A Houstonians Take on Moving to Detroit

I found this listicle by a Detroit arriviste from Houston amusing. Nice to see the familiar through new eyes.

"I’m a native Houstonian, and I moved from the Greater Houston Area to the Metro Detroit area last August. I knew that things would be different – the winters would be colder, for one. However, there were some things that I didn’t anticipate. Take a glimpse into a non-Detroiter’s mind and find out some of the things we think upon moving to the city."

10 Things You Think When You Move To Detroit

The "Michigan Left" does seem to confuse many people.

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Originally Posted by DetroiterOnTheWestCoast

The "Michigan Left" does seem to confuse many people.

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It confused me when I looked at it. I guess I don't understand the reasoning behind it.

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Originally Posted by DetroiterOnTheWestCoast

The "Michigan Left" does seem to confuse many people.

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The so-called Michigan left is really more a suburban thing than a city thing though. I can think of only a very few places inside the city where you see it. In fact, when I mentioned it to my dad, who has rarely left the City of Detroit and close-in Grosse Pointes in his life, he didn't even really know what I was talking about.

Confusing though it may be, from what I can see on my forays into the suburbs that traffic pattern does seem to pretty effectively keep left-turning traffic from clogging up smaller roads. And it totally eliminates clogging in the short median strip, along with potential backups into cross traffic, while waiting for the oncoming traffic to clear. Of course, what it does create instead is cars quickly crossing several lanes after turning right to get immediately to the left, and then backing up in the turnaround lane.

Strange to me though that newcomers apparently think the city's problems date back only to the most recent "recession".

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Michigan_left

Significantly reduced left turn related accidents and significantly improved traffic flow it says.

https://news.ncsu.edu/2011/01/wmshummersuperstreets/

It's also safer for pedestrians since all of the traffic/turns are coming from the same direction.

The Michigan Left is second nature to me but I can see how it would be very confusing to an outsider. But I think they are far more intuitive than the New Jersey jug-handles.

Regarding the absence of service roads, I think Texas is the only place I've ever been where there is a near guarantee to have a service road run unobstructed in parallel to the freeway. Maybe that's because Texas was able to lay the freeway before the population growth.