Interstate 394 (I-394) is a small east–west

auxiliary Interstate Highway Auxiliary Interstate Highways (also called three-digit Interstate Highways) are a supplemental subset of the freeways within the Interstate Highway System of the United States. Auxiliary routes are generally classified as spur routes, which conn ...

Hennepin County Hennepin County ( ) is a county in the U.S. state of Minnesota. Its county seat is Minneapolis, the state's most populous city. The county is named in honor of the 17th-century explorer Father Louis Hennepin. The county extends from Minneapol ...

in the

US state In the United States, a state is a constituent political entity, of which there are 50. Bound together in a political union, each state holds governmental jurisdiction over a separate and defined geographic territory where it shares its sove ...

Minnesota Minnesota () is a state in the upper midwestern region of the United States. It is the 12th largest U.S. state in area and the 22nd most populous, with over 5.75 million residents. Minnesota is home to western prairies, now given over to ...

. It is also commonly referred to by its pre-1991 name, Wayzata Boulevard, and by its other designation, US Highway 12 (US 12). It runs for from downtown

Minneapolis Minneapolis () is the largest city in Minnesota, United States, and the county seat of Hennepin County. The city is abundant in water, with thirteen lakes, wetlands, the Mississippi River, creeks and waterfalls. Minneapolis has its origins ...

I-494 Interstate 494 (I-494) is an auxiliary Interstate Highway making up part of a beltway of I-94, circling through the southern and western portions of the Minneapolis–Saint Paul metropolitan area in Minnesota. The road is coupled with I- ...

in the Minneapolis suburb of

Minnetonka Minnetonka ( ) is a city in Hennepin County, Minnesota, United States. A western suburb of the Twin Cities, Minnetonka is located about west of downtown Minneapolis. As of the 2020 census, the city's population was 53,781. Minnetonka is the ...

. At its western terminus, the roadway loses its Interstate designation but continues as US 12. I-394 serves as the most direct link for commuters and other drivers who are traveling between downtown Minneapolis and parts of the western

Minneapolis–Saint Paul Minneapolis–Saint Paul is a metropolitan area in the Upper Midwestern United States centered around the confluence of the Mississippi, Minnesota and St. Croix rivers in the U.S. state of Minnesota. It is commonly known as the Twin Cities ...

metropolitan area. I-394 maintains at least three lanes in each direction except under the

Minnesota State Highway 100 Minnesota State Highway 100 (MN 100) is a state highway in the Twin Cities region of Minnesota, which runs from its interchange with Interstate 494 (I-494) in Bloomington and continues north to its northern terminus at its interchange with I-6 ...

(MN 100) interchange and also between I-94/ US 52 and its eastern terminus downtown.

Route description

I-394 begins on the western side of the

Twin Cities Twin cities are a special case of two neighboring cities or urban centres that grow into a single conurbation – or narrowly separated urban areas – over time. There are no formal criteria, but twin cities are generally comparable in sta ...

in the suburb of Minnetonka, at its interchange with I-494 (exit 19). From there, I-394 takes a course toward downtown

where the eastern terminus is at 4th Street North. Legally, the route of I-394 is defined as unmarked legislative routes 10 and 107 in Minnesota Statutes §§ 161.114(2) and 161.115(38). I-394 is not marked with these legislative numbers along the actual highway.

E-ZPass Minnesota toll lanes

There are two

high-occupancy toll A high-occupancy toll lane (or HOT lane) is a type of traffic lane or roadway that is available to high-occupancy vehicles and other exempt vehicles without charge; other vehicles are required to pay a variable fee that is adjusted in response t ...

(HOT) express lanes at the center of the road. Prior to May 16, 2005, they had been traditional

high-occupancy vehicle A high-occupancy vehicle lane (also known as an HOV lane, carpool lane, diamond lane, 2+ lane, and transit lane or T2 or T3 lanes) is a restricted traffic lane reserved for the exclusive use of vehicles with a driver and one or more passengers, i ...

