Utilizing Public Perceptions to Inform Successful Roadside Vegetation Planning

Summary

Current roadside vegetation planning and management is informed by a robust set of technical guidelines and principles rooted in engineering and natural sciences. However, public-facing roadside landscapes are part of critical infrastructure networks experienced by millions of people daily, and those experiences may vary based on traffic intensity and roadway speeds. Existing research on public perception offers limited practical guidance, as studies are often fragmented, focusing on isolated variables (like a single plant type or driver behavior). These isolated studies do not directly address the needs of engineers, vegetation managers, and transportation planners as they lack the operations and logistics needs of managing roadside vegetation in the context of local site conditions. This project aims to address these deficits through three objectives. Objective 1 will assess the current state of public perceptions as it relates to roadside vegetation management practices and regulations with the academic and grey literature. The results from this objective will then be used to inform a statewide online survey of Minnesota residents (Objective 2) focused on key attributes of the vegetation itself (e.g. height, color), vegetation composition, broader ecological factors, and perceptions of aesthetics, psychological restoration, and safety. Finally, driven by the results of the two previous objectives, in Objective 3, Roadside Vegetation Profiles (RVPs) will be created as a decision support tool for engineers, vegetation managers, and transportation planners to select for and optimize various attributes that they wish to prioritize for a specific roadside context.