This is a geometry problem, and it is almost always solvable without losing the tree. What blocks a driver is the band of foliage roughly between a seated driver's eye height and the height of a truck's mirrors — everything above that band is irrelevant to visibility. So "the tree is in the way" almost always means "about eight feet of the tree is in the way," and the remedy is to lift the crown clear of that band, not to take the tree out. In Speedway — Old Speedway City (Speedway Historic District), Speedway Manor and Main Street corridor included, that's normally a tree trimming job at $250–$1,400. Within weeks.
Why this comes up in Speedway
June 29, 2023 derecho: a 70 mph gust was measured at Indianapolis International Airport and NWS logged trees blocking Furnas Road just off South High School Road on the west side. The July 15-16, 2024 derecho clipped Marion County along its southern edge with a 58 mph measured gust at the airport and multiple downed power lines in Indianapolis, though the destructive core of that one ran north through Tippecanoe, Howard, Tipton and Hamilton counties.
Speedway's canopy
No public street-tree inventory has been published for Speedway, so species counts are UNVERIFIED. Because the residential core finished building out by the mid-1950s and has barely been rebuilt since, much of the yard canopy is likely of comparable age and large enough to close over narrow streets and 40-to-50-foot lots — an inference from build-out dates, not a measured finding. The exception is Main Street, where a town streetscape reconstruction installed all-new landscaping, so those trees are recent.
Marion County rules
Indiana has no statewide tree removal permit, and no Speedway ordinance requiring a permit to remove a tree on private property is documented in the sources reviewed. Important caveat: Speedway is an excluded town under Unigov and maintains its own municipal code separate from Indianapolis, and the full Speedway code text could not be retrieved, so the exact local text is UNVERIFIED. Marion County's zoning ordinance does state a purpose of protecting and enhancing tree cover and the countywide code carries a "Trees and Flora" chapter, but the section citations are unconfirmed and whether they bind Speedway is unconfirmed. Call the Speedway Street Department before touching anything near the street line.
The tree lawn in Speedway
The tree lawn is town right-of-way, and critically it is Speedway's right-of-way, not Indianapolis'. Speedway runs its own Street Department rather than relying on Indy DPW, so right-of-way work is cleared with the town. Who bears the cost of removing an existing tree-lawn tree is UNVERIFIED.