Is Michigan Required to Post Signs to Tell You When You’ve Changed Time Zones?

Michigan spans two time zones - a concept that may be a revelation to those not from the Western Upper Peninsula, or have done little travelling there. The state also meets a time zone boundary for a section of its border with Indiana. So must states post time zone boundary signs for drivers?

The question came up recently on a Facebook group devoted to road signs, with a commenter asking:

Does anyone know if I-94 between Michigan and Indiana has a time zone change sign? Just passed it and no sign telling us that we’ve entered to eastern. I guess locals know that the zones change?

There is indeed a sign posted at that location, but it's small and easily missed as it's part of the much larger Welcome to Pure Michigan assembly. Here's how it looks for drivers heading from Indiana to Michigan at New Buffalo

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Michigan does a decent but not complete job notifying drivers of time zone changes. Between LaPorte County, Indiana, and Berrien County, Michigan, there are three MDOT highways that cross the time zone boundary, I-94 is marked. However, US 12 to the west and M-239 to the east do not have any signs that indicate one has crossed into a different time zone.

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In the Upper Peninsula were the time zone change between Eastern and Central occur all within Michigan at borders with the counties that touch Wisconsin, it is a somewhat mixed bag when a time zone boundary is crossed.

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Perhaps with mobile devices and many cars that will automatically update the time, it's not a concern and there appears to be no regulation requiring a sign at a time zone switch location, perhaps these little odd ball signs will be a little head-turner should you encounter one in the wild.