I occasionally need to travel thru Detroit during weekday rush hours (4-6 PM). I'm heading north from Toledo on I-75 and following that
to I-696 east to Mound Rd. Any better ways to go without adding a lot of time to my trip? That downtown traffic is a bear !!

I-696 and Mound is literally my office location. Unfortunately, no, there really isn't a better way. My best suggestion is to use Google Maps on a cell phone and let it route you based on real-time traffic data. You're just going the wrong way for that time of day.

I-75 is going to suck no matter what.

I'm not sure how bad Mound will be north of 8 mile,  but I used to drive past Mound on Davison and it looked clear.  I would look at more real traffic data,  but you might consider 75 to the Lodge to the Davison to Mound Rd.

As of 2 weeks ago Mound was down to 1 lane for construction between 10 Mile and I-696.

The long time running joke is jet pack or helicopter.


Pick out the one that is different from the other:  (A) AIDS; (B) Genital Herpes; (C) Syphilis; and (D) Detroit rush hour congestion.

The correct answer is (C) Syphilis.  There isn't any cure for the other three.

LOL !!!

This.

Add in 96 to 94 to the Lodge to Davison to Mound. You can also use Ryan north, but that area is a little nastier than Mound. Southfield may be an option. Depends on which highway has a crash on it or the weather.

I use the Waze App on my phone and it does a good job updating conditions. Uses other Waze users to update constantly.

Waze lets you report conditions, but Google bought Waze a while ago. Now all Waze traffic accident and traffic flow information is found in Google Maps as well.

Or maybe a tank?

Honestly 75 is probably about the best you can do.  Just avoid I-94, I-94 is a parking lot.  For some reason that seams to be where all the Detroit locals drive and they have no idea how to drive, coming up on your exit in about 10 feet?  No problem just dart across 4 lanes of traffic.  Turn signals are just for decoration.  Want to see who has the best spinners on thier beat to shit 1985 Cadilac and the best bling?  Just drive side by side at 30 miles an hour, no one else needs to use the freeway, they will just have to wait, workin' be fo' suckas' yo'.  I fucking hate I-94 the level of retardation on that road is off the fucking charts, traffic will be moving fine then it will just randomly stop or slow to a crawl then randomly start again with no apparent cause.  Need to get off for some reason, like needing more gas because traffic had to stop for a half hour for Darnell and Dashquan to finish their conversation, or just get fed the fuck up and want to detour around via surface streets?  Forget it, Detroit has no fucking concept of a service drive, there is zero way to parallel the freeway, or even generally to get right back on after getting off, you will instead have to detour through the city and the heart of the ghetto and try to navigate without street signs (stolen for scrap metal to fund the next hit of crack) (unless you get one that was turned around to send you in a circle or into a dead end for an ambush, ask me how I know) and around missing manhole covers debris and burned cars, and Detroit also has no concept of a logical grid pattern and loves random one way and dead end streets, have fun, or better yet don't get off the fucking freeway in the first place.  Did I mention I hate I-94?  I used to have to commute down I-94 for work, if traffic was good (almost never happened) it was about a 30 minute drive, on average it was about 45 minutes, but some days, at least once or twice a week, it would be and hour and a half plus.  Somedays it was in excess of two to three hours.  I hate I-94.

I-75 Snarles up, but never as bad as 94, if you really want to avoid it the only thing I can think of is going over to I-96, that will probably mean a detour over surface streets so do that before you get to Detroit.  I-96 should conmect directly with I-696.

Tell us how you really feel!  Your portrayals of Detroit are quite hilarious and obnoxious at the same time. Some days I really wish I could divert you with a flipped around street sign and get you lost so I didn't have to hear your drivel again.

I am only relating what I have personally experienced.

You seem to view Detroit in some alternate universe where it isn't 60%+ abandoned and mostly ghettos with a few scattered pockets of decent areas and doesn't have a staggering crime rate systamatic corruption and a horribly degraded infrastructure.  You seem to view Detroit in some fantasy world where it's nothing but $500,000 hipster gentrified condos, not the sub $1,000 burned out crack houses that most of the city actually is.

Here is a little nugget of insight for traversing 75n during rush hour: north of I94, the slow lane is actually the fast lane. The left lane is an accordian of starting & stopping controlled by retards checking their facebook.

S_A_C nailed it perfectly!

No, he's full of shit.

Been commuting from Monroe area to north of Port Huron since March.  2 hr drive each way ONLY BECAUSE I travel through Detroit at 5am in the morning and back through Detroit around 3pm, near the start of rush hour.  Any later time in either direction adds a minimum of 30 minutes to my drive, if not more.

