# 8 Mile? 6 Mile? 9 Mile? What? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [February 20, 2004, 2:56am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/8-mile-6-mile-9-mile-what/230137 "2004-02-20T02:56:02Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 5\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![dwwieb](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/3da27b/32.png) [@dwwieb](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dwwieb)\ **Post date:** [July 19, 2013, 6:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/8-mile-6-mile-9-mile-what/230137/41 "2013-07-19T18:20:56Z")
"All of the signs prominently say “Big Beaver” but it’s common referred to at “16 Mile.” Going east, it becomes “Metro(politan) Parkway,” also commonly referred to as “16 Mile.” I’m a native, but have no idea where the origin is. I don’t get into the “hood,” but from the freeway the lowest I’ve ever seen is “6 Mile Rd.” I regularly see as high as “33 Mile” and I may have seen a “37 Mile” but we’re in the sticks now. The east side of 8 Mile serves as the dividing line between the city proper and the suburbs. Yeah, it’s really a difference like night and day." I live near 5 Mile… And 5 miles south of 5 mile is Warren road… ---
**Author:** ![KneadToKnow](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kneadtoknow/32/3999_2.png) [@KneadToKnow](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/KneadToKnow)\ **Post date:** [July 19, 2013, 6:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/8-mile-6-mile-9-mile-what/230137/42 "2013-07-19T18:30:45Z")
> [@Meeko](#): > > In a related story, there is a highway in North Georgia (575) that used to number exits numerically, without regard to mileage from a given point (the start of 575 off of 75). I believe this used to be statewide for Georgia. When I drove through it from South Carolina to Florida in '86, I remember noting that the first exit I passed in GA on I-95 going south was some ridiculously low number (low double-digits, 12 or somesuch) and that it was perfectly obvious to me immediately that the exit numbers weren’t marked by their nearest mile marker but consecutively. It has definitely changed since then. ---
**Author:** ![pulykamell](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/pulykamell/32/3166_2.png) [@pulykamell](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pulykamell)\ **Post date:** [July 19, 2013, 6:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/8-mile-6-mile-9-mile-what/230137/43 "2013-07-19T18:32:51Z")
> [@Brutus](#): > > This could be verified by a strident young Doper and Mapquest… I read this thread from the OP until this point where I finally realized it was a zombie. Mapquest? Good old days. Apparently, it still exists. ---
**Author:** ![Cartooniverse](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cartooniverse/32/3084_2.png) [@Cartooniverse](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cartooniverse)\ **Post date:** [July 19, 2013, 6:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/8-mile-6-mile-9-mile-what/230137/44 "2013-07-19T18:44:54Z")
> [@KneadToKnow](#): > > I believe this used to be statewide for Georgia. When I drove through it from South Carolina to Florida in '86, I remember noting that the first exit I passed in GA on I-95 going south was some ridiculously low number (low double-digits, 12 or somesuch) and that it was perfectly obvious to me immediately that the exit numbers weren’t marked by their nearest mile marker but consecutively. > > It has definitely changed since then. I don’t think this is / was unique to GA. I grew up in Pennsylvania. Same same on the Penna Turnpike. Now they are mile-marker-related. Back in the dim dark past ( the 1960’s !! 😃 ), exits were simply counted up or down. I do believe that the numbers began at the Ohio border. Some would say the MidWest begins at the Ohio/ Pennsylvania border. I call bullshit, but that’s another thread 😉 ---
**Author:** ![jtur88](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/e9c0ed/32.png) [@jtur88](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jtur88)\ **Post date:** [July 19, 2013, 8:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/8-mile-6-mile-9-mile-what/230137/45 "2013-07-19T20:12:08Z")
They are, simply, the equivalent of what would be “8th street” or “23rd avenue” in any city laid out in a grid, and for reasons of their own, Detroit urban planners elected to set arterial roads at one-mile intervals and named them accordingly. The land was probably already demarcated by section lines, which are the boundaries of one-mile squares, which is the common form of land surveying in most midwestern states and provinces. So these roads would have already existed as the separators between “sections”, or square miles of farmland. If you travel in a straight line across most of Michigan and many other midwestern states, you will cross a right-angle road exectly every mile – known as section line roads. They are usually a drivable road or track, but sometimes just a visible hedgerow. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/8-mile-6-mile-9-mile-what/230137.md?page=2)