Road verge

File:Massachusetts-devils strip.JPG

A curb strip in suburban Greater Boston, Massachusetts. Outside of rural areas in New England, devil strips are narrow – the one pictured is Template:Convert from curb to sidewalk. They are usually not maintained by the municipality, but rather by the property owner, and are used primarily to provide space for utility poles.

A road verge is a strip of groundcover consisting of grass or garden plants, and sometimes also shrubs and trees, located between a roadway and a sidewalk.<ref name="worthington"/> Verges are known by dozens of other names such as grass strip, nature strip, curb strip, or park strip, the usage of which is often quite regional.

Road verges are often considered public property, with maintenance usually being a municipal responsibility. Some local authorities, however, require abutting property owners to help maintain (e.g. watering, mowing, edging, trimming/pruning and weeding) their respective verge areas, as well as clean the adjunct footpaths and gutters,<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> as a form of community work.

Benefits of having road verges include visual aesthetics, increased safety and comfort of sidewalk users, protection from spray from passing vehicles, and a space for benches, bus shelters, street lights, and other public amenities. Verges are also often part of sustainability for water conservation or the management of urban runoff and water pollution<ref name="rainwatercollecting">Template:Cite web</ref><ref name="smgov">Template:Citation</ref><ref name="enewsbuilder">Template:Cite journal</ref> and can provide useful wildlife habitat. Snow that has been ploughed off the street in colder climates often is stored in the area of the verge by default.Template:Citation needed

In the British Isles, road verges serve as important habitats for a range of plants, including rare wildflowers.<ref name=BBC-verges>Template:Cite news</ref> In the UK, around 700 different species of wildflower can be found growing on verges, including 29 of the country's 52 species of orchid.<ref name="NHM-verges">Template:Cite web</ref> Verges can also support a wide range of animals and plants that may have been displaced from their usual grassland habitats, as the soil is not extensively fertilised and relatively undisturbed by human activity. Animals that reside on verges range from small insects and amphibians, to larger reptiles, mammals and birds, which rely on verges as a corridor connecting areas of undamaged habitat. As a result, verges may be managed by local areas to encourage biodiversity and conserve the ecosystems that rely on them.<ref name="NHM-verges"></ref>

File:Roadside Verge.jpg

A sign on a road verge in Northumberland, England, indicating that the verge is being managed by the local council to maintain populations of wild plants

The main disadvantage of a road verge is that the right-of-way must be wider, increasing the cost of the road. In some localities, a wider verge offers opportunity for later road widening, should the traffic usage of a road demand this. For this reason, footpaths are usually sited a significant distance from the curb.Template:Citation needed

Certain nutrient amounts in a verge's soil can be influenced by the amount of traffic on the road it sits beside; roads with heavier traffic tend to have more nitrate in the soil due to nitrogen compounds from air pollution leaching out of the atmosphere and into the ground.<ref name="NHM-verges"></ref>

Sustainable urban and landscape design

File:Treelawn2.JPG

Planted rain garden in the "tree lawn" zone, Raleigh, North Carolina.

In urban and suburban areas, urban runoff from private and civic properties can be guided by grading and bioswales for rainwater harvesting collection and bioretention within the "tree-lawn" – parkway zone in rain gardens. This is done for reducing runoff of rain and domestic water: for their carrying waterborne pollution off-site into storm drains and sewer systems; and for the groundwater recharge of aquifers.<ref name="rainwatercollecting"/>

In some cities, such as Santa Monica, California, city code mandates specify:

Parkways, the area between the outside edge of the sidewalk and the inside edge of the curb which are a component of the Public Right of Way (PROW) – that the landscaping should require little or no irrigation and the area produce no runoff.<ref name="smgov"/>

For Santa Monica, another reason for this use of "tree-lawns" is to reduce current beach and Santa Monica Bay ocean pollution that is measurably higher at city outfalls. New construction and remodeling projects needing building permits require that landscape design submittals include garden design plans showing the means of compliance.<ref name="smgov" />

In some cities and counties, such as Portland, Oregon, street and highway departments are regrading and planting rain gardens in road verges to reduce boulevard and highway runoff. This practice can be useful in areas with either independent Storm sewers or combined storm and sanitary sewers, reducing the frequency of pollution, treatment costs, and released overflows of untreated sewage into rivers and oceans during rainstorms.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>

Rural roadsides

In some countries, the road verge can be a corridor of vegetation that remains after adjacent land has been cleared. Considerable effort in supporting conservation of the remnant vegetation is prevalent in Australia, where significant tracts of land are managed as part of the roadside conservation strategies by government agencies.<ref name="pandora.nla.gov.au"/><ref>Template:Citation</ref>

Gallery

• Ginkgo street trees in the "boulevard" area, in Riverside, Illinois
  Ginkgo street trees in the "boulevard" area, in Riverside, Illinois
• A planted garden in the "tree lawn", in Raleigh, North Carolina
  A planted garden in the "tree lawn", in Raleigh, North Carolina
• A "parkway" with street trees in Oak Park, Illinois
  A "parkway" with street trees in Oak Park, Illinois
• A tree lawn with street trees in Shaker Heights, Ohio
  A tree lawn with street trees in Shaker Heights, Ohio
• A tree lawn with street trees in Shaker Heights, Ohio
  A tree lawn with street trees in Shaker Heights, Ohio

Terminology

The term verge has many synonyms and dialectal differences. Some dialects and idiolects lack a specific term for this area, instead using a circumlocution.<ref name="tls">Template:Cite news</ref><ref>Template:Cite web</ref>