(HOV, or carpool) lanes, allowing

bus A bus (contracted from omnibus, with variants multibus, motorbus, autobus, etc.) is a road vehicle that carries significantly more passengers than an average car or van. It is most commonly used in public transport, but is also in use for cha ...

ses,

motorcycle A motorcycle (motorbike, bike, or trike (if three-wheeled)) is a two or three-wheeled motor vehicle steered by a handlebar. Motorcycle design varies greatly to suit a range of different purposes: long-distance travel, commuting, cruising ...

s, and vehicles with two or more occupants to use them during

rush-hour A rush hour (American English, British English) or peak hour (Australian English) is a part of the day during which traffic congestion on roads and crowding on public transport is at its highest. Normally, this happens twice every weekday: on ...

periods, while single-occupancy vehicles were not permitted. Now, drivers riding alone can use the lanes at any time but must have an

E-ZPass Minnesota E-ZPass Minnesota, formerly MnPass (Pronounced "Minn pass") is the brand name associated with a series of high occupancy toll lanes (HO/T lanes) in the Minneapolis-St. Paul Metropolitan Area of Minnesota and is also associated with the electron ...

electronic toll collection transponder in order to pay for using the express portions. From

to MN 100, the lanes of I-394 are separated from traffic by double white lines. Between MN 100 and I-94/ US 52 near downtown, the two lanes are combined into a reversible expressway in the

median In statistics and probability theory, the median is the value separating the higher half from the lower half of a data sample, a population, or a probability distribution. For a data set, it may be thought of as "the middle" value. The basic fe ...

that is separated from the eastbound and westbound lanes by

concrete Concrete is a composite material composed of fine and coarse aggregate bonded together with a fluid cement (cement paste) that hardens (cures) over time. Concrete is the second-most-used substance in the world after water, and is the most wi ...

barriers. This segment changes directions to accommodate the traffic flow at different times of day, so, in the morning, it is open to downtown-bound eastward flowing traffic, while it is open to westbound traffic in the evening. An E-ZPass Minnesota electronic transponder is required in order to pay

toll Toll may refer to: Transportation * Toll (fee) a fee charged for the use of a road or waterway ** Road pricing, the modern practice of charging for road use ** Road toll (historic), the historic practice of charging for road use ** Shadow toll, ...

s because there are no

tollbooth A tollbooth (or toll booth) is an enclosure placed along a toll road that is used for the purpose of collecting a toll from passing traffic. A structure consisting of several tollbooths placed next to each other is called a toll plaza, tollga ...

s on the roadway. The price varies depending on the time of day and flow of traffic. Lone drivers were previously allowed to use the express lanes in off-peak times, but this is no longer allowed under the new system unless the sign says the cost is "OPEN", meaning free. The decision to make the nonreversible lanes free on off-hours was reached due to complaints about essentially making a four-lane freeway in an area that, even on off-hours, sorely needed six. Toll rates are expected to generally fall between $1.00 and $4.00, with a potential maximum of $8.00. Off-hours are charged as $0.25 on the

reversible lane A reversible lane (British English: tidal flow) is a lane in which traffic may travel in either direction, depending on certain conditions. Typically, it is meant to improve traffic flow during rush hours, by having overhead traffic lights and li ...

s and free on the one-way lanes. The white line-separated and reversible expressway sections are priced separately. The lanes are still open free to busses, motorcycles, and cars with two or more people, no matter the time of day, and such vehicles do not require transponders to use the lanes. Using the express lanes as a lone driver without a transponder during charged periods or crossing the double white lines will result in a large fine placed upon the driver. To enter and exit properly, vehicles must use an entry point without double white lines. The line rule is true even when the lane is free of charge. Transponders began to be sold a few weeks before the May 16, 2005, opening date. By June 2005, about 6,500 drivers had signed up for the system.

History

The highway, a four lane divided highway, used to be designated as Wayzata Boulevard and US 12. The construction of I-394 was authorized in 1968. Funding became available after the canceled I-335 freeway project in 1978. I-335 had been planned to be a northern loop around downtown Minneapolis that would have passed through northeast Minneapolis. The money was substituted to the I-394 project. Wayzata Boulevard/US 12, starting in 1982, was to be redesigned as I-394. Construction of I-394 occurred mainly in the 1980s, starting at the western terminus in Minnetonka and opening in sections toward downtown Minneapolis throughout the late 1980s. The entire route of I-394 was officially opened in 1991. A former lane drop of I-394 at the Penn Avenue exit was eliminated in 2000.

Exit list

References

External links

MnPASS
{{DEFAULTSORT:94-3 Auxiliary Interstate Highways Interstate Highways in Minnesota

Interstate 394 Interstate 394 (I-394) is a small east–west auxiliary Interstate Highway in Hennepin County in the US state of Minnesota. It is also commonly referred to by its pre-1991 name, Wayzata Boulevard, and by its other designation, US Highway& ...

394 __NOTOC__ Year 394 (CCCXCIV) was a common year starting on Sunday (link will display the full calendar) of the Julian calendar. At the time, it was known in Western Europe as the Year of the Consulship of Flavianus without colleague (or, less ...

Interstate 94-3 Interstate 94-3 94-3