support the highway justice act with pollution map image

Pollution reduction. Transit funding without tax increase. Community input on infrastructure.

For generations, highway projects have disproportionately impacted low-income neighborhoods and communities of color, creating lasting barriers to opportunity and exposing residents to harmful pollution. We have the opportunity to transform how transportation decisions are made through a comprehensive Highway Justice Act that would establish new protections and processes for planning major highway projects in Minnesota.

The Highway Justice Act consists of three interconnected components that address different aspects of transportation equity. 

The Community-Preferred Alternative rule gives you a meaningful voice over highway projects that impact your life. 

The Highway Justice Act includes new regulations to ensure community members have a meaningful voice in major highway projects affecting their neighborhoods. This legislation requires the Minnesota Department of Transportation (MnDOT) to create an advisory committee for all major highway projects comprising elected officials who represent impacted communities. While MnDOT typically creates advisory committees for major highway projects, the committees have little power and do not have the authority to vote on project decisions. This law would require MnDOT to create bylaws for future advisory committees that strengthen community power. When planning a major highway project, before MnDOT could select a preferred design and begin construction, it would be required to obtain a favorable vote from the project’s project advisory committee. Rather than causing delays, this early engagement helps identify and resolve concerns before they become costly problems.

The Highway Justice Act would increase protections in environmental justice communities

The bill would also create a new Cumulative Impacts Law for Transportation. This law builds on Minnesota’s groundbreaking 2023 law that increased protections in overburdened communities from polluting facilities like factories and incinerators. The Highway Justice Act would create a new version of the law that targets major highway projects that bisect designated environmental justice communities. MnDOT would be required to evaluate the total burden of pollution and health impacts before building or expanding highways in these communities. If a project causes too much harm to an overburdened neighborhood, MnDOT would need to either modify its plans or create a community benefits agreement that ensures residents receive meaningful protection from the project. To ensure that the law is being followed as intended, the bill would also create a new environmental justice ombudsperson within MnDOT, modeled after a similar position in Colorado. 

The Highway Justice Act would create funding flexibility, increasing transportation options for Minnesotans.

The final component of the bill focuses on increasing available funding for public transit, walking, and biking infrastructure along the state’s trunk highway system. By clarifying that highway funds can be used to support transit, pedestrian, and bicycle infrastructure along trunk highway corridors, this legislation would enable more comprehensive solutions that serve all transportation needs without raising taxes. This change reflects how Minnesotans actually use our transportation system today while maintaining the original constitutional intent of providing “reasonable means of communication” between communities. 

Let’s create a transportation system that works for everyone!

Together, the three pillars of the Highway Justice Act create a nation-leading framework for transportation planning that prioritizes equity, health, and community needs. They represent a shift from past practices where highways were built through neighborhoods with little regard for resident concerns to a future where transportation investments serve all Minnesotans fairly. The Highway Justice Act would help create a transportation system that strengthens rather than divides our communities by requiring meaningful community engagement, protecting environmental justice communities, and financing multimodal transportation solutions.


Take Action

Let decision-makers know you’d like to see this legislation pass, reducing pollution, increasing opportunity for more transit funding, and improving community input on infrastructure.