In the morning, I cruise pretty easily all the way on 94 eastbound.

In the afternoon, I take 94 westbound to 75 southbound because 94 westbound is a parking lot when you pass The Lodge, Southfield Freeway, Telegraph, I-275 and US-23 in Ann Arbor.

Basically you are screwed when heading into Detroit during rush hour times and you are screwed leaving during rush hour times.

I listen to 760 WJR for traffic updates.  In the afternoon, there is a minimum of two accidents on I-696 every day, often times more.  I would absolutely avoid I-696 at all costs during rush hour times.

I-75 is the next worst parking lot during rush hour times IMO, followed closely by I-94 eastbound in the afternoon.

It might be better for you to stay on I-75 until something like the 13 mile exit, then take that east to Mound.  That way, you avoid I-696.

Not all too familiar with the area, but I'd do that in a pinch.

Everything I said I have experienced, tell me, precisely, what you disagree with.

No service drive, no street signs, the harrowing tales of near ambushes.. Its all been done before.

Anyway you can take 96 to the Davison to Mound? Other than that, you're kind of screwed.

My drive is 96 to 94, past the 10 and past 75. If something takes a shit anywhere during my drive, everything gets screwed up. I listen to a lot of audio books from the library, just to make the drive bearable, sometimes

Don't take 75 to 696, get off at 8 Mile.  On the way home take either 8 mile or Davison to 75. Edit: It depends, which side of 696 are you going to? Can't help with with 75 downtown, I haven't made that drive during rush hour in years.

Where is there a service drive within the limits of Detroit?  When I am forced off 94 by traffic I cannot find a single road that parellels the freeway as I can outside Detroit.
One of the reasons I hate driving in Detroit is the lack of signage, at least outside the core, again, this is by direct observation.
I was nearly ambushed, it happened, I'll even tell you about where:  coming on I-94 Eastbound at the last exit before it crosses a I-75 I had to get off due to low fuel, I stopped at the gas station immediately at the top of the exit ramp.  Upon exiting that gas station I was unable to reenter I-94 do to the lack of an on ramp, my attempt to parallel I-94 to the first onramp failed do to the lack of a service drive, I was diverted into the ghetto, where navigating was difficult due to the lack of signs, and attempted to comtinue in a more or less Eastward direction parellel to I-94, while continuing to try and stay close to the freeway in my quest for an on ramp I ended up on an unmarked dead end street.  I-94 was on my left down the embankment on the other side of a chainlink fence, on my right was a row of boarded up, burned, and half collapsed houses, building debris was strewn acoss the street, upon reaching the end and realizing it was a dead end I turned around in the road and started heading in the other direction.  At that point a large truck or tractor tire was rolled across the street in fromt of me to try and make me stop, I was fortunately able to manuever around and escape.  If not an ambush what would you call that?

In the '90s, I was driving from Monroe to Pontiac three days a week.  Found out it was as quick to take Telegraph as it was to take 75 or 275, or any other combination of interstates during rush hour traffic times.

To add:

A few years ago I was driving from the Monroe area to Utica to get my neck fixed.  Telegraph worked well then also.

He is Right every Idiot seems to drive on I-94, from I-75 to at least the first Harper there is no way to parallel the expressway. My brother in-law got pushed off the freeway because of an accident at Chene, he said with all the blown out buildings it looked like Fallujah.

So, you took the last exit on I-94EB before it crosses I-75. That would be the 215C exit for John R, and the only gas stations in that area are on Woodward, not at the top of the exit ramp. Also, directly across from the John R exit is the E Edsel Ford Service drive which takes you directly back to the I-94 EB on-ramp just past Beaubien before the E Edsel Ford Service drive makes a right hand turn to parallel I-75 SB as the I-75 Frontage Rd on its way downtown. Oh, by the way, that area of town is Midtown, in the heart of Wayne State University. It's far from the ghetto area of town.

Just for kicks, I kept looking for a "gas station immediately at the top of the exit ramp" and found one at Livernois and another at Chene St, just west of Grand Blvd. The funny thing is, neither of those have any dead ends around them, and both of them have the I-94 on-ramp directly across from the exit ramp.

I'm smelling a lot of bullshit on this one. If you expect anyone here to have any hope of believing your stories, you better post a Google Map location to show exactly what you're talking about.

We've gone round and round with S_A_C on this before. His stories are outrageous and no one believes him because they can't be back up. He just loves shitting in threads when out-of-state members ask about coming to Detroit. He lives up in Port Huron and admits he hasn't been to Detroit in years. He just wants to scare everyone off and rile up the thread.

