PGA Championship shows Michigan's conundrum: Motor City has the worst roads in America

BLOOMFIELD HILLS, Mich. (Aug. 6, 2008) - Every time I return to the metro Detroit area where I grew up, the trip includes a jarring dose of reality. And it’s no different this time for the PGA Championship. You get here and you realize Michigan - and specifically the greater Detroit area, which remember is supposed to be Motor City - has the absolute worst roads in the entire United States.

Road construction never ends in Michigan. The system here (whatever it is) makes those show, no-work jobs in The Sopranos look quaint by comparison. Now, the geniuses that be have reduced large parts of I-75 - one of the main arteries everywhere - down to one lane and closed it off completely in a few others. But then again, things like that happen all the time here and they last for years and years and years. Meanwhile, you’re still wrecking the suspension on whatever car you’re driving just by taking the local “improved” highways.

It really is amazing. The New York City and New Jersey area with tons more people and cars than Michigan has 10 times better roads. Heck, even Arizona, which not that long ago finally realized you need some highways through that desert, manages to do construction better than Michigan. As much as people moan about the I-10 project in Tucson, it still only really effects you during rush hours. In metro Detroit, you can have road slow-down woes at 3 in the morning.

When you’ve been away for a while, you almost forget how bad it is.

In fact, I’d rather drive that highway of fire I experienced going from El Paso to Tucson than cruise the freeways of metro Detroit.

Way to put your best foot forward for the PGA Championship, hometown.