The Michigan Left

I used to hate Michigan Lefts… That was until Michigan started putting roundabouts all over the place. Now I miss them with a passion.
I have no problem with roundabouts, but apparently many Michiganders do. I guess drivers were getting too good with the Michigan lefts so now we have to implement roundabouts to keep things FUN!
Outsiders be damned. Make those awkward left turns.

Takes a little getting used to, if you’re not familiar with them, but they do serve their purpose & keep traffic moving. «Can’t believe I reviewed this?!»

So much safer than getting tboned at in intersection or going through a roundabout that no one seems to be able to figure out. MI left is way safe and so much SIMPLER for all those ignorant drivers. At least if you start to mindlessly drive though the MI left become a little more aware of your surroundings than just trying to do an every-​man-​for-​themselves run though any other intersection.

As if mentioning Detroit and Flint to non-​Michiganders weren’t bad enough to make people shudder and scared, you really had to be difficult and create the Michigan left? Really?! It’s the most non-​sensical thing to me and definitely can be dangerous at certain hwy/​main roads. I just don’t get it.

Its taken over ten years of living in Michigan for me to get used to it, but its ok. It now makes sense to me. I still get a tickle out of driving friends from out of state around a Michigan Left and them getting completely confused. I guess it kinda works… Despite that, its one of the reasons why Michigan is special!

«The Michigan Left,» i.e., boulevards with crossovers that allow one to execute a left hand turn across several lanes of thick traffic, is the only way to combat leadfoots who can only go fast when the road is straight. Now that texting while driving seems to be the «in» thing, it’s a great safety feature for busy roads.
When the inexorable flow of traffic gets you down, the Michigan Left boulevard system allows you to get where you’re going without having to…
1) do a burn-​out just to get into traffic
2) camp out in a central left turn lane, waiting for a break in traffic to give you a chance
3) do your own, improvised Michigan Left in a driveway or parking lot. I’ve had to do that when the traffic was fast and thick.

When I was on a national tour for BMW & Susan G Komen in 2008 after traveling through 40 states the team, complained about the waste of time, mileage & gas of the Michigan Lefts
As a professional driver, I find them useful & they seem to prevent the T-​Bone Style of accidents & allow traffic flow through a typical intersection VS the 3 – 4 cars that normally make it through on a normal pro-​left

What can I say about the Michigan left? It is better than the New Jersey Jug Handle. Talk about confusing! What’s more wrong about the left, is that it is not consistent. If all the major intersections abide by the rule, than it would be OK, but they aren’t.
Just give me the days where a left was a left and get on with it.

Making two lefts and then a right is just not fun for me.
(or maybe that’s two rights and a left? Shit, i’m confused!!)
I like to turn as little as possible. I think the other drivers would agree that turning is just not one of my strong suits. Oh well…
Michigan, I love you so much, but your lefts ain’t right!!!
/​Left!

Dude!!! I ALWAYS get cut off by that guy turning left when I am turning right and CLEARLY have the right of way. Oh… and don’t get me started on the reason they are so wide. It’s not so YOU can cut me off from the inside. It so there is enough room for those giant trucks.
I’ve heard them called SUPER turns. I just call them SUPER LAME!

I never thought much about the Michigan left until my husband moved here with me. It never bothered me obviously but I was not exactly a fan or anything.
My husband hates the Michigan left. With a passion that is only rivaled by his hatred of John Madden, Ohio State, Brett Favre, the Dallas Cowboys (well Texas in general except for Austin), the 49ers, the New York Yankees, David Robinson, the Spurs, the Lakers, parents who fail to discipline their badly behaved children and any Housewife show on Bravo.
For that reason, and because I am evil like that, I enjoy the Michigan left. There is nothing like seeing my laid back husband get worked up about something. Also after 10 years I would think he would’ve gotten over it. It is an endless source of amusement for me. I have to love it.

NO.
sorry. I can see why some people love it.
But I love seeing real blocks with crossing streets so I know where I am.

A slight inconvienence, perhaps. But driving in Michigan ever since I got my license at 16, I hardly notice them anymore. Making regular left turns at busy intersections now seem dangerous/​chaotic in comparison.
Plus, the MI left is nothing compared to the clusterf*** that is a roundabout… and everyone seems to love those stupid things.

