Outside of the traffic report we don’t hear or use the freeway names, do we? What’s up with that? It’s not like your friend who got into a fender bender on 696 retells the story as, “so I crashed on the Reuther…” No. He says 696 as we all do.
I’ve spent almost my entire life as a sentient upright being on this planet without ever having referred to I-94 as “the Ford freeway.” How weird that sounds! And at the same time you’d never call the Davison anything but the Davison.
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Incidentally, about the Davison: I commute to work every morning 25 miles from the burbs to downtown, following the Lodge/Northwestern Highway/M-10 (ugh, the multiple names!) almost the entire way. And this I can tell you; the Davison Effect is real. The Davison Effect will mess with your head. The Davison Effect is incredibly frustrating.
Here’s what happens. It’s 5:30 in the morning (or 4:30 or 3:30). You’re driving on the Lodge for miles and miles carefree, not needing to change lanes to avoid other drivers for 10, 15, 20 miles at a stretch. And then you round the bend by Wyoming and the first road sign lets you know the Davison exit is 2 ½ miles away. This is when, as if conjured by a genie, random slow cars will suddenly appear, staggered across all lanes. These cars were not there a second ago.
It’s almost like they were on the shoulder waiting, and when you passed the Wyoming exit you unknowingly triggered an infrared laser that signaled these cars to get into motion-slowly! Must be slow and lane-clogging!
You will then be forced to take evasive action, as your 80 mph carefree jaunt has now become Dodge ‘Em cars at Cedar Point. And you can bet your sweet bippy that the guy in the smoking 1988 Bonneville with no tail lights in the right lane-who has two miles(!) to get over to the left lane Davison exit-will not let you pass him and THEN change lanes.
Oh no-he’s going to do it right now. At a leisurely 50 mph. He’s coming over no matter what. Because that is the Davison Effect.
I’m sure you don’t believe me. But it’s true. I’ve commuted to Local 4 from my house something like 700 weekdays since I started working here and I know there’s something called confirmation bias, which simply means once you notice something you’re sure it happens all the time.
Well, I’m here to tell you I don’t care how empty the Lodge is at 3:30 or 4:30 or 5:30 in the morning-as soon as I or you or anyone rounds that corner at the Wyoming exit, watch out. Those shadow cars are waiting to ruin your day.
And I will never call 96 the Jefferies.
Watch Jason Carr Live, weekdays from 8 a.m. to 9:45 a.m., streaming live on Local 4+ and ClickOnDetroit.