The Kalamazoo County Road Commission is partway through a federally funded road safety initiative called Safe Streets for All, a $33 million project. $25 million comes from a U.S. Department of Transportation grant, described at the time of award as the largest of its kind in Michigan.
The program grew out of a 2023 countywide crash data analysis that found Kalamazoo County’s total crash rate was below the state average and declining, but its fatality and serious injury rates were above average and rising.
The data showed about 15 fatal crashes and 61 serious injury crashes per year on county roads alone. The goal of the program is zero deaths.
The county plans to remove up to 8,000 roadside trees.
Half of all fatal and serious injury crashes on Kalamazoo County roads involve vehicles leaving their lane. Of those lane-departure crashes, 60% involve a tree, meaning a vehicle that left the road struck a tree as part of the fatal or serious outcome.
That data is driving a large-scale “clear zone” tree removal program under the Safe Streets for All grant, with an initial estimate of up to 8,000 trees identified countywide for removal from road rights-of-way. The 60% figure comes from police accident reports, which include a checkbox indicating whether a tree was involved in the crash sequence, including cases where driver impairment or distraction was also a factor.
The county’s position is that removing trees from the immediate roadside reduces deaths even when driver error is present. Residents whose properties abut affected roads receive letters identifying specific trees and asking how they’d like the wood handled.
Individual concerns can still be reviewed, though trees within roughly 10 feet of the road are unlikely to be exempted. Some trees protected by guardrails or on steep embankments will be exempt. The tree removal component is central to the federal grant and significantly scaling it back could put the $25 million at risk.
