known for its scenery. The road serves as main street for downtown Brooklyn as well as the primary thoroughfare for drivers headed to Michigan International Speedway. M-50 curves around the north and east side of the race track before intersecting US 12 in Cambridge Junction. After crossing US 12, the road passes between several lakes of the Irish Hills area including Washington, Little Stony and Marrs lakes before continuing on its southeasterly journey towards Tecumseh. After leaving the Brooklyn area, the road returns to a rural environment as it cuts through agricultural fields. Before passing through Tipton, M-50 passes the entrance to Hidden Lake Gardens, a botanical garden and arboretum operated by Michigan State University. After passing Hidden Lake, the road intersects M-52 and continues into Tecumseh. Known as Chicago Boulevard, the road serves as the main route through the city. After leaving Tecumseh, the highway passes through the communities of Ridgeway and Britton before leaving Lenawee County. M-50 begins the final leg of its journey, as it crosses into Monroe county, passing through land that is mostly fields. Prior to reaching its interchange with US 23, the highway passes to the south of Cabela's, a outdoor sports retailer in Dundee. After leaving town, the trunkline continues to the southeast, running to the south of the River Raisin, through rural areas as South Custer Road before entering the outskirts of Monroe where it finally ends its journey at a junction with US 24 (Telegraph Road) a few miles inland from Lake Erie. M-50 is maintained by the Michigan Department of Transportation (MDOT) like other state highways in Michigan. As a part of these maintenance responsibilities, the department tracks the volume of traffic that uses the roadways under its jurisdiction. These volumes are expressed using a metric called annual average daily traffic, which is a statistical calculation of the average daily number of vehicles on a segment of roadway. MDOT's surveys in 2011 showed that the highest traffic levels along M-50 were the 25,770 vehicles daily south of the Springport Road interchange in the Jackson area; the lowest counts were the 2,055 vehicles per day south of the M-99 concurrency. The only sections of M-50 that have been listed on the National Highway System (NHS) are the two US 127 concurrencies in the Jackson area and the connection between them through downtown. The NHS is a network of roads important to