Editor’s note: This article was originally published in the Minnesota Reformer on January 9, 2025, and is reprinted with permission. We encourage Streets.mn readers to attend MnDOT’s Rethinking I-94 Policy Advisory Committee meeting on Friday, January 17, 9:30 a.m. to 12:30 p.m. Learn more and register here.
The Minnesota Department of Transportation (MnDOT) announced late last year they were rejecting a proposal to turn I-94 into a boulevard between Minneapolis and St. Paul.
The proposal arose with grassroots support from residents and community groups as part of MnDOT’s Rethinking I-94, which is the first comprehensive review of the freeway since it was built in the 1960s.
MnDOT’s plan will continue to evaluate these options, all of which preserve the highway rather than transforming it:
- Maintaining the current freeway.
- Adding bus shoulders.
- Rebuilding it with either three or four lanes with E-ZPass.
No final decision has been made, and, in any case, the decision isn’t up to MnDOT. Gov. Tim Walz and the Minnesota Legislature — and ultimately the people who elect them — will have the final say, so it’s important that we keep fighting to change a status quo that prioritizes cars over people. Walz and the Legislature should mandate that MnDOT keep studying highway removal as a viable option — because it is.
Our proposal at Our Streets (where I work) is to fill the highway trench — as wide as a football field and spanning the two downtowns — and create a boulevard. This has compelling benefits and strong community and jurisdictional support, warranting its continued evaluation in the next phase of the process.
Sometimes when I share this vision, people think I’m crazy. They dismiss me as a naive young person, with aspirational goals for a world beyond urban highways. Many people simply accept highways as a staple of our cities’ landscape, and more broadly, a fundamental part of American culture over the past 80 years.
Above all else, people — especially those not living along highways — tell me they’re concerned about traffic. And it’s an understandable concern.
On a more basic level, this fear points to Americans’ deep-seated love affair with the automobile. Owning a car — pushed by car companies and pop culture and enabled by urban planners and transportation agencies — has come to represent personal freedom. It also shows how cars dominate transportation investments, leaving many with little option but to drive to reach opportunities and daily needs.
But your worst fears about traffic are overstated compared with the potential benefits highway removal could bring for equity, economic revitalization, community health and our environment.
We know that removing highways is possible because a number of cities have already done it. Since 1987, more than 20 highway sections have been removed in other cities around the country, including Detroit; Rochester, New York; and San Francisco. Other cities like Syracuse, New York, and Duluth are also considering removal.
You probably have some questions. I’ll try to answer them.
What Would Highway Removal Look Like in the Twin Cities?
A study by Our Streets and national experts at Toole Design, Visible City and Smart Mobility demonstrates that highway removal is a practical — rather than radical — option.
Imagine a tree-lined boulevard where neighbors can easily cross between Rondo and Frogtown, or Cedar-Riverside and Seward. Where restored housing and local businesses thrive alongside a transportation infrastructure that meets the way all Minnesotans move. Rather than a concrete barrier splitting our cities, this reimagined corridor could become a vibrant spine connecting our two downtowns, transforming a space designed to move cars into one designed for people to live, work, and gather.
The boulevard concept has garnered widespread support, evidenced by top rankings in MnDOT’s engagement survey and endorsements from elected officials of Hennepin and Ramsey counties and both cities.
How Would Removing a Highway Benefit Me?
For communities along the highway — especially low-income and communities of color — the benefits are obvious: You’ve experienced health, environmental and economic harms for the past 70 years. In this unprecedented moment when we have a shot at doing something new, this will be a rare opportunity to right these harms and reconnect communities. Otherwise, the highway — and all its attendant problems — continues as-is in perpetuity.
For the rest of the metro, this isn’t about losing mobility choices — it’s about gaining the freedom to save thousands of dollars by reducing car dependence when convenient transit and safe bike routes become real options in a denser and better-connected urban core.
These benefits extend to the air we breathe, and cleaner air would benefit everyone. By moving away from highway-first thinking, we could significantly reduce vehicle emissions, brake dust and tire particles that harm our health in the most densely populated areas of the state.
The benefits extend to economic revitalization as well. A boulevard would free up 366 acres of land — equivalent to 50 Allianz Fields — creating opportunities to reimagine our cities through restoring lost housing, jobs and amenities. This is particularly crucial as the Twin Cities face post-pandemic challenges, with downtown St. Paul’s office vacancy rates near 30%.