The Michigan Left sounds like a great name for a restaurant.
Unfortunatly it is one of the things unique to our state. I believe that the Michigan Left was invented by the same guy that invented the Edsel, Clear Pepsi and New Coke. While the other things have gone away, the Michigan Left will be with us like potholes and cockroaches.
Being a Professional Driver, I both love it and hate it. I love it because it is a safer way to hang a looie. I hate it because it is a good way to stop for the same light twice and odds are when traffic is heavy you will.
I would imagine that the Michigan Left is a solution, Back in the good old days when we all wore DA’s (1) and listened to CKLW, there was a road called Bloody Telegraph. It sported more accidents than the Indy 500, and was bloodier than one of my steaks. (I would use the other metaphor, but this IS a family website. Since making Telegraph a divided highway accidents are no longer plentiful In that respect, the Michigan Left is a Good Thing™.
I do not like the idea of roundabouts. They have them in Paris and Rome both cities known for crazy drivers and crazier cabbies. You don’t have to be crazy to drive in Rome, but I have heard it helps.
God save us all.
— — — — –
(1) The D. A was known as the duck’s ass. It is achieved by putting a jar a vaseline or Royal Crown Pomade in your hair and combing so that the back makes a feathered look like the rear end of a duck. See John Goodman in Raising Arizona for an example.

I love Michigan Lefts. I’ve lived in California, Texas, Utah (boink!), New York., etc, and adjusted to the Michigan left with ease. I don’t get aggitated when I need to make usage of a Michigan left.
Roundabouts, on the other hand, are crazy bad. They always seem to be in an unnecessary location, too, like in the middle of a road in between two country towns where there is maybe one office park on the right side of the road and nothing else… I can’t tell you how many times I’ve been in a two lane roundabout that merges at the exit of a road and have been cut off by a vehicle that was initially behind me and suddenly wants to speed up. Why do these exist?

Shake off the haters, left.
I love you, boo.

Shortly after I moved to Michigan, I had driven down Inkster to Northwestern Highway and wanted to turn left on Northwestern.
So I did.
Oh. My. God. You would think I had just hit a school bus or run over a family of ducklings. I have never seen so many dirty looks. I was like, WTF? (I was much younger then.) I mean, I wasn’t bothering anybody. Nobody had to speed up or jam on their brakes because of me, or even slow down a little except to make sure I saw them glaring at me. My only crime was that instead of turning RIGHT on Northwestern, driving half a mile in the wrong direction, crossing the median, driving back down to the light, and waiting for it to turn green, I had made a regular («all-​the-​other-​49-​states») left. For this outrageous act, I was scorned and persecuted by the same drivers who, I would soon learn, curl up in a fetal position and whimper like little girls when there’s an inch of snow on the road.
After almost 30 years of this nonsense, I am delighted to see that Michigan has decided to join the rest of the civilized world (by which I mean New England) by replacing traffic lights with roundabouts at a few intersections in my neck of the woods. If you don’t understand roundabouts, please avoid them. Do not in any case stop dead for 30 seconds at the YIELD sign when nobody is coming, or crawl around the circle in mortal terror at 5 mph. Go find a nice Michigan Left somewhere and be happy again.

Out of all the intersection choices available, my second favorite is the Michigan Left. Sure it’s a little annoying to make but it really keeps traffic moving. I can’t imagine what Woodward or Telegraph would be like without the Michigan Left. It would be about pure chaos.
I lived in Toledo for 3 years for school. It was the worst driving experience in my life. In Toledo, they don’t have Michigan Lefts so every single intersection was a mess. On top of it, they don’t have left turn arrows in the same way we do in Michigan so the flow of traffic was very inefficient and it took forever to go across town.
I will agree with others that Roundabouts are the best intersections. The problem is that most Michiganders and Midwesterners don’t know how to navigate them. They probably also think that they’re French and they’re the same people who use the phrase «freedom fries».
Give me a Michigan left over a Green Arrow intersection.

Ok, how do you rate a left hand turn?
Did you hear about the guy who went around the block 130 times? His wife finally says «What are you doing?» His reply back was, «My blinker is stuck.»
Must be a Toyota.
This just totally cracks me up. I just gave it two stars, now that’s even funnier. Great pictures too. We have clever Unilocalers here in southeast Michigan.
Give me roundabouts. A few popped up in Farmington Hills. I love em. Much faster. After going to Italy, they have a ton of them, but they are crazy there. don’t blink. GPS sucks in roundabouts too… turn right… wait second right… oh wait, go around in circles… Go around a roundabout a couple times and watch your GPS go crazy.

Michigan lefts are sooo much better than roundabouts! I don’t know why we’re suddenly being inundated by roundabouts anyway. The only fun thing about them is saying the word roundabout (especially if you put a U.P. accent on the ‘aboot’).
The only confusion on Michigan lefts is listening to your GPS try to figure it out (some models will continually say, «Stay to the right,» to bypass all of the flippy-​dos for Michigan lefts). It used to be confusing trying to give directions to out-​of-​towners, but either it’s becoming more common, or my visitors have now been here before.