Fruit bushes/trees (?) for front garden by busy road

[FB.]

Well, I suppose that soot and particles from vehicle exhausts will be easier to wash off fruits which are firm-textured and smooth-skinned. Soft fruits will be too squishy and knobbly to get clean.

So I would shortlist the 'tree' fruits; apples, pears, plums - 'cooking' versions will often be peeled before use.
But rootstock choice will depend on how fierce the competition from the yew tree roots and other plants. Dwarfs cannot compete with other plants. I've been experimenting with planting very vigorous rootstock fruit trees in close proximity to old established non-fruit trees and even the strongest rootstocks only grow very slowly when they have a big established tree nearby that they have to fight for water and nutrients.
In a wild/woodland setting, the young seedling trees generally have to just cling onto life as a severely dwarfed stick with a few leaves on it, and they wait many years for their bigger neighbours to die and fall over before they get their chance to grow.

[Two_Sheds]

I'm on a suburban estate road which only handles neighbourly traffic, and our windows are constantly filthy with diesel dirt and general dust.
I do grow a small amount of cherries, redcurrants & goosegogs in the back garden, but not sure how safe they are, even once washed

[porterlizz]

Thanks for the replies everyone. I've realised another issue is that I have no way of easily getting water to the front garden without carting it through the house, so i think anything that needs loads of watering is out. It's not sheltered, and gets the sun all day.

I have just had the yew tree cut right back, so it's not too big at the moment - about 6ft maximum, but it is well established so i suspect there's a good root system going on there.

Having read all your comments, I'm thinking that i will go for bee and butterfly friendly plants instead. I'll have to look into which ones require very little watering.