LEE COUNTY – We heard bad news. Apparently Lee County wants to cut down Royal Palms because they don’t fit highway standards and folks run into them.
In a state that depends upon tourism, you would think that the bureaucrats would know better. The road in question is part of a planned development, and the trees were placed there because of their value to both the look of the place, and the environment. This road is NOT an Interstate highway, where you want trees to be set back because cars are going so fast. Instead, on slower roads, you need trees to close in the space, so drivers dont feel like going so fast.
Richmond, Virginia’s Monument Avenue has trees, and its posted speed is 35 m.p.h., though people go faster. They leave the trees up because in this situation, the onus is on the driver to not hit them.
Lee County is not going to be sued if they leave them up. If that were true, we would have to cut down all the trees in all the Canopy Roads in Florida.
This is the same Lee County that made national headlines prosecuting a woman who was trying to live off grid.
Perhap Lee traffic “engineers” might think on the idea that it is the duty of the driver to stay in the lane. And in an urban area, a car should not be going so fast that it might kill a person if it hits a tree. Again, shall we remove all trees along Canopy Roads in Florida?
Insane. Next, should we tear down downtown buildings that cars might run into. Or streetside flower boxes.
See the full story here. And weep.
The WINK story is below:
