Free Rides Across the Bridge are Back, But are No Longer Free

The Mackinac Bridge Authority has reinstated the driver assistance program where they will chauffeur you across the span, but now it will cost you.

"We'll cross that bridge when we come to it" is not only a risky strategy for life, it can trigger acute anxiety in gephyrophobiacs. "Gephura" is the Greek word for bridge, thus gephyrphobia is "the anxiety disorder or specific phobia characterized by the fear of bridges and tunnels." People with this condition are crippled by fear when approaching the Mighty Mac. The Mackinac Bridge Authority recognizes this and won't judge you- they'll give you a ride to the other side.

The driver's assistance program returns to the Mackinac Bridge in November of 2021, after being suspended during the Coronavirus pandemic. But now, it will cost you, The previously free program actually costs the Mackinac Bridge Authority $33 in time and personnel cost to make the five-mile trip over the bridge. To recoup some of the cost, drivers wanting to sit in the passenger seat and take the most Michigan selfie in the safest way will now be charged $10 for the escort service. In 2019, 2,559 customers used the driver assistance program.

The Mackinac Bridge Authority does not just drive cars safely from the Upper to the Lower Peninsula or vice versa. Pedestrians and bicyclists must cross the bridge in a vehicle, so the MBA has provided transport services for them since the bridge opened to traffic on November 1, 1957. They will even get your snowmobile from St Ignace to Mackinaw City in the middle of a Michigan winter.

Until now, gephyrophobiacs had to take the ferry and leave their car behind, but once again, they can get a chauffeur for the trip across the Mighty Mac: one of Michigan's most iconic landmarks.

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