Why Does Interstate 75 Make Such a Tight 25 MPH Turn in Downtown Detroit?

If you've ever driven Interstate 75 thought downtown Detroit you eventually come up on an extremely tight 25 mile-per-hour turn as the freeway takes a curve to begin a northbound trek towards Flint, Saginaw, the Mackinac Bridge and Canda beyond.

So why does such a tight turn for the 'mainline' traffic of I-75? The answer is in the city of Detroit's legacy freeway system.

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Specifically, it's the Chrysler and Fisher Freeways junction point and that's the cause of the tight turn.

The Fisher Freeway is I-75 coming from Toledo/Monroe/Downriver into Downtown Detroit up to I-375/M-3/Gratiot Avenue. While the Chrysler Freeway is the roadway that carries the entirety of I-375 from Jefferson to Gratiot and then continuing north towards Oakland County and beyond.

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So if you took the freeway numbers out of the equation, it makes sense. The east-west bound Fisher Freeway effectively ends at the north-south Chrysler Freeway. But because the I-75 designation is shared by both freeways, that accounts for the very slow, tight curve.

Above is how I-75 looks coming southbound at the Chrysler/Fisher junction. As I-75 transitions here between the two freeways, the 'mainline' of 75 narrows to a single exit lane because it's transitioning between the Chrysler and Fisher.

Here's the perspective coming from Gratiot and the beginning of the Fisher Freeway.

The lanes marked I-75 South to Toledo mark the beginning of the Fisher while the lanes for I-75/I-375 with the destinations listed as Downtown Detroit and Flint represent the Chrysler Freeway.

One trick in understanding the names of Detroit area freeways are the service drives that parallel each highway. Exiting each and you'll see the road signs that indicate the freeway names whether it's the Chrysler, Fisher, Jefferies, Lodge or any of the other roadways in the city.