In addition to providing valuable new features, this new development along the boulevard would help address our rising property tax burden.
This project presents an opportunity to address the historic damage done when I-94’s construction destroyed the vibrant Black and immigrant communities like Rondo and Cedar-Riverside. By redeveloping the land with homes, businesses, and public spaces, we can begin to restore what was lost while creating value for the entire Twin Cities region.
Won’t Traffic Be a Nightmare?
Transportation agencies around the country have long threatened traffic meltdowns as a way to justify unnecessary highway expansions or rebuilds. A dynamic traffic model — one that accurately predicts traffic changes — will only be used at the next phase of the process, meaning MnDOT itself has little idea of how its alternatives will actually impact the way we move.
Other flawed metrics also lead to irresponsibly investing in expensive projects that won’t decrease traffic, provide few options for those without a car and are detached from actual congestion realities.
Although 137,000 vehicles use I-94 daily, the data reveals a surprising truth: Most trips are local, averaging just 4 miles in length. Only 39% are commuters, and a mere 5% are long-distance travelers who could easily use I-494 or I-694.
Post-COVID-19 changes to commuting patterns have further reduced traffic pressure, with nearly one-fifth of Minnesotans no longer commuting at all. Experience from cities like Rochester, New York, and San Francisco shows that removing highways doesn’t create the traffic nightmares that transportation agencies often predict.
A boulevard would efficiently serve the 40,000 daily local trips while restoring neighborhood connections and cross-corridor trips currently blocked by I-94. Experience in Minnesota and across the country shows that traffic naturally adapts through a process called “traffic evaporation” or reduced demand — some drivers will find new routes or times to travel, while others will switch to the expanded transit, walking and biking options the boulevard would provide.
What Happens to All Those Cars?
In many ways, you get what you build when it comes to traffic: Larger roads encourage more driving, while smaller roads prompt alternative transportation choices.
According to Norm Marshall, a national expert in traffic modeling, a general prediction suggests likely half of today’s trips would continue along a boulevard, a quarter would use other parallel roads like University Avenue that are better suited for local travel and a quarter of trips will use through-roads elsewhere.
The bottom line: Traffic patterns are malleable, and MnDOT’s existing traffic models are spotty at best.
What About the Trucks?
I-94 has become a key freight route in the Twin Cities.
Some truck trips can’t be avoided along the corridor. MnDOT’s boulevard options will maintain access for commercial traffic to serve existing and new businesses along the corridor.
But truckers usually avoid rush hour and its traffic-related slowdowns. Freight traffic may reroute to I-694 or I-494, while peak congestion is unlikely to increase due to off-hour freight travel.
And Emergency Vehicles, Too?
Some skeptics cite concerns about emergency vehicles’ movement along highways. It’s a red herring.
Emergency vehicles can’t currently move effectively through existing highway congestion, especially at peak hours. Urban streets offer more direct routes for emergency responders than highways.
Will a Boulevard Cost More?
The enormous cost of highways also makes removal an appealing option. A New York State DOT official who recently presented at a MnDOT webinar stated that highway removal was by far the cheapest option for state and local agencies in Rochester, New York, ultimately saving taxpayers millions in up-front and long-term maintenance costs. MnDOT’s own estimates say any investment in Rethinking I-94 could cost upwards of $2 billion, making it one of the largest public works projects in Twin Cities history.
This Decision Carries Immense Weight
As a young person in Minnesota, I dream of a world where highways will be dismissed — heckled, even — like cigarettes and leaded gasoline as a thing of the past. A history of prioritizing cars over people and their health should have no place in the future of Minnesota or in other American cities.
Sitting on smog-chocked highways and watching car payments take up an increasing share of household income doesn’t make us free. It puts us in the back seat in defining the future of our cities, our transportation systems and our mobility freedom. We all deserve the right to get where we need to go, regardless of whether we drive.
As MnDOT makes critical decisions over the coming weeks, thinking small and catering to today’s traffic won’t solve tomorrow’s problems. This decision could eliminate the most transformative infrastructure opportunity we may ever see.
Removing highways is a bold step, but one that will shape a better future for the Twin Cities.
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Photo at top by Gabriel Vanslette, Creative Commons 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons