No One Remembers the 1950s-Era Michigan Turnpike Authority

When freeways and expressways began to be built across American in the years following the second World War many states developed toll roads to help defer the costs of construction. Most still exist today including well known examples like the New York State Thruway, the Pennsylvania and Ohio Turnpikes as well as the Indiana Toll Road.

Michigan never developed toll roads, but that doesn't mean they didn't consider it. Almost no one remembers the Michigan Turnpike Authority that was established in the early 1950s to develop tolled expressways in the state.

👇🏼BELOW: Every Interstate Highway in Michigan Has Quirks - Here They Are👇🏼

It was 1951 when the state created the Michigan Turnpike Authority. They studied building two toll roads across the Lower Peninsula. One would have run from the state line at Toledo north through Detroit to Bay City. You may recogize that route today as Interstate 75.

An east-west toll road was to run from the state line at New Buffalo on the Lake Michigan shore to Detroit. That is, of course, the route of modern day Interstate 94.

The state decided to not go the route of the toll roads when the federal government assumed much of the cost to build the freeways and the Michigan Turnpike Authority was quietly disbanded a few years after it was created.

Though the state has yet never created any toll roads, the ideas still pop up from time to time. As recently as 2020 the state senate approved a new toll road study and the Michigan Department of Transportation mainstains a brochure on Why Doesn't Michigan Have Toll Roads which spells out some basic pros and cons of tolled expressways.

Should you want a deep dive into the potential of a Michigan Turnpike, the University of Michigan has a digitized 52-page report from the former Turnpike Authority detailing exactly where the North-South turnpike would have run including exits and service plazas.

Every Interstate Highway in Michigan Has Quirks - Here They Are

Roads are intended to get you from here to there. And very few people think about the quirks of our interstate highway system. With being as long and as varied as it is, there is bound to be an oddity or two - and in fact, you can likely find a quirk with every interstate in Michigan. We think we have.

Gallery Credit: Eric Meier

This is the Opposite End of Every Federal Highway That Begins in Michigan

There are 16 different federal highways (US and Interstate routes) that begin in Michigan but end elsewhere, some just a few miles across the state line some thousands of miles away. Here is the opposite end of every highway that begins in Michigan.