By Erik Noonan
This morning as I pedaled to the BikeMN office, the haze of humidity was already hanging thick on the Midtown Greenway. My route also takes me down a road with a painted bike lane lined by boulevard trees. Their shade felt pleasant and relieving — not just from the sun, but also breaking the headwind. That road is up for reconstruction in a few years. When it is, I hope they’ll build protected bikeways. Not just for safety, but because I know that kind of infrastructure is healthier for the trees that make the ride bearable.
This week’s heat is not an accident. It’s the compounding result of decades of burning fossil fuels, and it will keep getting worse until we find the collective will to drive less. Bikes — when paired with quality protected infrastructure — are one of the most effective tools we have for building a more livable future for our kids.
But infrastructure design matters more than most people realize, and the trees along your route are a good illustration of why.
Shade and the case for boulevard trees
BikeMN has long been a proponent of boulevard trees. Shade along a bike route is comfort infrastructure — it’s not decorative. Our executive director Michael Wojcik understood this viscerally long before he led BikeMN. As a Rochester City Council member, he was the author and driving force behind the city ordinance requiring boulevard trees. That ordinance is part of why so many of Rochester’s streets feel as livable as they do today.
Unlike manmade materials like asphalt and concrete, trees absorb heat from sunlight and can actually reduce the surrounding air temperature — not just provide shade overhead. On a day like today, that difference between a sun-baked exposed lane and a tree-lined boulevard is real and measurable.
Why protected bikeways are better for trees, too
Here’s something most people don’t know: the infrastructure we build for cyclists has a direct effect on the health of the trees we’re counting on for shade.
Roads are built on a compacted soil base — by engineering necessity. That compaction takes a serious toll on tree roots. Research published in Arboriculture & Urban Forestry found that urban tree root systems in compacted soils are commonly shallower, confined by dense soil underlying pavement, and exhibit less extensive soil exploration than would be possible in uncompacted soil. Compaction doesn’t just restrict root spread — it restricts root depth. Oxygen levels as low as 4% have been measured in compacted soil under an asphalt road, compared to around 20% in adjacent uncompacted areas — a difference that matters enormously to root health and tree longevity.
Trails and grade-separated bikeways change this equation. Built at or near grade, often through greenways and park corridors, they don’t require the same deep compaction that a roadway demands. When soil is not paved or heavily compacted, vegetated urban sites can be as well-aerated as forest stands. Roots get room to breathe, to spread, to grow into trees substantial enough to actually shade the people moving beneath them.
In other words, protected bikeways don’t just protect cyclists. They protect the urban canopy that makes cycling — and urban life generally — more survivable on days like this one.
Get out early. Find the shade. Push for better.
If you’re biking this week, ride in the morning before 9 a.m. or in the evening after 7. Bring and drink more water than you think you need. A fun experiment to do with your kids is to set a glass of water in a shaded area for 30 minutes and a glass in a sunny area and then measure the temperature. Then use that to talk about how we need fewer roads and parking lots, more trees, and more people biking!
You can also use tools like firststreet.org to look up the relative extreme heat risk for your neighborhood, or to know where you and others need to push for adding tree canopy the most.
And when your city talks about road reconstruction, show up and ask for protected bikeways. Not just because they’re safer. Because the trees need them too.
Minnesota is a national leader in forward-thinking transportation policy — and that didn’t happen by chance. For over 17 years, BikeMN has been at the table, fight after fight, shaping a future where biking, walking, and rolling is safe, accessible, and valued. That work is funded by members like you. Join as a sustaining supporter today at bikemn.org/join — $5 or $10 a month helps ensure Minnesota stays ahead. We all move forward together.