About the only thing he's said that I agree with is the number of morons driving on the roads. And that's not just a Detroit problem. That's a problem even in the suburbs. There are far to many people with driver's licenses that shouldn't have ever been allowed to drive.

You mean like these two service drives exactly where your harrowing tale supposedly occurred?




You really need to up your troll game.

I see a road going along 75, not 94, the nearest parellel to 94 in your map is East Ferry, well away from the freeway, and not a traditional service drive a service drive as anyone else would define it, look like ose ones next to 75, looks, on your own map, what happens after 94 passes 75, do you see a service drive?  I don't.

Now consider I can't read a map while driving, have no GPS, do not know the area, and can't find any intact street signs.  Your map proves my point actually.

I have no problem with DeToilet, but I have my Game On. I don't advise out of towners try my method.

You guys are funny.

Yep Detroit is a great place... totally safe... nothing but half million dollar condos... it doesn't have an out of control crime problem at all... totally not a ghetto hellhole...



Yep...  I'm just making it all up...  Great place to raise a family.

I'm hard on Detroit because it deserves it, some of you people are willfully ignorant.

Third most dangerous city in the country according to the FBI, which would be an improvement if Detroit actually reported all their numbers (they don't) or if most crimes were even reported at all (they aren't).

I remember when this one was first reported, the body had been there for months and was only discovered by chance by urban explorers playing hocky in the basement (who noted the body but continued their game, just playing around the frozen corpse), it took 3 phone calls and 2 days just to get the police to respond at all, imagine all the stuff that is never reported:

http://www.nbcnews.com/id/28916090/ns/us_news-life/t/frozen-body-found-detroit-elevator-shaft/#.V7urR1f3aK0

We're not saying Detroit doesn't have a high crime level. If that's what I've ever said, I misspoke. What I'm saying is that, especially for non-residents, you'll be just fine if you stay along the traveled portions. I'm saying I've spent a lot of time in Detroit, I live 3.5 miles from the 8 Mile border. I've never seen a missing manhole cover, except on the Packard Plant abandoned property which isn't a public roadway. I'ver never seen an incorrect street sign, but I have seen missing ones.

What I am saying is that a number of us here don't believe your tales of woe and think they're either exaggerations, a case of making yourself think the situation is worse than it really is, or just fictional. What I am saying is that if you're on the Interstates, you're not likely to be jumped. If you're in Midtown around Wayne State or the other frequented areas, you're not likely to run into trouble. If you're in Downtown or the Riverfront, you're also not likely to run into trouble. Sure, you can seek trouble out in bad parts of town, but you'd have to try. Most criminals down there aren't out to get you just because you drove by.

I just relate what I have seen, my intent is to induce due caution, other than the one time when I narrowly avoided it I have never had an incident either but I do NOT feel safe down there at all and figure it would just be a matter of time, typically I do not leave the freeways, in which case I agree with you, you'll ne fine, the problem happens if you are forced off of the freeway unexpectedly, those are the tales I am relateing.  I am forced out in a nieghborhood with a notoriously high crime rate, a place where I stick out like a sore thumb, and all I see is burned and dilapidated abandoned buildings (and burned and dilapidated non abandoned buildings), I see razor wire on the roofs of businesses atop high fences (again, on the roofs), I see chain link fence across windows behind heavy iron security bars, I see buildings with collapsed roofs right along the main drags, buildings that are just crumbling walls right out of blitz era London, I see buildings with holes which appear to have been BLOWN in their walls, which if I were somewhere else would swear was artillery or RPG damage, I see building debris over the side walks, I see burned cars in the street, and yes, a couple of missing manhole covers.  Not all in the same place, or on the same day, but I have seen all these things (although many of them, chain link, razor wire, burned cars, collapsed roofs, blast damage, debris, etc) actually WERE on the same day, along the same street even, I don't recall which one, or whereabouts it was on the street but it was one of the main ones as I recall). Now add to that that, as you yourself have seen, many street signs are missing, the erratic street layout, heavy traffic, bad roads, and bad driving and the whole thing becomes very comfusing and decidedly unerving when no matter how hard you try you just can't seem to find the freeway again, or at least not an on ramp, or even a straight street.

