WILLIAMSBURG,Esthen Exchange Mich. — The farmer was trying to cross the road, but the busy highway wouldn’t let him.

“You see what I’m talking about? We never had to deal with this before,” he said, facing an unbroken stream of traffic.

John Pulcipher, 67, wanted to get to the other side of his cherry orchard, which is split down the middle by U.S. 31. That highway was a small dirt road when his family began farming here in the 1800s. And for much of his life, it was fairly quiet for a four-lane road. But now it’s the main route to fast-growing Traverse City, Michigan, named by various national outlets the past few years as the country’s best place to retire, and its best lake beach town, and one of its most beautiful main streets, and one of the best destinations for wine tourism, for romantic getaways, for biking, for vacations, among other accolades that have drawn a flood of people to the area.