Major highways
The Metro Detroit area is criss-crossed by several major interstate highways and freeways. Traditionally, Detroiters referred to their freeways by name rather than route number.

I-75 (Chrysler and Fisher Freeways) is the region’s main north-south route, serving Flint, Pontiac, Troy, and Detroit, before continuing south (as the Fisher Freeway) to serve many of the communities along the shore of Lake Erie.

I-94 (Ford Freeway) runs east-west through Detroit and serves Ann Arbor to the west (where it continues to Chicago) and Port Huron to the northeast. The stretch of the current I-94 freeway from Ypsilanti to Detroit was one of the first American limited-access freeways, originally built to link the factories at Willow Run and Dearborn during World War II and was then known as the Detroit Industrial Freeway.

I-96 runs northwest-southeast through Livingston County and (as the Jeffries Freeway) has its eastern terminus in downtown Detroit.

I-275 runs north-south from I-75 in the south to the junction of I-96 and I-696 in the north, providing a bypass through the western suburbs of Detroit.

I-696 (Walter Reuther Freeway) runs east-west from the junction of I-96 and I-275, providing a route through the northern suburbs of Detroit. Taken together, I-275 and I-696 form a semi-circle around Detroit.

I-375 is a short spur route in downtown Detroit, an extension of the Chrysler Freeway.

I-475 runs north-south through downtown Flint for several miles  before rejoining I-75.

I-69, although a north-south route for most of its length, runs east-west across St. Clair, Lapeer, and Genesee counties, serving Flint, Lapeer, and Port Huron.

Highway 401 Windsor-Toronto-Montreal Highway

M-10 (The Lodge Freeway) runs largely parallel to I-75 from Southfield to downtown, and connects with I-75 via Jefferson Avenue.

M-39 (The Southfield Freeway) runs north-south from Southfield to Allen Park via I-94. North of 10 Mile, the freeway ends and continues as Southfield Road into Birmingham.

M-59 (Veterans Memorial Freeway from Utica to Pontiac), continues east as Hall Road to Clinton Township and west as various surface roads to I-96 near Howell

M-8 (Davison Freeway), the first modern limited-access urban freeway in America, opened in 1942.

Mile roads
Surface street navigation in Metro Detroit is commonly anchored by “mile roads,” major east-west surface streets that are spaced at one-mile intervals and increment as one travels north and away from the city center. Mile roads sometimes have two names, the numeric name (ex. 15 Mile Road) and a local name (ex. Maple Road).