Detroit Auto Show Set to Return to January Dates

The Detroit Auto Show announced that their event will return to its mid-January dates with a January 2025 kickoff. Inside Huntington Place in Downtown Detroit, the show is scheduled to run Friday, Jan. 10 through Monday, Jan. 14.

The show will be returning to its January date; that's when the show used to take place, before the COVID-19 pandemic forced its move to summertime. Organizers suggested shifting the event to the summer to highlight Detroit during its warmer weather, with outdoor activities, and a more festival-like approach, addressing challenges faced by auto shows in general.

Initially ditching January, the Detroit Automobile Dealers Association (DADA) aimed for a June 2020 show, but the plan got derailed by the COVID-19 pandemic. Fast forward to 2021, they went for an outdoor gig at M1 Concourse in Pontiac, calling it Motor Bella.

While DADA tried shaking things up with their last two shows, taking advantage of the outdoors, the September dates clashed with the back-to-school rush and the kickoff of football season. On the other hand, the January events had less competition during the winter.

Making its grand return in 2022 in mid-September, the Detroit Auto Show brought lots of excitement. There was an indoor electric vehicle track, a surprise visit from President Joe Biden, and to top it off, outdoor fun like a massive inflatable duck.

This year’s show is being canceled to shift focus to next year’s debut.

The Charity Preview will be on Friday, Jan. 15, and Public Days will be on Saturday, Jan. 11, through Monday, Jan. 20, ending on Martin Luther King Jr. Day. More information about the Detroit Auto Show will come down throughout the year leading up to the event. Check out their website here to stay up to date.

The Detroit auto show began in 1899 and evolved into an international media event as the North American International Show in 1989.

There are some strange and peculiar roads around the world which can often make driving an... interesting experience. While many roads are bland, Michigan has some unique roads. And many of those roads have some interesting history.

According to the U.S. Department of Transportation Federal Highway Administration, the oldest constructed roads discovered to date are in former Mesopotamia, now known as Iraq. These stone-paved streets date back to about 4000 B.C. in the Mesopotamia cities of Ur and Babylon.

Here in Amercia, the State Highway Department was created in 1905. In the early 1900s, lcoal leaders, including Horatio S. "Good Roads" Earle and Frank F. Rogers, saw a pressing need to get Michigan out of the mud.

Over time, they accomplished the first mile of concrete highway built, first painted centerline, first roadside park, and the first four-way red/yellow/green electric traffic light built on a solid foundation for a sustainable transportation system in Michigan. The demand for paved roads rose with the use of wheeled vehicles.

When it comes to Michigan’s roads and highways, there are many facts. Most Michiganders would find some of these quite surprising. The Michigan Department of Transportation has compiled a list of facts about the roads and highways in Michigan. With facts about Michigan’s first road map, first four lane road, and others. But which facts do some Michiganders not know about?

Here are 8 Michigan road facts you probably didn’t know about.

Currently, Michigan has one of the nation's shortest signed interstates. The shortest freeway in Michigan is only 1.1 miles long. Though not signed, New York has a  0.70 miles freeway, which is even smaller than Michigan's smallest.

The three-span US-12 camelback bridge in Mottville is Michigan's longest remaining bridge of this type. Constructed in 1922, these bridges are found primarily in Michigan and Ontario, Canada.

The towers on the Mackinac Bridge or “Mighty Mac” (552 feet high) are almost as tall as the Washington Monument (555 feet high). The Mackinac Bridge is currently the fifth longest suspension bridge in the world.

The first Michigan road map, with only three roads on it, was published by the United States Congress in 1826. As a matter of fact, the first surveyed road in Michigan was Pontiac Road (now called M-1 or Woodward Avenue) connecting Detroit and Pontiac in 1819.

M-185 on Mackinac Island is the only state highway in the nation where motor vehicles are banned. Motorized vehicles have been prohibited on Mackinac Island since 1896 because the horses were disturbed by the noisy engines of some of the island's first cars. Furthermore, carriage drivers formed an association, convincing islanders to ban automobiles.

The longest highway in Michigan is I-75, which runs 395 miles from the Ohio border to the International Bridge in Sault Ste. Marie. I-75 also passes through six different states. At its north end, it starts on the Canada/U.S. border at the top of Michigan at Sault Ste. Marie. Then it heads south to Naples in Florida, where it bends east and runs across to Miami.

MDOT says that there is enough pavement on Michigan roadways to build a one-lane road from the Earth to the moon. Michigan has a total of 120,256 miles of paved roadway. This includes 9,669 route miles of state trunkline, 89,444 route miles of county roads, and 21,198 route miles of city and village streets. However, according to NASA, the Moon us an average of 238,855 miles away from Earth.

Eight Michigan highways began as Native American trails, US-2 (from Sault Ste. Marie to Green Bay); I-75 (from Detroit to Saginaw), I-94 (from Detroit to St. Joseph; I-96 (from Detroit to Grand Rapids), I-94 (from Detroit to Port Huron), US-41 (from L'Anse to Marquette), and US-12 (from Ypsilanti to Chicago). Michigan's three largest tribes are the Ojibwe (also called Chippewa), the Odawa (also called Ottowa) and the Potawatomi (also called the Bode'wadmi). Michigan also federally recognizes these tribes and others in the state.