Towing in Rochester, MI

Rochester is about 6 road miles from central Shelby Township, and the route is short and simple: west on 23 Mile, which takes the name Avon Road once it crosses Dequindre into Oakland County and passes through a pair of roundabouts, then north on Rochester Road, M-150, which turns into Main Street downtown.

Oakland County calls its mile roads by name, which helps when you tell us where you are. Avon Road is 23 Mile; Walton Boulevard is 24 Mile and goes by University Drive inside the city; Tienken Road is 25 Mile. M-150 follows Rochester Road from M-59 north to downtown, where the same road becomes Main Street.

Tell us what's nearest

• Downtown - the Main Street block, or the cross street: Second, Third, Fourth, University or Walnut.
• A parking deck - the East or West Parking Platform, and the level you're on.
• Rochester Road - your direction and the last cross road; south of the city, M-59's Rochester Road exit is exit 46, in Rochester Hills.
• The trails - Rochester Municipal Park off Pine Street for the Paint Creek Trail, or the spot where you left the Clinton River Trail.
• A side street - the street and the nearest corner; the whole city covers about 3.8 square miles, so a corner pins it down.

It's a short haul, which leaves the truck type and the time on scene to shape most of a Rochester total. How we build that one price explains every part, and you hear the number before anything rolls.

Downtown, cars sit for hours in the city's two parking decks - the East and West Parking Platforms, 532 spaces between them - and at 697 meters that run 11 a.m. to 11 p.m. except Sundays and federal holidays. Residents of Pine, Oak, West Third and West Fourth park by permit, which the police department issues at any hour.

A car that only clicks in a deck on a cold night may need nothing more than a jump. The jump pack travels to the car by hand, so the level doesn't matter, and if the engine won't keep running after the jump, the battery or the alternator is the likely cause.

Locked out? The Rochester Police Department offers a free unlocking service for keys locked in a car once you sign a damage liability waiver, and its page notes that some vehicles an officer can't open. If yours is one of them, or you'd rather not wait for an officer, we open it with car-opening tools.

The trailhead lot is another place cars wait for hours. The Paint Creek Trail starts south of Ludlow Street in Rochester and runs 8.9 miles to Lake Orion; its Rochester parking is at Rochester Municipal Park off Pine Street, and the trail is open from half an hour before sunrise to half an hour after sunset. Back at a dead car near dusk? Call before the lot empties.

A pothole on a city street ate your tire? Report it through the city's Report a Concern page or to the DPW at 248-651-5165, and we'll fit your spare at the curb or carry the car to a tire shop. Empty tank on Rochester Road? Say gas or diesel. All of it is roadside help in downtown Rochester and the streets around it.

Rochester's DPW works winter from a written program. Crews are called in at 2 inches and falling so plows are running by 3, and no storm is supposed to pass 4 inches before the plowing schedule starts. Primary routes in each zone go first, so emergency vehicles can get within two blocks of any home; secondary streets follow, and downtown city lots are cleared between 2:30 and 6 a.m.

When a storm runs past 6 inches, the city can declare a snow emergency; parking limits then apply citywide and every vehicle has to come off the snow emergency routes. State law also lets a police agency have a car moved to safekeeping when snow or another emergency makes that necessary for public safety. Check the city's snow and ice page and its plow tracker before leaving a car on the street in a storm.

That curb ridge is where a parked car gets caught: try to climb it and the car high-centers, the drive wheels lose their grip, and spinning only polishes the snow. A winch-out from a Rochester curb or park lot starts with our truck on cleared pavement and the cable hooked to a solid recovery point; the car is drawn back along the path it took in.

At Rochester Municipal Park and the trail lots we work from the pavement, never from the trail. Our trucks are built for cars, pickups, vans, SUVs and motorcycles; an RV or a box truck full of freight stuck behind a downtown building is a heavy-duty job, and we'll tell you so first.

Rochester Hills wraps around most of the city, and our Rochester Hills page covers it. Rochester also borders Shelby Township across Dequindre, home of our Shelby Township towing service. North and east, Stony Creek Metropark lies mostly in Oakland Township and Washington Township, and Utica sits where the M-59 freeway ends at Van Dyke.

• Rochester on Wikipedia - the 1817 cabin, the 1869 village, the city since 1967, and its trails, parks and Main Street history.
• City of Rochester - official notices, the Ready Rochester alert system, meetings and every department.
• Rochester Police Department - crash reports, parking, lockouts and the city's dispatch center.
• Clinton River Trail - the 16-mile trail through Sylvan Lake, Pontiac, Auburn Hills, Rochester Hills and Rochester, part of the Iron Belle Trail.
• MDOT Mi Drive - cameras, speeds and closures on M-59, M-150 and the rest of the state system.