​Interstate 96 is a freeway across the Lower Peninsula, running from Muskegon east-southeasterly to Detroit. The purpose of Interstate 96 is to connect Detroit, Lansing, Grand Rapids, and Muskegon.  It never leaves the state of Michigan.  The eastern end is at Interstate 75, just west of downtown Detroit.  From there, Interstate 96 heads northwest and west to a 4-way junction where it joins Interstate 275 north; continuing west is the Michigan Highway 14 freeway with a seamless transition to Interstate 94 at Ann Arbor.  Interstate 96 follows Interstate 275 north for a while before splitting west-northwesterly to head away from Metro Detroit. It wraps around the southern and western sides of Lansing, but Interstate 496 is provided as an alternate directly through the city.  From the Lansing area, Interstate 96 continues west-northwest to secure its distinction as the highway connecting Michigan's largest city to the state's second-largest city, Grand Rapids.  Beyond Grand Rapids is another thirty miles of lightly-trafficked freeway, linking Grand Rapids to Muskegon.  The western end of Interstate 96 is at US Route 31 in Muskegon.

My photo of a cutout shield for Interstate 96 comes from the corner of Cedar Street and Pennsylvania Avenue on the south side of Lansing, Michigan. In recent years, the adoption of unisigns for Michigan's Interstate junctions has made cutout shields difficult to find across the state.  Usually, I'm relegated to finding these cutout shields on "To" guide markers, distant from the Interstate itself.  The cutout shield in this photo is no exception!  This guide assembly faces north on Cedar Street, directing southbound travelers north onto Pennsylvania Avenue, where they will soon find a right turn onto a trumpet spur joining Interstate 96. That trumpet spur is an interchange labeled "exit 104" along Interstate 96.  This photo was taken in August 2020, passing through Lansing on the way home from Traverse City.

Michigan Interstate guides will come with complete exit lists and a photo for every exit, at some point in the future when I've driven the full lengths of all of them.  This page showing the cutout shield will stay here for now, until that happens​.

Back to the Michigan main page.
Back to the home page.