Highland Park Michigan Has Abandoned People Tunnels

I don't know about you, but I see tons of bad drivers on the road all the time. It's clear that some people just aren't good at driving because they have low attention spans, there are other people who purposely drive distracted, and lastly there are people who simply just don't have great driving skills. I don't understand how we haven't been able to improve driving for decades as these problems have been around forever.

Read More: No Safe Travels on the Most Haunted Road in Michigan

Pedestrians and bike riders are some of the people who are in the most danger when cars are present. This is simply because a car is a large metal machine that weighs over 2,000 pounds and could easily crush them. We have seen this become a huge issue in both cases of intentional and accidental, but nonetheless pedestrian safety is always in jeopardy. Once upon the time, there was a safe way for pedestrians in this Michigan city to travel.

Get our free mobile app

Highland Park is a city in the Metro Detroit area of Southwest Michigan, and they invented something to keep everyone safe without disrupting anyone's travel times. In the early 1900s, Highland Park was a bustling city that was home to over 50,000 people, but in the 20s they began to see a large uptick in pedestrian fatalities.

They knew they had to do something to keep people alive and in response they decided to build people tunnels. Yes, they created an underground tunnel walkway system which directed all pedestrian traffic. They would go on to build several of these tunnels around the city to allow for walking people to be safe.

@colin313I wanted to share with you the abandon pedestrian tunnels and Highland Park Michigan. The pedestrian totals were made for safety purposes due to so many people being hit by cars. They now sit abandon and remind us of a time that once was.♬ original sound - Colin313

As you can see in the TikTok above, the raised cement here leads to the staircase that provided access to and from the underpass. This one is at the corner of Second Avenue and Cortland but there are 3 more in the city including in Midtown at Cass Avenue and Peterboro Street.