Topic
Driving & Vehicles
Michigan separates the driver's license, vehicle title, registration, plate, and insurance into different jobs. Start with the task in front of you, then use the road-rule notes for the quirks that show up after the paperwork.
Tools & guides
Start with the Michigan Porch tools and longer guides connected to driving & vehicles.
- Tool Car Insurance Bill Explainer Use the Michigan Porch car insurance bill explainer.
- Tool Vehicle Tabs Estimator Use the Michigan Porch vehicle tabs estimator.
- Guide Driving & Vehicles Directory Read the Michigan guide to driving & vehicles directory.
- Guide Getting a Michigan Driver's License Read the Michigan guide to getting a michigan driver's license.
- Guide Vehicle Title Transfer Read the Michigan guide to vehicle title transfer.
Porch Notes
Driving & Vehicles notes
- Michigan's Left Lane Is for Passing, Not Cruising On a Michigan road with two lanes each way, you're supposed to ride in the right lane and use the left only to pass — camping there is a civil infraction.
- Michigan's Move Over Law: Slow Down 10 and Give the Cruiser a Lane Passing a stopped patrol car, ambulance, or tow truck with lights going, you must both slow at least 10 mph under the limit and move over a lane — a $400 ticket if you don't.
- Put a Real 1965 Plate on Your 1965 Car A registered Michigan historic vehicle can wear an authentic plate from its own model year instead of a modern historic plate, for a one-time $35 fee.
- Flint's airport sits on a banker's donated farm Bishop International Airport began in 1928 when banker Arthur Giles Bishop gave 220 acres of Genesee County farmland to Flint for flying; it now carries the airline traffic for mid-Michigan.
- Grosse Ile's two bridges: pay on the north end, free on the south The island of Grosse Ile reaches the mainland by two very different spans — a private toll swing bridge from 1913 and a free former railroad bridge the county opened in 1931.
- The Jackson factory that put the honk in your car Jackson's Sparks-Withington Company built the early electric car horn, branded it Sparton, and grew into a 7,000-employee plant whose owner later built the Cascades.
- The quarter-mile dragstrip in Martin that's been roaring since 1962 US 131 Motorsports Park in Martin opened in 1962 as Martin Dragway, got a $14 million rebuild in 2002, and still runs cars down a quarter mile of straight asphalt.
- West Branch's smiley-face water tower, grinning at I-75 A bright yellow smiley face painted on the West Branch water tower has greeted I-75 drivers for decades and earned the town its motto, the City with a Smile.
- The operating Muskegon ferry reaches Milwaukee in about 2.5 hours Lake Express is the active passenger-and-vehicle ferry between Muskegon and Milwaukee. It runs seasonally, takes about two and a half hours, and uses local time at each end.
- Where GM has tested its cars since 1924: the Milford Proving Ground General Motors opened the Milford Proving Ground in 1924 as the auto industry's first dedicated test track — and it still runs today behind miles of fence in Milford.
- Checker Motors: the Kalamazoo plant that built America's taxicab For nearly 60 years, the boxy yellow cab that came to mean 'taxi' was built on Pitcher Street in Kalamazoo.
- Mackinac Island, the island with no cars Mackinac Island asks ordinary visitors to leave their cars on the mainland. Walking, bicycles, horses, and winter snowmobiles shape daily travel.
- The Blue Water Bridge The Blue Water Bridge is Port Huron's landmark international crossing to Canada, with twin spans over the St. Clair River.
- Overnight parking in west Michigan: two cities, two rules Grand Rapids' seasonal rule applies only on signed streets; Kalamazoo generally bars paved-street parking from 2 to 6 a.m. unless an exception applies.
- Why car-insurance quotes change across west Michigan A move across west Michigan can change your car-insurance quote, even though ZIP codes themselves can no longer define an insurer's rating territory.
- Why is car insurance so expensive around here? Michigan auto insurance is still expensive, and metro Detroit addresses can move rates by hundreds of dollars a month.
- Drive Under the Detroit River and Come Up in Canada The Detroit-Windsor Tunnel gives an ordinary downtown drive a strange middle: about a mile beneath the river, followed by a real international border.
- Ford's $5 Day Raised Pay, With Strings Attached Ford announced a $5, eight-hour day in 1914. It was a landmark pay increase, but the full amount included profit sharing tied to rules about workers' private lives.
- Michigan Built the Car — but It Also Built the Road, the Rules, and the First Freeway Michigan didn't just build the car — it laid the first mile of concrete highway (Woodward, 1909), pioneered the painted center line, and built the first urban depressed freeway (Davison, 1942).
- That '80s Rock Band? Named After a Michigan Truck The band REO Speedwagon took its name from a Lansing-built delivery truck — named, in turn, for auto pioneer Ransom Eli Olds.
- The 'Michigan Left' — Why You Turn Right to Go Left Michigan's oddest turn makes you drive past your street and U-turn back — and it cuts crashes by 30 to 60 percent.
- The First Car Ever Driven in Detroit Wasn't Ford's — and Ford Watched on a Bicycle The first automobile driven on Detroit's streets wasn't Henry Ford's — it was Charles Brady King's, in 1896, with a young Ford following on a bicycle.
- The Line Down the Middle of the Road Was a Michigan Idea Michigan transportation officials credit Wayne County road commissioner Edward Hines with conceiving the highway centerline in 1911.
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