I relate these stories because I want people to be aware that Detroit is not really a place you want to go if you can avoid it (at least not via surface streets) and that extreme caution and alertness is required, but then you guys chime in and it sounds like you view Detroit through rose colored glasses and try to depict it as not dangerous at all, and full of $500,000 condos (another thread) as opposed to the ghetto most of it actually is.  Does kt have decent areas?  Sure, but those areas are surrounded by ghetto. I'm sure you could probably find a "nice" neighborhood in Baghdad or Kabul, that doesn't mean you should go there or that those cities are hellscape warzones, and statisticly (this isn't opinion, you can look it up yourself if you like) Detroit is actually more dangerous than they are in terms of murder rate anyway.  Yet the impression you try to give is that it's all perfectly fine and that I am exaggerating or making it all up, I am not, I have seen everything I said.  I suspect the problem may be that you go to those "good" parts of the city and don't really venture beyond them much (and why would you?), whereas I, by the random nature of my visits, being forced off the freeway instead of deliberately visiting, temd to end up in the worst possible areas so we see different sides of the city, you see beat up but not altogether bad with some promise, I see blighted ghettos full of gangs, crime, generational wellfare, no respect for property, or pride in their own, ghetto "culture," near anarchy, and general hopelessness.  Maybe your Detroit just needs a fresh coat of paint, mine needs Catapiller D9s.

I primarily spend my time in Detroit in the popular areas (Midtown, Downtown, and Riverfront). However, I've ridden my motorcycle all over and taken it to the areas you describe. Yes, I've had my hand on my carry gun more than once, but I also knew exactly what I was getting into before I got into it. I was also not alone in those cases. The funny thing is, the burned out and dilapidated areas you describe are actually more deserted than most areas. I feel safer, although maybe slightly creeped out, in those areas. There's usually no sign of life and it's like another planet. It's when I get to the areas that are still clinging to life and have people around that I begin to watch my six.

In any case, I still stand by my opinion that while it may feel like a war zone and be a ghetto, you will more than likely be just fine if you're just a passerby moving through and don't interact with people. The point is, while you may feel unsafe, unprovoked attacks aren't that common. The majority of murders in Detroit are probably not random and are somehow related to gangs, drugs, sex, and money.

Obviously it depends on what sort of areas you spend your time in.  You seem to have plenty of insight on the worst places to go, while others who have lived and worked in the cities for decades manage to stay in the areas that don't have all the sorts of things you drone on and on about.  Not sure how you can be such an expert on what really goes on if your entire experience of the city is limited to detours.  Obviously, those detours give you great insight into how many generations have lived in poverty there, how much gang activity there is, and all the anarchy and holes blown in the walls.

Or navigationally challenged outstaters.

Show us last time that happened.

He wasn't being serious.  That was a jab at SAC.

My new project house takes me right into some serious gangland.  It is not a place you wind up by accident. SAC would love it.

Outside of the killings Detroit has one of the lowest crime rates in the nation.

How much does Blackwater charge to keep the crackheads from stealing all your copper pipes and wiring?

Why would you get a project house down there?  I can't imagine you will get a return on your investment.  Hell, the selling proce will probably be less than the value of the kitchen counters.

Brother has a real estate license. The HUD agent commission was higher than the purchase price of the home. He got the title work done for half off.
Because it was HUD sale,  it has no back taxes or utilities.

We are literally in this thing for the cost of one gallon of mold spray.

Also,  it is a great excuse to open carry a slung suppressed AK.

How about I-275 north then I-686 east to Mound Rd?? Is that any good?? Thanks for all the feedback, BTW!!

275 north of M-14 has been closed for a while.

It's supposed to reopen next month sometime. However, as of right now it's a no-go.

Well, that makes more sense then, but I wouldn't put to much work into it.  Might I suggest PVC pipe?

Depending on what time you go, 696 can be pretty packed. You are also going way out of your way.  

Today I had to go from mound and 696 to Livonia.  I took mound south to the Davison, Davison to 96.  Traffic was not an issue.  

You may want to try 75 to Southfield N, to 96 E, to the Davison E, to Mound N.

I drove that rout today and can confirm all signs were present, I was not ambushed, and I was not spontaneously engulfed in riots.  So exactly the way it was for the years that I drove it in the past. On the other hand, it isn't Indian Village, so don't expect the roads paved with gold.  I did see several cops, and some new construction going on in addition to several of the abandoned building having been demolished.  There was also a tumbleweave laying in the street, so I got a pic of that along with the accompanying street signs!

Almost all of the pipe is PVC. Most of it had been replaced already.

We only intend to kill mold and when we have free time, scrape the peeling paint and pull out the nasty carpets. If we get a generator,  we'll sand and stain all the hard wood floors and remove the blood stains.

Where at?

Tireman / Ironwood.  Just a bit east of Livernois.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PqHTLv1qFLc

Fixed it for you:



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