In the last four decades, the face of the highway has changed again, as I-94 and I-69 have diverted a significant amount of the through traffic away from US-12. This shift has helped to preserve the route's history, but the corridor remains in use and serves as a regional connector for the corridor's evolving land uses. Earlier changes never completely destroyed the material culture of the preceding role of the US-12 Heritage Trail. An awareness of the trail's history will help ensure that as the corridor takes on new roles in the future, that these historical attributes, representing the multiple roles of the corridor's past, will remain, their variety a time-line of southern Michigan's history.
