Winter Walking and Cycling

[danbrotherston]

Yes, the sidewalk is on the boulevard, so it is actually also "city property" (or "everyone's property"), the same as roads, community centres and libraries. So the question is, why do we make the distinction and download the responsibility for clearing those to the people who live in the houses next to the sidewalks?

As jeffster pointed out, this is not the 50s any more. More people are working, there are more single-parent families and more older people. And our expectations for making the city accessible to everyone are also (I hope) higher than they would have been in the 50s.

In any case, I think everyone (?) can hopefully agree that the current bylaw/enforcement is not achieving its goals, so what next?

I don't agree (yet) that proactive bylaw is not achieving its goals.  There's only been like 3-4 significant snowfalls and all in the last 6-8 weeks.  Proactive bylaw inspection is about changing behaviours, and that takes time.  No one that understood the program expected clear sidewalks everywhere 6 weeks after beginning.  I personally think it will take another year to see reasonable compliance.  It may not work, we'll know better in May when the report comes back, but data has shown that those that get a warning, do indeed change.

I'm unsure what to say about the downloading/"not the 50's anymore" sentiment except to say the overwhelming majority of people that have contacted me on this do not want the city to do this work.  They have said they're out clearing their driveway anyway, and we can't even clear the roads well, cut park-grass often enough, cut tree-limbs over sidewalks, replace broken/heaved sidewalks quickly enough etc., why we would add a new service before spending on those?
 
Regardless, cities with municipally cleared sidewalks are not significantly better off.  This is the poor-value argument.  I wish everyone could see the sidewalks in London/Guelph etc. right now, I have... 5 days after the snow and many areas are just as bad as here.  This is the key point that keeps getting lost.  I want clear sidewalks, but I'm against paying millions for a city-wide service that also doesn't work!  There is no good solution yet but copying failed approaches elsewhere is worse than doing nothing.  Of course, doing nothing won't advance us either though so to your 'what next' question... I'm only one councillor but I think we need to do several things:

- Revise the impossible "bare concrete" expectation as mentioned.

- With this new expectation-- just one warning per lifetime before the city clears & fines.  (To expedite proactive bylaw behaviour-change.)

- Fine reduction when the city clears to cost recovery.  (Something reasonable like $50.)

- Explore different "clear by" timing.  (24hrs from cessation can permit long stretches while uncleared.)

- Expansion of city-clearing of key priority transit routes.  (Please note bus stops and Regional roads aren't under my jurisdiction.)

- Ensure a comprehensive assistance program for those unable.

First of all, proactive bylaw will fail because the bylaw is garbage, I already explained this during the last meeting we had on this issue, and I was derided and dismissed, you didn't even consider the points I brought up.

Second, proactive bylaw will never achieve it's ends because targeted enforcement doesn't even achieve that ends for the reported properties.  How many properties are continually reported, how long is the reporting queue (I was told it was 1000s long this week).  

Third, I HAVE seen the sidewalks in London, because I lived there, and although I complained at the time, and I think they should be better, they are far far better than here.  I wish YOU could see the sidewalks I have to walk on every day.  I have heard many complaints from Guelph, but interestingly they have the same number of sidewalk plows per sidewalk km as we have.  We could probably achieve their LOS without additional equipment--so it shouldn't be a surprise that their sidewalks aren't amazing.

I have also lived in and visited multiple other cities with municipally cleared sidewalks and I can assure you that it does indeed work. Just as it does here in DTK, on trails, and on backlotted streets. You're arguing something doesn't work when we all see the evidence that it does....

Fourth, we already pay millions. We do so through labor--that labor does have value.  You are choosing the most wasteful possible policy, and the only reason it looks cheap to you is because you're ignoring labor costs. Even more, we drive plows around doing nothing just to clear the few spots that nobody else can be forced to clear, even more waste.

As for your enhancements, bare concrete isn't always necessary, but I'm gonna go out on a limb and say that someone in a walker probably needs bare concrete eventually.  Worse, concrete that isn't bare will end up with ice on it after a few melt-thaw cycles.  How do you bylaw that away?  Do you continue re-inspecting properties continuously even if it hasn't snowed?  What's the requirement to remove ice after a few weeks? For municipal clearing, I see bare pavement everywhere in DTK and on all our trails, clearly it is possible to achieve that with municipal clearing.

The fines are already based on cost recovery, this is according to your own bylaw department, so suggesting a cheaper fine suggests you don't even know or believe what they're saying.

Expanding city clearing of transit and priority routes?  You wrote extensively about how city clearing doesn't and can't work--in fact you declared it in this very comment, so are you now admitting that's not true?

Also, the city is indeed responsible for clearing backlotted sidewalks on Regional roads....up until recently the city was actually responsible for building those sidewalks as well.  That is clearly your jurisdiction.  Ironically many regional roads are back lotted and have some of the clearest sidewalks in the city.

Good day.