Discover The Tranquility Of US 45: Michigan’s Quietest Highway Revealed
The concept of a quiet highway might seem to be an oxymoron. After all, a highways is defined
The roadway you're seeing above is claimed to be the most quiet highway in Michigan.
The road is US 45 which runs north-south through the western Upper Peninsula from Lake Superior at Ontonagon to the Wisconsin line south of Watersmeet.
The road runs for 54 miles through the western Upper Peninsula and outside of is northern terminus in Ontonagon, does not pass through any other incorporated cities or villages.
The lonely section pictured above is near Bruce Crossing.
Once leaving Michigan, US 45 is a major cross-country route running nearly 1300 miles to Mobile, Alabama.
Why exactly is US 45 the quietest road in the state? According to GeoTab.com, a website that compiled a list of the quietest roads in America, it's based on US 45 having a low "annual average daily traffic count" or AADT, a measure of how much use a road gets.
The survey seems somewhat suspect as there are many routes in Michigan that have a lower AADT than US 45, including in the UP, M-149 west of Manistique as well as M-183 on the eastern shore of Big Bay De Noc plus M-134 on Drummond Island. Likely the lowest AADT in the state belongs to M-212, a short highway in the Northern Lower Peninsula in Aloha which leads to a state park.
We're not, by the way, counting M-185 on Mackinac Island - of course the vehicle count there is zero unless you're including bikes and buggies.
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The quietest road in America is Alaska's famed Dalton Highway the lonely road up to the Arctic Ocean would be quite quiet and lonesome.
Whether they're the roads more or less traveled, have you been on all of these Michigan highways?
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