] Over 80,000 people commute into Ann Arbor each day from surrounding areas. [2]
The Ann Arbor Area Transportation Authority (AAATA), which brands itself as "TheRide", operates public bus services throughout the city and nearby Ypsilanti. The AATA operates the Blake Transit Center on Fourth Ave. in downtown Ann Arbor, and the Ypsilanti Transit Center.
A separate zero-fare bus service operates within and between the University of Michigan campuses. Since April 2012, the "AirRide" connects to Detroit Metro Airport a dozen times a day. [3]
Greyhound Lines provides intercity bus service. [4] The Michigan Flyer, a service operated by Indian Trails, cooperates with AAATA for their AirRide and additionally offers bus service to East Lansing. [5] Megabus has direct service to Chicago, Illinois, while a bus service is provided by Amtrak for rail passengers making connections to services in East Lansing and Toledo, Ohio.
Ann Arbor is considered one of the US's most walkable cities, with one sixth of Ann Arborites walking to work according to the 2020 census. [6] [7] Ann Arbor has a gold designation by the Walk Friendly Communities program. [7] Since 2011, the city's property taxes have included a provision for sidewalk maintenance and expansions, expanding the sidewalk network, filling sidewalk gaps, and repairing existing sidewalks. [8] The city has created a sidewalk gap dashboard, which showed 143 miles of sidewalk gaps in May 2022. [9] The outlying parts of the city and the township districts between Ann Arbor and Ypsilanti still contain markedly unwalkable areas. [10]
In 2019, 36% of trips in Ann Arbor were taken by walking, biking or transit. [11] In 2020, the city introduced a Healthy Streets program to encourage non-motorized transportation. [12] Between 2019 and 2022 Ann Arbor's Downtown Development Authority built four two-way protected bikeways downtown. [13] Early studies have shown a significant increase in bicycle use downtown since the construction of these bikeways. [14] [15] In 2023, the city reported over 900 bicycle parking spaces downtown, though this is still a small portion compared to the over 8,000 car parking spots for cars. [16] [17]
The Washtenaw County Border-to-Border Trail connects Ann Arbor to Ypsilanti, mostly along the Huron River, for pedestrians, bicycles and other non-motorized transportation. [18] [19] In 2017, Spin scooters started providing a scooter share program in Ann Arbor, expanding this to include dockless e-bikes in 2023. [20] [21] [22]
The city was a major rail hub, notably for freight traffic between Toledo and ports north of Chicago, Illinois, from 1878 to 1982; however, the Ann Arbor Railroad also provided passenger service from 1878 to 1950, going northwest to Frankfort and Elberta on Lake Michigan and southeast to Toledo. (In Elberta connections to ferries across the Lake could be made.) [23] [24] The city was served by the Michigan Central Railroad starting in 1837. The Ann Arbor and Ypsilanti Street Railway, Michigan's first interurban, served the city from 1891 to 1929. [25]
Amtrak, which provides service to the city at the Ann Arbor Train Station, operates the Wolverine train between Chicago and Pontiac, via Detroit. The present-day train station neighbors the city's old Michigan Central Depot, which was renovated as a restaurant in 1970. [26]
Ann Arbor is a college town and the county seat of Washtenaw County, Michigan, United States. The 2020 census recorded its population to be 123,851, making it the fifth-most populous city in Michigan. It is the principal city of the Ann Arbor metropolitan area, which encompasses all of Washtenaw County and had 372,258 residents in 2020. Ann Arbor is also included in the Metro Detroit combined statistical area and the Great Lakes megalopolis.
M-17 is a 6.390-mile-long (10.284 km) state trunkline highway in the U.S. state of Michigan, connecting the cities of Ypsilanti and Ann Arbor in Washtenaw County. It was once part of a highway that spanned the southern Lower Peninsula of Michigan before the creation of the U.S. Highway System in 1926. The designation once extended into downtown Detroit, but the eastern terminus was progressively scaled back in the late 1960s to the current location in Ypsilanti. The changes made to the highways in Washtenaw County spawned Business M-17, a business loop for 11 years between 1945 and 1956.
Like transportation in the rest of the United States, the primary mode of local transportation in Portland, Oregon is the automobile. Metro, the metropolitan area's regional government, has a regional master plan in which transit-oriented development plays a major role. This approach, part of the new urbanism, promotes mixed-use and high-density development around light rail stops and transit centers, and the investment of the metropolitan area's share of federal tax dollars into multiple modes of transportation. In the United States, this focus is atypical in an era when automobile use led many areas to neglect their core cities in favor of development along interstate highways, in suburbs, and satellite cities.
Portland is "an international pioneer in transit orientated developments."
The Ann Arbor Area Transportation Authority (AAATA), branded as TheRide, is the public transit system serving the Ann Arbor and Ypsilanti area in the U.S. state of Michigan. In fiscal year 2021, the system had a ridership of 1,725,797.
The Wolverine is a higher-speed passenger train service operated by Amtrak as part of its Michigan Services. The 304-mile (489 km) line provides three daily round-trips between Chicago and Pontiac, Michigan, via Ann Arbor and Detroit. It carries a heritage train name descended from the New York Central.
Ann Arbor station is a train station in Ann Arbor, Michigan, United States that is served by Amtrak's Wolverine, which runs three times daily in each direction between Chicago, Illinois and Pontiac, Michigan, via Detroit.
