Where is the optimum placement for trees along roadways when you are working to include bicycles, sidewalks, and the utility rights-of-way?
The MassHighway guide suggests planting at the back of the sidewalk, where the greatest soil volume and water absorption capacity exists. Conflicts with utilities are often a concern that needs to be addressed with street tree placement. Often, when a city resurfaces streets, traffic lanes are made wider to accommodate the car and the re-striping process happens automatically without review that considers adding bicycle lanes or striping wider outside lanes to accommodate cyclists. How can residents and planners collaborate with public works to address this issue? First, a complete streets policy should include repavings in its procedures, including a direction to assess the corridor’s use by pedestrians, bicyclists, and transit users and stripe accordingly. Second, all transportation improvement projects can be submitted and reviewed by citizen advisory committees. For example, the Bay Area MPO in California has recently required that the bicycle and pedestrian advisory committees get
