I like the trees, so I'm playing devil's advocate here... True leadership cities like Paris are adding trees wherever and whenever they can, including turning the Champs-Elysee into a forest...
It's not necessarily that trees are bad, but are they appropriate for the main street of the 78? That picture you posted is a beautiful street, but it's a residential street. A street lined with shops and office buildings is a different animal - the shops want visibility, especially from motorists who won't see a new cafe or shop if it's hidden behind tree trunks (easier to notice these things as a pedestrian, of course). Office buildings want visibility too, that's why corporations spend all that money slapping their logo at the roofline. Bus riders want to see when their bus is approaching. In the wintertime, leafless trees can be ugly and uninviting, and kill what little solar access we get during those months. Etc etc.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Mr Downtown
Problem with opening an empty street like this to traffic is that it immediately becomes (SUNDAY!) Great (SUNDAY!) Lakes (SUNDAY!) Dragway. (SUNDAY!) Especially when warm weather brings out the motorcyclists.
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I appreciate this reference, but this kind of thinking is just surrender to lawlessness. It's not a hard problem to solve. Put in a few temporary asphalt speedbumps (in addition to the gentler speed tables) and the street racers will find somewhere else to go. Or keep some construction barricades and sign it for local traffic only.