US Highway 12 (US 12) is an east–west United States Numbered Highway that runs from Aberdeen, Washington, to Detroit, Michigan. In Michigan, it runs for 210 miles (340 km) between New Buffalo and Detroit as a state trunkline highway and Pure Michigan Byway. On its western end, the highway is mostly a two-lane road that runs through the southern tier of counties roughly parallel to the Indiana state line. It forms part of the Niles Bypass, a four-lane expressway south of Niles in the southwestern part of the state, and it runs concurrently with the Interstate 94 (I-94) freeway around the south side of Ypsilanti in southeastern Michigan. In between Coldwater and the Ann Arbor area, the highway angles northeasterly and passes Michigan International Speedway. East of Ypsilanti, US 12 follows a divided highway routing on Michigan Avenue into Detroit, where it terminates at an intersection with Cass Avenue.
Depot Town is a commercial area, with some residences above storefronts, in Ypsilanti, Michigan's historic district. Depot Town proper consists of East Cross Street from the Huron River to North River Street, and a small area on the 300-block of North River Street. However, several blocks in the surrounding area are also commonly referred to as part of Depot Town. These areas include Riverside Park, Frog Island Park, and River Street extending north and south for several blocks. First established in the late 1830s, most of the buildings standing today were constructed between 1850 and 1880. Over the years, Depot Town has included hotels, an Underground Railroad station, an American Civil War barracks, and a building that has housed a bar and restaurant continuously for more than 150 years, switching to soft drinks during Prohibition. Today the area is dominated by restaurants and stores. Depot Town also hosts several large summer festivals each year, as well as weekly bike nights and cruise nights.
Ann Arbor–Detroit Regional Rail is a proposed commuter rail service along the Michigan Line between the cities of Ann Arbor and Detroit, Michigan, a total length of 39.72 miles (63.92 km). The project would connect with a proposed Detroit bus rapid transit service and the QLine streetcar.
The Mass Transportation Authority (MTA) is the public transit operator serving Flint, Michigan and surrounding Genesee County. It also owns and operates the inter-modal Flint station, which also serves Amtrak and Indian Trails.
Indian Trails, Inc., is an intercity bus operator primarily serving the U.S. state of Michigan, with routes also serving Wisconsin and Minnesota. Indian Trails is based in Owosso, Michigan, with offices in Romulus, East Lansing, and Kalamazoo.
Transportation in metropolitan Detroit comprises an expansive system of roadways, multiple public transit systems, a major international airport, freight railroads, and ports. Located on the Detroit River along the Great Lakes Waterway, Detroit is a significant city in international trade, with two land crossings to Canada. Three primary Interstate highways serve the region.
The Border-to-Border (B2B) Trail is a partially constructed non-motorized trail system in Washtenaw County, Michigan. The system is planned to cover approximately 55 miles (89 km) across Washtenaw County, along the Huron River.
Ypsilanti, commonly shortened to Ypsi, is a city in Washtenaw County in the U.S. state of Michigan. As of the 2020 census, the city's population was 20,648. The city is bounded to the north by Superior Township and on the west, south, and east by Ypsilanti Township. It is home of Eastern Michigan University.
Rapid Central Station is an intermodal transit station in downtown Grand Rapids, Michigan. It is operated by the Interurban Transit Partnership and serves as Grand Rapids' main city bus station as well as a station on the Silver Line bus rapid transit. It is located on Grandville Avenue between Cherry Street and Wealthy Street, and is the BRT's northern terminus. It is just yards north of the city's intercity rail station, the Vernon J. Ehlers Station, on Century Avenue.
The Ann Arbor Bus Depot was an intercity bus station located at 116 W. Huron in Ann Arbor, Michigan. It was built in 1940 as the Eastern Michigan Motorbus Terminal, and operated as a bus station until its demolition in 2014. It was designed by the Cleveland-based architects Banfield and Cumming, in partnership with Ann Arbor architect Douglas Loree, in an Art Deco style. Between 1988 and 2001, it was listed as an Individual Historic Property on the Ann Arbor Register of Historic Places. The Bus Depot was demolished in 2014 to make way for a six-story, 110-room hotel on the property, although its facade and marquee are being preserved and will be incorporated into the new hotel. It served as Ann Arbor's Greyhound station until shortly before its demolition in 2014. It was also both the last surviving example of Streamline Moderne architecture and the last public Art Deco structure in Ann Arbor.
Christopher Taylor is an American attorney and politician who has served as the mayor of Ann Arbor, Michigan since 2014.
Water Street is a brownfield in Ypsilanti, Michigan which used to be a site of various industries and businesses. In 1999, under the leadership of Cheryl Farmer, the City of Ypsilanti officially embarked on a project to redevelop the area to improve the general image of Ypsilanti and increase its tax revenue. Unsuccessful negotiations with developers and contamination have prevented the project from progressing. The city's goal to develop higher density tax generating property stemmed from the passing of the Headlee Amendment and Proposition A which resulted in limitations on property tax increases. Businesses and residents displaced by the proposed development attribute the blight and low taxable value of the area to the city's failure to provide and maintain municipal services and infrastructure. Michigan Department of Environment, Great Lakes, and Energy (EGLE) includes parcels at Water street in the list of over 24,000 contaminated sites in Michigan, of which only 3,000 have been remediated in the last three decades. The contamination of the site is similar to other brownfield sites linked to the Automotive industry. Ypsilanti is among other municipalities in the state of Michigan with brownfield sites that remain undeveloped.
The Blake Transit Center (BTC) is a major public transit station in downtown Ann Arbor, Michigan. It is the main hub for TheRide, serving as the terminus and transfer point for 17 Ann Arbor-based routes in the system's hub-and-spoke bus network. It also serves as a transfer point for multiple intercity bus services.
The Ypsilanti Transit Center is the secondary hub for the Ann Arbor Area Transportation Authority, the primary public transit service running in Ypsilanti, Ann Arbor, and surrounding communities in Washtenaw County, Michigan. It serves roughly 101,000 bus arrivals and departures per year, providing the primary service hub for the 8.8% of Ypsilanti residents who commute by transit.