Regional Boards > Great Lakes and Ohio Valley
Michigan Notes
Flint1979:
--- Quote from: JREwing78 on November 28, 2022, 08:28:39 AM ---The areas that got bumped from 55 to 65 mph were also touched on. Again, from the Free Press:
At the same time as freeway speeds were increased, the state Legislature in 2016 also hiked speed limits to 65 mph on nearly 950 miles of two-lane highways in northern Michigan and the Upper Peninsula. The MSU researchers, in a separate study using video camera, radar and LIDAR speed guns, found traveling speeds on those highways — the so-called 85th percentile speed, at which 85% of motorists will drive during free-flowing conditions — increased by 5 mph two years after the speed limit changes. The impact on crashes from those two-lane highway speed changes is a topic of ongoing research, Savolainen said.
Personal commentary: It would be nice if MDOT was able to arrive at design standards that would allow the bump to 65 mph in at least the U.P., or north of US-10. With areas like the Keweenaw and Ironwood being 9-10 hours away from the capitol, those 2017 speed limit hikes easily save 1-2 hours of drive time. If they were able to apply those hikes more universally, it would save even more.
--- End quote ---
I'm not seeing how it would save you 1-2 hours of drive time, maybe about 45 minutes but 1-2 hours seems to be stretching it.
JoePCool14:
--- Quote from: Flint1979 on November 29, 2022, 11:00:17 AM ---The thing is Michigan lefts aren't everywhere in the state, they are in a lot of places but there are still traffic lights that are poorly timed. We have lights like that in my area where there will be a green light and no traffic will be present on the street that has the green light but there will be 10-15 cars at the red light making all that traffic stop for no reason at all. The 75 mph speed limit is mostly in rural areas, except for US-10 between Midland and Bay City and I-69 between Flint and Lansing, those two highways have quite a bit of traffic on them for a 75 mph speed limit. I'd still rather live in Ohio or Indiana than this messed up state.
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Even if Michigan lefts aren't absolutely everywhere, at least in Michigan they exist and that's more than can be said about other states. We get stuck with almost every road having inefficient left turn signalization.
pianocello:
--- Quote from: JREwing78 on November 28, 2022, 08:18:44 AM ---A recent Michigan State University study linked the bump in posted speeds from 70 to 75 mph on rural freeways with a 5% bump in accidents, based on statistics from 2014-2016 crash data (pre-increase) and 2018-2019 crash data (post-increase).
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Thanks for posting this, I especially appreciate the direct link to the research. This is literally an extension of the research I worked on in grad school!
wanderer2575:
--- Quote from: catch22 on November 29, 2022, 07:14:02 AM ---As part of the ongoing I-275 reconstruction between Eureka Road and the M-14/I-96 interchange, MDOT is starting the process of moving two-way traffic from the NB lanes to the newly-built SB lanes beginning today. There will be short-term ramp closures over the next few days as traffic is flipped, but the biggest headache will be that I-275 will be down to one lane in both directions for "two to three weeks" as MDOT moves the concrete barrier sections over to the new pavement. Then, there will be two lanes in both directions on the new pavement with all ramps open until the SB lanes are reconstructed next year.
Details here in this MDOT press release: https://content.govdelivery.com/accounts/MIDOT/bulletins/3395e16
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Interesting; this is the first time I can recall where both directions of traffic have been temporarily aligned on one carriageway at the end of the year. I guess the contractor plans to continue working over the winter months with whatever demolition can be done on the nbd lanes.
Contrast that with the I-96 rebuild in western Oakland County. That was shut down a couple weeks ago for the winter, with all lanes reopened on both carriageways.
wanderer2575:
Sheetz is planning to open a Detroit location in 2025, with other Michigan locations to follow.
https://www.freep.com/story/news/local/michigan/2022/11/29/sheetz-convenience-store-michigan/69684793007/
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