From Freeway to Parkway

Abstract

In 1972, an anti-freeway movement in St. Paul, Minnesota, successfully leveraged new federal Environmental Impact Statement (EIS) requirements to bring a halt to construction on the final leg of I-35E, leading into downtown. What began as a typical NIMBY (not in my backyard) battle soon produced a thoughtful environmental critique of urban freeways, sparking a debate over replacing the freeway with a low-speed parkway. Protesters ultimately failed to generate the political support necessary to cancel the Interstate, but when the last leg of I-35E opened in 1990, it was not as a classic urban freeway, but as a “parkway” replete with various “green” features.