How Many Men to Prune a Tree

Some of you may be aware through media coverage recently, that Council is putting double-decker buses into service on some Auckland routes. This bus on Hillsborough Road had large blocks of polystyrene strapped to the top of it to simulate the height of a double-decker bus. Then it was driven around the city to determine what trees encroached upon the road enough to hit a tall bus. Why is this so complicated?

How many people are needed to decide to prune a tree?

New Zealand Transport Agency and most Councils including Auckland Transport have guidelines, rules and bylaws all dictating road carriageway clearances. Every truck and bus driver knows that in many cases these parameters are broken by the encroachment of tree limbs, and this problem gets more intense as you enter the outer urban areas. In some cases protruding tree limbs far more substantial than those pictured above affect road safety and are of grave concern to all road users. It would have been a telling story to follow this bus with its polystyrene roof extrusions along Kinross Street, (below) in Blockhouse Bay.  This is another example of a Council activity that does nothing more than suck money up like a sponge.