Serious Proposal Places Tolls on Main Freeways Leaving Michigan

The state of Indiana is working on a road funding bill that could place tolls on key roads leaving Michigan to the south.

The bill, HB 1461, working is way through the Indiana legislature attempts to address road funding issues through a variety of methods ranging from tax increases to a fee tacked on to delivery services like Amazon and Door Dash.

👇🏼BELOW: These Short, Overlooked Michigan Highways Exist Only to Leave the State👇🏼

The aspect of the proposal of vital interest to Michigan drivers is the potential to expand tolls on Indiana roads beyond the Indiana Toll Road (Interstate 80/90).

According to reporting by the Times of Northwest Indiana via the Indiana Economic Digest, the bill strips a provision of Indiana adding any toll roads within 75 miles of the Indiana Toll Road. That roadway skirts the entire northern tier of the state from near Angola on the Ohio line to Hammond outside of Chicago. Any driver crossing Michigan's border with Indiana will very quickly encounter the Indiana Toll Road.

But drivers entering Indiana today can travel freely on roads like I-69 and I-94. Those roadways could be targeted by the new bill.

The measure also would permit tolls to be collected for the use of U.S. highways and state routes with the approval of the Republican-controlled General Assembly — potentially subjecting Region motorists to numerous and repeated tolls as they drive every day from home to work and back, to local shopping centers, and pretty much anywhere worth going.

That could place toll on other roads connecting to Michigan like US 31 (popularly known as the Bypass) connecting Niles and St Joseph with the South Bend area and US-131 which connects Indiana with cities like Three Rivers and Kalamazoo.

It's worth watching Indiana's road funding bill's progress as Michigan drivers could help fitting the bill for road maintenance in the Hoosier state in the future.

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These Short, Overlooked MIchigan Highways Exist Only to Leave the State

These short, stubby Michigan highways don't go anywhere other than to the state line with either Indiana, Ohio or Wisconsin.

Gallery Credit: Google Maps Street View

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Nearly all highways exist to connect you from one place to another. When you come to the end of the road, there's almost always somewhere else to go. Somewhere to turn. But there are parts of Michigan's highway system that don't leave you anywhere else to go - Michigan's dead end state highways.

Gallery Credit: Eric Meier

Filed Under: roads