Be aware of fake MDOT texts demanding toll or traffic ticket payments. MDOT does not operate any toll roads. Contact the Michigan Attorney General for information on how to identify scams and file a complaint.
Transportation National Firsts
Transportation National Firsts
1905: The first automobile transcontinental time record was set by David B. Huss (Detroit) in a Michigan-built Oldsmobile. (Note: The demonstration trip from New York City to Portland, Oregon took 44 days.)
1909: Nation's first mile of concrete highway built by the Wayne County Road Commission on Woodward Avenue between 6 Mile and 7 Mile roads in Detroit.
1911: Nation's first painted centerline by the Wayne County Road Commission (River Road near Trenton). (Note: The first state trunkline in the nation to have a centerline was the Marquette to Negaunee Road (now US-41/M 28) in 1917.)
1912: Nation's first highway materials testing lab was at the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor.
1918: Nation's first four-way red/yellow/green electric traffic light at the corner of Woodward and Michigan avenues in Detroit. (Note: The light was the invention of Detroit Police Officer William Potts.)
1919: Nation's first roadside park on US-2 in Iron County. Nation's first road marking system was created by William Bachman of the Detroit AAA. (Note: It utilized colored bands and numbers on telephone poles alongside the roadways. By 1920, he had banded 2,000 miles of Michigan's roadside utility poles.)
1922: Nation's first practical highway snowplow was built in Munising.
1925: Nation's first state highway department to use aerial surveys for highways designs.
Nation's first state highway department to correlate soil characteristics with highway design and construction.
1927: Nation's first highway department to use yellow centerlines to designate no passing zones.
1929: Nation's first criss cross and paved runways (Ford Airport, Dearborn).
Nation's first roadside picnic tables (along US-16 (Grand River Avenue) in Ionia).
1935: Nation's first state operated information center (now called welcome centers) was opened near New Buffalo.
1942: Nation's first depressed urban expressway (Davison Freeway (M-8) in Highland Park).
1960: Nation's first state to complete a state-spanning interstate (I-94 running 205 miles from Detroit to St. Joseph).