Winter Walking and Cycling

[danbrotherston]

Why is a 24/7 sidewalk clearing service so ridiculous an idea.  We do it for roads...which are an order of magnitude larger.  Yet we can't for sidewalks?

Also, all the data shows that the current situation is entirely broken, you cannot walk a substantial distance without encountering a blocked sidewalk, but every road in the city is clear.

This idea that just because a few sidewalks are immaculate, that sidewalk clearing is good must end.  Sidewalks are used for more than just running to your neighbours house.

And what's being done at bus stops is a choice, to hold them to a very low standard.

I didn't say it was ridiculous, just trying to understand what the expectation is of the service.  It is however, hyperbole to say the roads are "clear".  Sure they've been plowed, but as of today (a few day after significant snow) there are still some streets that are marginal.  If the sidewalks were plowed with the same attention to detail, similar method, similar results, a lot of people using sidewalks (kids, elderly, physically impaired, able bodied, etc.) might still have difficulty. 

I've been in communities where the sidewalk plowing is done.  Reality is some people who had previously shoveled their sidewalk (as soon as possible), just stopped doing it since "the plow will be coming by eventually".

I know of no roads which are "marginal" right now, perhaps some cul-de-sacs around town are, but the one near me is bare pavement.  Also, if you look at the sidewalks that the city already clears, most are actually very good, better than many homeowners, the only exceptions are where the pavement is particularly poor, like that the railway tracks near my house.

So yes, it is possible that some sidewalks wouldn't be perfect, and this may be difficult for people who have mobility problems, but it would impede them far less than the every 10th or every 20th house that is completely uncleared.  Remember, it does not matter how the best sidewalks are, it only matters what the weakest links are.

I have also lived in a city with sidewalk clearing, and yes, people (including me) complained about the quality of the clearing.  That being said, those complaints were about day of, or day after clearing, by a few days past a storm, plows would have cleared all sidewalks (to the degree that they are passable), even ones which didn't get cleared well enough on the first pass.  This is a state we NEVER reach in our system.

I honestly do not care if people stop shovelling their sidewalks, I don't even see a reason for them to do so, it's a waste of effort.  It's a minor convenience that every fifth home on my street is cleared the morning of a storm, the real problem is when I get to the main road, and still only ever fifth property is clear.  The fact is, even immediately after a snowfall things would be substantially better.  Walking to work, the day of a snowfall, even main roads have mostly uncleared sidewalks, but city street plows have been out.  If we had sidewalks held to the same standards, major roads and bus routes would be clear almost immediately during a storm.

This is opposed to now, which is a system with no priority, a road like Columbia where thousands of students walk to school doesn't see most sidewalks cleared until the evening (at best, some homes on that street never ever clear their sidewalks).  Worse, that road has a curbface sidewalk, which often gets covered back up by the plow (and then stays covered indefinitely again).  Having the city do it would allow synchronization between road plows and sidewalk plows.