Livingston County’s notorious roundabouts at Lee and Whitmore Lake roads in Green Oak Township rank as the 5th most dangerous roundabouts in the state.
Raise your hand if you’re surprised.
Michigan Auto Law compiles its ‘most dangerous’ lists using data from the Michigan State Police Traffic Crash Reporting Unit, which uses traffic numbers from the previous year.
The double roundabouts, located just off U.S. 23 near Costco and the Green Oak Village Place mall, have produced anxiety for drivers since they opened in 2006. The circular intersection had 80 crashes in 2024; while that’s down from 85 crashes in 2023, it’s up from 70 crashes in 2022, 71 crashes in 2023, and just 35 crashes in 2020.
Michigan Auto Law uses data from the Michigan State Police Traffic Crash Reporting Unit. Each list uses traffic data from the previous year.
Here are the Top 10 Most Dangerous Michigan Roundabouts
1. 18 1/2 MILE RD @ VAN DYKE AVE, Sterling Heights, 162, Total Crashes, 12 Injuries
2. MARTIN PKWY @ N PONTIAC TRL, Commerce Township, 151 Total Crashes, 9 Injuries
3. ORCHARD LAKE RD @ 14 MILE RD, Farmington Hills, 109 Total Crashes, 5 Injuries
4. STATE RD @ W ELLSWORTH RD, Ann Arbor, 85 Total Crashes, 5 Injuries
5. LEE RD @ WHITMORE LAKE RD, Green Oak Township, 80 Total Crashes, 3 Injuries
6. OAKLEY PARK RD @ MARTIN PKWY, Commerce Township, 69 Total Crashes, 6 Injuries
7. FARMINGTON RD @ W MAPLE RD, West Bloomfield Township, 64 Total Crashes, 7 Injuries
8. SPRINKLE RD @ CORK ST (NORTH OF I 94), Kalamazoo, 49 Total Crashes, 15 Injuries
9. DRAKE RD @ W MAPLE RD, West Bloomfield Township, 48 Total Crashes, 6 Injuries
10. REMEMBRANCE RD NW @ WILSON AVE NW, Walker, 38 Total Crashes, 7 Injuries
– Source: Michigan State Police Traffic Crash Reporting Unit (Note: Any circular intersections constructed in 2024 or after are not included on our list of Most Dangerous Michigan Roundabouts. A full year of data is necessary before a circular intersection can be evaluated for whether it should be included in our annual list.)
The roundabouts have been a burr in the butt of Livingston County’s drivers since they opened in the summer of 2006. The Livingston County Road Commission spent over $1 million in 2018 to remove the outside lanes of the roundabouts, a move they said would make them safer and less confusing.
Here is a video we did of the roundabouts in 2018.
the accidents are typically side swipes, not head on collisions and will drastically cut back on fatalities. roundabouts are everywhere now and it’s for various positive reasons including environmental because vehicles idle less vs intersections with traffic lights, producing less emissions.
it’s hilarious how many negative articles are posted about them by the civil engineers that run the livingston post.
Fatal crashes before roundabouts were installed, the Lee Road / Whitmore Lake Road intersections averaged about 1 fatal (or fatal+serious) crash per year.
After the roundabouts, that rate dropped to about 0.23 per year — a 77% reduction in the most severe outcomes.
The oft-quoted “three injuries” from last year are not rigorously defined as serious injuries. They represent anyone treated or evaluated by EMS following a crash — not life-threatening trauma.
Yes, there were around 80 crashes in a year, mostly low-speed fender-benders. But context matters: roughly 45,000 vehicles per day enter or exit the roundabout system. That’s ~15–16 million vehicle movements per year.
Do the math:
80 crashes / ~15 million vehicle movements
≈ 1 crash per 187,000 vehicle passes
Your odds of being involved in any collision there in a given pass are about 1 in 187,000
So while vehicle damage incidents increased, the fatal and serious-injury rate dropped sharply. The roundabouts traded sheet-metal for lives — and by the numbers, that trade worked.
Well, it’s fun to talk about the roundabouts, and no one’s opinion of them is likely to change. But to use the word “dangerous” bumps up with hyperbole. Only 3 injury accidents in 52 weeks at a high-volume intersection hardly strikes me as “dangerous.” The story’s source only lists raw numbers rather than ratios such as accidents per volume of cars. Even the 80 accidents a year strikes me as odd since that averages to 1.5 accidents a week. I go through that intersection frequently and I’ve never seen the aftermath of an accident, such as a wrecker or a police car tending to a damaged vehicle. My opinion is that it was a mistake to make three of them rather than two larger circles, which was an option. As a result they are too tight and the signage only makes things more confusing, especially to a first-time vistor. They also should have widened the bridge to two lanes in each direction. That was the plan and state money was in the pipeline, but then city-county politics got in the way because the city didn’t want anything that would make shopping in the township’s mall more convenient. It was a bad move and it forces unnecessary and awkward funneling. After posting this, I’m heading over to the Green Oak Mall. I like to live life on the edge.