Winter Walking and Cycling

[robdrimmie]

I am interested in this conversation, but I submit for consideration the notion that circular discussions about space for cars in a different city has moved outside of this thread's topical scope.

[Acitta]

So they built this island on West Ave. at the Iron Horse Trail. Instead of building it in line with the two parts if the trail, they built it ridiculously out of alignment. Anyhow, this is now what we get in winter.        

[Rainrider22]

ok, I am not even waiting for Dan to chime in, that is ridiculous !!

[danbrotherston]

ok, I am not even waiting for Dan to chime in,  that is ridiculous !!

Lol, you know me so well.

Yeah, that's pretty frustrating...ironically, the plow shows how the path probably should go.

It is a city path though, if you call the city contact centre, or even just tweet at them, should be pretty prompt in correcting it...

I am curious how the crossing of Victoria looks, there's a smaller, but even less justified misalignment there, and I kind of expect the plows to go straight through over the curb and grass.

[catarctica]

Not super related but a youtuber who used to live in Waterloo made a video about winter cycling. I’m a fan of his channel and look forward KW to move to this direction.

https://youtu.be/Uhx-26GfCBU

[ac3r]

Wow...why would they have built the crossing there? It can't be because of the curve in the road because people have already been crossing the street there for the longest time. Is this just one of those "Waterloo Region things" that you're not supposed to put much thought into?

[Bob_McBob]

https://www.reddit.com/r/kitchener/comme...e_removal/

[danbrotherston]

https://www.reddit.com/r/kitchener/comme...e_removal/

*sigh*....yeah, one of those people.

Well, I take solace that they are being downvoted heavily.

Trashy attitude...pretty common though.

[tomh009]

https://www.reddit.com/r/kitchener/comme...e_removal/

Happy to see that tickets are actually being issued.

[tomh009]

FYI: I will be moving this discussion. Is the cycling thread most appropriate home for this?

[ijmorlan]

I think this is where we were discussing sidewalk clearing before. Interesting news from Toronto:

http://spacing.ca/toronto/2021/06/14/rei...e-at-last/

So apparently it turns out that it’s not quite so impossible to clear sidewalks in the city as we may have been led to believe!

I think the question becomes, what is so different about Kitchener and Waterloo that makes sidewalk plowing more difficult here than in Toronto?

[danbrotherston]

I think this is where we were discussing sidewalk clearing before. Interesting news from Toronto:

http://spacing.ca/toronto/2021/06/14/rei...e-at-last/

So apparently it turns out that it’s not quite so impossible to clear sidewalks in the city as we may have been led to believe!

I think the question becomes, what is so different about Kitchener and Waterloo that makes sidewalk plowing more difficult here than in Toronto?

It has nothing to do with the width of the sidewalks and everything to do with the cheapness of the taxpayers and fears of the councillors.

Ultimately the timing of COVID is unfortunate, the results might have been different in a different time, but as is, the city squandered half a million dollars on a study they ended up ignoring.

[Bytor]

Why does it always have to be plows, though? Those whirling brush things are just as effective and do far less damage when the driver missed the proper path of the sidewalk.

[danbrotherston]

Why does it always have to be plows, though? Those whirling brush things are just as effective and do far less damage when the driver missed the proper path of the sidewalk.

I think the whirling brushes are unable to deal with deep snow...like, greater than say 4-6 inches. While most days we get less snow than this, (and with climate change we will rarely get this amount), we get road plows pushing giant piles which they would be unable to manage.  They are also less able to deal with ice, which plows don't really deal with anyway.

That being said, they do have a number of the brush vehicles, which they use in DTK. They do work very well, but like most things in our unsustainable wasteful suburbs, we just can't afford nice things.

[ijmorlan]

Why does it always have to be plows, though? Those whirling brush things are just as effective and do far less damage when the driver missed the proper path of the sidewalk.

I think the whirling brushes are unable to deal with deep snow...like, greater than say 4-6 inches. While most days we get less snow than this, (and with climate change we will rarely get this amount), we get road plows pushing giant piles which they would be unable to manage.  They are also less able to deal with ice, which plows don't really deal with anyway.

That being said, they do have a number of the brush vehicles, which they use in DTK. They do work very well, but like most things in our unsustainable wasteful suburbs, we just can't afford nice things.

I assume the brushes only go up to a certain depth as you suggest. I’m not even sure about that depth — 15cm is a lot for a brush. But I’m confident brushes do better at removing the last little bit — a blade can start running on top of an ice layer and leave 2cm behind, or have trouble with any small irregularity in the surface.

I would have thought that they would be the same vehicle, just with a different attachment. Does anybody know if that’s true?