Winter Walking and Cycling

[danbrotherston]

...
This is why these sorts of questions require actual analysis. I am neither in favour of stricter or less snow clearing policies — I want the policies to be better, which in this case can’t be captured by either of those simplistic words. I’m ignoring for the moment that I think the City should take on the job itself. So assuming we’re going to stick with the ridiculous approach of using bylaw to enforce that each house does its bit, we need to change the actual clearing standard to reflect what is actually feasible; while simultaneously changing the rules to actually require clearing during winter.

I think part of this needs to be an attitude change, whether on the part of the enforcement regime or in the bylaw itself I can’t say, to take reasonable inferences from evidence. With serious crimes we don’t require them to be caught in flagrante — if a dead body shows up with no witnesses to the murder, we don’t give up and say we’ll never know who did it. If we’re willing to send people to prison for decades on the basis of evidence, why can’t we fine people for not clearing the sidewalk on the basis of obvious evidence, such as their portion of the sidewalk having a 3cm layer of solid ice while the neighbours have only today’s 1cm of snow?...

I think this is all very well said. We don't know that this isn't happening, though, when enforcement is happening. We've been told by city officials here and on the City of Kitchener web site that officers are indeed applying discretion (not for the sake of mobility, of course, but rather because of complaints by property owners). I think it's safe to assume that, in judging whether "an effort" has been made to clear a sidewalk, any officer would compare that sidewalk to the adjacent. At least as a part of his decision-making process.

In practice, though, it's not happening. I've complained about properties that have been chronically uncleared for months now. By any measure (the bylaw's standards, or common sense), they have not been cleared.

I don't think this is because bylaw officers lack common sense and are giving notices to the wrong properties. I think the source of the problem is that there are too few of them, working too few hours, to get sidewalks cleared in anything approaching a reasonable time frame.

The list of reasons why bylaw enforcement is ineffective is very very long.

I have no idea why bylaw is entirely .... impotent ... in the face of habitually uncleared sidewalks.  The sidewalk outside the train station in DTK has never been cleared this winter, once, I don't know how that can be.

But making the bylaw more effective will only exasperate the issues MidTowner brings up, by making it take longer with more documentation, and more likely that there will be a homeowner objection, which requires an expensive court proceeding (which we're willing to pay for in the case of a murder, but maybe not an uncleared sidewalk).  This increases the cost, which is contrary to the whole point of pretending to save money.  In fact, probably bylaw would discover if they've already sent someone to clear, it isn't worth it to pursue the fine, and then homeowners would learn that someone would eventually plow the sidewalks.  Basically, you get to a situation where punishment is less punitive than following the law.

Most of my coworkers have learned at this point that the parking fines are cheaper than paying for parking.

In fact, the only place that we seem to have a policy where fines might be more punitive than following the law is apparently fare evasion...go figure.