Freeway Removal in Detroit

[MicrosoftFan]

This might be true for the metro areas, and I agree that freeways are hardly a sole explanation for Detroit's decline, but I think there's a good point to be made about the over-abundance of freeways in Detroit's downtown specifically. Here's Chicago downtown and Detroit downtown at the same scale... it should be pretty evident that Chicago left the majority of downtown untouched while Detroit put freeways right through the CBD.





I think there's a decent case for removing 375 but it's much iffier for other freeways. MDOT shows a 2013 traffic count for the lower section of 375 [[south of Macomb, I assume) that's less than what Gratiot carries. The section between Macomb and the interchange is about double that but still only about 33-50% of 94, 75, etc. Removing the freeway and turning it into simply an exit onto a new boulevard probably would have very little overall effect on traffic and could have big benefits for the east side of downtown.

Further removals though might require an actual investment in public rapid transit alternatives, so I won't be holding my breath.

Edit: Here's where I got the average daily traffic volumes.

If you look at the map, freeway removal makes sense. Let's say the Fisher from I-96 to M-10 is removed. This section carries about 99,000 cars per day. Moving the load to Michigan Avenue [[which carries 10,000 cars) would raise traffic on that road to 110,000. This is comparable to I-94 at Lonyo, which has 3 lanes in each direction. Michigan actually has an extra lane for traffic. Combine that with some traffic using Vernor, Fort, or other alternate routes, and the overall traffic penalty would not be so severe.