Where Michigan OWI Law Applies: Roads, Parking Lots and Private Property

Michigan's OWI law is not limited to public roads. MCL 257.625(1) forbids operating while intoxicated "on a highway or other place open to the general public or generally accessible to motor vehicles, including an area designated for the parking of vehicles, within this state."^[1] The Michigan Supreme Court has read "generally accessible" to include a private driveway.^[2]

The three kinds of places in the statute

The statute names three categories, and a place needs to fit only one:^[1]

1. A highway. The Vehicle Code defines "highway or street" as the entire width between the boundary lines of every publicly maintained way when any part of it is open to public vehicular travel.^[9]
2. Another place open to the general public. Courts have applied this to private property that the public uses, as described below.^[4]
3. A place generally accessible to motor vehicles, including parking areas.^[1] This is the category that reached a private driveway in Rea.^[2]

The rule applies "within this state" and to a person "whether licensed or not."^[1] The same place language appears in the OWVI and drug provisions and in the implied consent law.^[10][11][12]

Private driveways: People v Rea

In People v Rea (2017), the defendant backed his car out of his garage into his own private driveway and then pulled back in.^[2] The Michigan Supreme Court held that "generally accessible" means "usually capable of being reached," so the statute "prohibits an intoxicated person from operating a vehicle in a place that is usually capable of being reached by self-propelled vehicles."^[2] The defendant's driveway met that test: it was designed for vehicle travel, and nothing on it would prevent vehicles on the public street from turning in.^[2][13]

The Court also rejected a narrower reading. It said it was error to conclude that whether a place is generally accessible to motor vehicles depends on whether the general public "widely" or "popularly" has permission to enter it.^[3] Under that reading, the question is whether vehicles can usually reach the place, not who has permission to use it.^[2][3]

Parking lots and private roads

Parking areas are named in the statute itself.^[1] Earlier Court of Appeals decisions reached similar results under the "open to the general public" language:^[4]

Place	Case	What the court said
Shopping-center parking lot after the stores had closed	People v Hawkins (1989)	Open to the general public even though no signs said the lot was available for public parking and no businesses were open.[4]
Privately built and maintained trailer-park road	City of Holland v Dreyer (1990)	Open to the general public where the road was open 24 hours a day and people using it as a shortcut were not prosecuted for trespassing.[14]
Ditch and uncultivated field near an intersection	People v Parrott (2021)	Generally accessible because the defendant's car entered it without extraordinary effort and nothing prevented it.[5]
The defendant's own private driveway	People v Rea (2017)	Generally accessible because it was usually capable of being reached by vehicles.[2]

In Parrott, the court acknowledged obstacles such as bushes lining the field but found that the defendant was able to access it without extraordinary effort.^[5] These cases show how courts reason; whether a particular place qualifies still depends on its facts.

Is any place outside the statute?

The statute's words set the limit: a place must be a highway, open to the general public, or generally accessible to motor vehicles.^[1] After Rea, the "generally accessible" test asks whether a place is usually capable of being reached by vehicles, not whether the public has permission to enter.^[2][3] The cases above do not identify a kind of place that falls outside all three categories, and whether a particular location qualifies depends on its facts.

The same place language in other OWI rules

• Implied consent. A person who operates a vehicle on a public highway or other place open to the general public or generally accessible to motor vehicles, including parking areas, is considered to have consented to chemical tests if arrested for an OWI-family offense.^[12] See implied consent.
• Roadside breath test. An officer may require a preliminary breath test on reasonable cause to believe a person was operating on a highway or other place open to the public or generally accessible to motor vehicles, including parking areas, and that alcohol or drugs may have affected the person's ability.^[15] See the PBT.
• Open containers. The open-container ban covers the passenger area of a vehicle on a highway, or of a moving vehicle in a public or generally accessible place.^[16] See open containers.

Police contact on private property

That OWI law reaches private driveways does not remove constitutional limits on police. In People v Lucynski (2022), the Michigan Supreme Court found a seizure where an officer followed a driver down a rural private driveway and blocked him in with a marked police car, even without lights or siren.^[17] In 2024 the Court held that the exclusionary rule applied to the evidence from that unconstitutional seizure.^[18] Whether a stop or seizure was lawful is covered in when police may stop a car.

Vehicles and waters covered by other statutes

Section 625 applies to any "vehicle," which the Vehicle Code defines as a device by which a person or property is or may be transported on a highway, except devices moved only by human power or used only on rails.^[19] An electric scooter on a highway counted in People v Lyon.^[20] Other machines have their own statutes:

• Boats on Michigan waters: MCL 324.80176, with "operate" meaning being in control of a motor-propelled vessel while it is underway.^[6]
• Snowmobiles: MCL 324.82127, covering operation under the influence, at 0.08 or more, or with any amount of a Schedule 1 substance or cocaine.^[7]
• ORVs: MCL 324.81134, whose penalties for operating under the influence or at 0.08 or more follow the same first, second and third-offense tiers as the Vehicle Code, plus mandatory orders not to operate an ORV; the ORV visibly-impaired offense never becomes a felony.^[21][8][22]
• Aircraft: MCL 259.185, with a 0.02 limit.^[23]

See boating under the influence and snowmobiles and ORVs.

Common misunderstandings

• "My own driveway doesn't count." Rea held that the defendant's private driveway, built for vehicle travel and open to cars turning in from the street, was generally accessible to motor vehicles.^[2][13]
• "A parking lot is private property, so it doesn't count." The statute expressly includes areas designated for parking.^[1]
• "It only counts if the public is allowed in." Rea rejected public permission as the test.^[3]
• "Off the pavement doesn't count." A field reached without extraordinary effort was generally accessible in Parrott.^[5]

Whether the person was "operating" is a separate element; see what counts as operating.