The 'Michigan Left' — Why You Turn Right to Go Left

Michigan has a turn so unusual that out-of-state drivers regularly get confused by it: to turn left, you first drive past your street, then make a U-turn.

If you’ve driven a big divided road (a “boulevard”) in Michigan, you’ve met the Michigan Left. At many busy intersections, you simply can’t turn left the normal way. Instead, to go left, you drive straight through the intersection (or turn right), continue a short distance to a marked median crossover, swing a U-turn, and come back. Visitors find it baffling; locals don’t give it a second thought.

It sounds like extra work, and it is a little — you drive a bit farther. But there’s solid reasoning behind it. By removing those dangerous left-turn-across-traffic movements, the Michigan Department of Transportation says these intersections cut crashes by 30 to 60 percent and move 20 to 50 percent more traffic than a standard intersection with left-turn signals. Fewer head-on and turning collisions, smoother flow, and safer crossings for pedestrians. Michigan has used them since the late 1960s, and the idea has since spread to other states and even other countries (where it goes by names like “median U-turn” and “ThrU-turn”).