Michigan/Major roads/Main

County Highways versus County Roads

• Michigan has an "intercounty" highway system in addition to locally maintained county roads. In both cases, naming conventions should follow highway naming by state.
  • Numbered county highways are prefixed with A through H based on geography. Naming convention should be "CR-[Letter Prefix][#]" (i.e. "CR-D19"). In all cases, local signage should be used to designate a primary name, while the county highway designation could be an alternate name if appropriate. While these roads could conceivably be classified higher, the lowest road type used should be Minor Highway regardless of appearance or functional classification.
  • A small number of counties maintain numbered county roads that are not part of the statewide A-H highway system. These roads should be named CR-[#] (i.e. "CR-388") and would typically appear as Primary Street, Street, or even Dirt Road.

State Numbered Highway Naming

The following proposal for a new national state highway naming standard is currently under review by the GLR State Managers.

Primary Street Name: Use whatever name is in common usage in that area. (Check business addresses, GIS, etc). If the commonly used Primary Street name is not the state's Numbered Highway name (Example: M-59), include an alternate street name with the Numbered Highway name.

When to include a City Name on a State Numbered Highway:

• Freeways

• Primary Street Name: No City Name
• Alternate Street Names: No City Names

• mH/MH Numbered Highway

• divided roadway with limited access:

• Primary Street Name: No City Name
• Alternate Street Names: No City Names

• all other mH/MH Numbered State Highways

• Primary Street Name: Include a city name in locales that use city names.
• Alternate Street Names that use a state Numbered Highway name (Example: M-59): No City Name

Functional Classification

Michigan follows the Waze Functional Classification (FC) standard for determining what Road Type to use for all paved roads.

Locking standard

The following defines a set of minimum locking standards proposed for all roads within Michigan. Any road of a certain type or category must be locked at least to the level in the chart below. Roads may be locked higher for protection and special situations (tricky design, frequent mistakes, imaging inaccuracies, and the like), but should not be locked lower.

It is understood that more rural or inactive areas may not yet meet this standard: editors are encouraged to recruit and mentor additional editors to build coverage.

A great time to implement these locks is while bringing the road types of an area into compliance with the current US road type standards (FC and highway systems). Lock the roads based on type after they've been set to current US Road Type Standards.

Michigan Minimum Road Locking Standard

Segment Type	Two-way	One-way
Freeway	5
Ramp	Highest lock of connected segment
Major Highway	3
Minor Highway	3
Primary Street	2	3
Street	1	2
Private Road	1	2
Parking Lot Road	1	1see note
• • • • Ferry • • • •	5
|-|-|-|-|-|-|-|-|-| Railroad |-|-|-|-|-|-|-|-|-|	2
⁃     ⁃        ⁃        ⁃        ⁃ Runway ⁃        ⁃        ⁃        ⁃        ⁃	5
Other named types	1	2
Construction (outdated imagery)	3
Waze Beacons installed	6

Note: One-way PLRs used outside of parking lots, such as alleys and streets through apartment complexes, should be locked at 2. See the GLR major roads page for additional information on the standards listed here.