Terms used include: Template:Div col

• Berm: Pennsylvania, northern Indiana, Ohio, Michigan, Wisconsin, New Zealand<ref name="dictionary-vol6">Template:Cite bookTemplate:Page needed</ref>
• Besidewalk<ref>Template:Cite webTemplate:Dead link</ref>
• Boulevard: Detroit, Michigan; North Dakota; Minnesota; Iowa; Illinois; Ohio; Wisconsin; United States Upper Midwest;<ref name="dictionary-vol6"/> Winnipeg, and western Canada;<ref>Template:Citation</ref> Toronto, Ontario;<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> Markham, Ontario; Kitchener, Ontario<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>
• Boulevard strip: U.S. Upper Midwest
• Common: New England, generally describes a large strip of grass. Also refers to park-like common-use green spaces in small town centers.
• Curb lawn: Kalamazoo, Michigan;<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> Elyria, Ohio;<ref>Template:Cite news</ref> Miami County, Ohio;<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> Greenville, South Carolina<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>
• Curb strip: New Jersey, New York, North Carolina, Florida, Ohio, Indiana, Massachusetts, Michigan, Iowa, Kansas, Nebraska, Oregon, Washington<ref name="dictionary-vol6"/>
• Devil strip or devilstrip: Akron, Ohio; Northeast Ohio.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref><ref>Template:Cite book</ref><ref>Template:Cite news</ref> This term was once used more widely to refer to the space between tracks on a streetcar line, a space not wide enough to stand in as cars passed.<ref>Template:Cite book</ref>
• Drivestrip or Drive Strip
• Extension lawn: Ann Arbor, MichiganTemplate:Citation needed
• Furniture zone, also landscape zone: a term used by urban planners, indicating its suitability for "street furniture" such as utility poles and fire hydrants, as well as trees or planters<ref>Template:Citation</ref>
• Grassplot: East Coast of the United States, Pennsylvania<ref name="dictionary-vol6"/>
• Governor’s Strip: Delaware
• Hellstrip<ref>Template:Cite book</ref>
• Island strip: Long Island, New YorkTemplate:Citation needed
• Long acre – a traditional term for wide grassy road verges, used by grazing herds or flocks moving from place to place
• Median: Washington, OregonTemplate:Citation needed
• Mow strip: SF East Bay Area Northern California
• Nature strip: Australia<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>
• Neutral ground: U.S. Gulf states<ref name="dictionary-vol6"/><ref>Template:Cite book</ref>
• Park strip: Ohio,<ref name="worthington" /> Utah
• Parking: Illinois, Iowa, Western United States<ref name="dictionary-vol6"/>
• Parking strip: Washington, Oregon, Utah, much of California<ref name="dictionary-vol6"/>
• Parkrow: Iowa, Oregon<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>
• Parkway: Grand Rapids, Michigan; Greater Los Angeles; San Francisco Bay Area; West Coast of the United States; Casper, Wyoming; Ohio; Illinois; Missouri; Florida; Texas<ref name="dictionary-vol6"/><ref name="WebsterWorld">Template:Cite book</ref><ref>Template:Cite web</ref>
• Parkway strip: Austin, Texas; Fort Collins, Colorado<ref name="infernogarden">Template:Cite web</ref>
• Planter zone: SmartCode/New Urbanist terminology<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>
• Planting strip: Berkeley, California,<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> Seattle, Washington<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>
• Right-of-way: Wisconsin, Illinois
• Road allowance: Ottawa, Canada<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>
• Road verge: Australia<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>Template:Unreliable source?
• Roadside: Australia<ref name="pandora.nla.gov.au">Template:Cite webTemplate:Cbignore</ref>
• Shoulder<ref>Merriam-Webster's Collegiate Dictionary, Eleventh Edition, copyright 2007, page 1389</ref>
• Sidewalk lawn: Georgia<ref name="dickstein">Template:Cite news</ref>
• Sidewalk plot: Virginia, Maryland, Indiana, Tennessee<ref name="dictionary-vol6"/>
• Sidewalk strip: California, North Carolina, Oregon, Utah, WashingtonTemplate:Citation needed
• Street lawn: Ohio<ref name="worthington">Template:Cite web</ref>
• Subway: Western New YorkTemplate:Citation needed
• Swale: South Florida<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>
• Terrace: U.S. Great Lakes region, Missouri<ref name="dictionary-vol6"/>
• Tree bank: The Fox River Valley including Elgin, Illinois.<ref>Template:Cite web It states that "'Tree bank' means that area between the curb, the extended curb or lateral roadway line and the property line." Nearby localities with similar references include St. Charles, Geneva, East Dundee, West Dundee, Carpentersville and Algonquin. </ref>
• Tree belt: Massachusetts<ref name="dictionary-vol6"/>
• Tree box: Washington, DC<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>
• Tree lawn or treelawn: Ohio, Indiana, New York, and elsewhere<ref name="dictionary-vol6"/><ref name="WebsterWorld" /><ref>Template:Cite web</ref>
• Verge: UK,<ref name=BBC-verges /> New Zealand, South Africa,<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> Western Australia<ref>Template:Cite web</ref><ref name="WebsterWorld"/>

See also

• Category:Environmental conservation
• Central reservation
• Roadside conservation
• Shoulder (road)
• Urban forestry

External links

• Parkway with xeric garden photographs
• Devil Strips – term's use and lore