Published August 11, 2024 | Updated July 11, 2026

Some of you may recall seeing the “No Cruising” signs while driving east or west along Dodge Street between 69th and 96th. Some of you may even remember what prompted those signs in the first place.

The practice of cruising Dodge started in the days before cellphones and personal computers. In fact, it started as far back as the 1950s. In those days, teenagers including Hollywood legend Nick Nolte would fraternize, drink, fight and hook up in an area that started near Tiner’s Drive-In at 44th and stretched westward to Todd’s Drive-In, the unofficial hangout for teenagers at 77th.

As people continued to move west, so did cruising, which shifted to 72nd on the east and 90th on the west. The popularity took a hit during the 1970s due to the gas crisis but saw a big resurgence before the decade ended. Being seen on Dodge Street after 9 marked your arrival as one of the cool kids.

Many teens considered cruising the best entertainment that the city had to offer, but as its popularity grew, those in power sought to crack down on the practice. They successfully did just that in 1983. Falsely advertising that the popular car magazine Car Craft was going to be in the area for an upcoming shoot caused another spike in interest.

As many as 1,000 cars cruised up and down the strip by the late 1980s. The practice was mostly seasonal as kids began to show up in large numbers once school was out for the summer. It waned once school started in the fall and continued to diminish once it turned cold. But not even frigid temperatures and snow stopped some of the hardcore teenagers who continued to show up in the empty parking lots.

Omaha World-Herald archives photos of young adults cruising Dodge Street in 1970s and 1980s.

Places like Burger King and Chi-Chi’s went so far as to hire security guards in the evenings due to complaints of loud music, litter, squealing tires, vandalism and fights. The behavior, combined with an increase in accidents that sometimes occurred more often after 9 PM than during rush hour, led the city to come up with a solution.

Omaha World-Herald archives photos of young adults cruising Dodge Street in 1970s and 1980s.

In 1992, the city council passed an ordinance that put an end to the long-held pastime that saw generations of teenagers cruise along the same street their parents did. The consequences were clear: driving privileges would be suspended for 30 days and probation was ordered for anyone encountering a checkpoint three times over two hours. It was effective. It was also the end of an era.

Now cruising lives on only in the memories of those who experienced it firsthand. That includes people like Dawn Slama Seefus, who hung out with her crew in front of the Jiffy Lube at 81st and Dodge. In an interview with the Flatwater Free Press, she recalled that “Dodge Street was like a recurring party that you could show up at and feel like you never left.”

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Sources

• Omaha World-Herald archives
• Omaha Magazine, Omaha, Nebraska: We Don’t Cruise Anymore, 2024.
• Omaha’s ‘No Cruising’ signs: A rarely enforced relic of a teenage pastime – Flatwater Free Press
• https://www.upi.com/Archives/1992/04/06/City-Council-putting-brakes-on-cruisers/2480702532800/