Winter Walking and Cycling

[danbrotherston]

Why do you believe that driving a sidewalk plow is more dangerous to the worker than a road plow? I think the data says the opposite, for the very reason you give above, road plows go faster...speed kills.

What really bugs me though is this small town folksy belief that volunteers and child labor is the solution to a problem in a large city.  This is a delusion based upon the belief we're the same as town of 500...because, towns of 5000 pay for city sidewalk clearing.

1) Did I mention danger anywhere in my post? Re-read it and let it sink it.  Workers driving the trucks won't have the same health issues (hearing, vibrations) as those in the little vehicles. Go and actually talk to some workers and get a real viewpoint. As for plow operators, I don't know of any dying locally. It's not like their driving a breakneck speeds, they do not. But the drivers in these small vehicles suffer serious health consequences.

2) What delusion are you talking about? The Liberal government mandated that ALL CHILDREN, if they wish to graduate from school with their OSSD, MUST COMPLETE VOLUNTEER HOURS! This is the law of this province. Child labour or whatever you would like to call it, this is the reality.

Perhaps Kitchener should ban all volunteers then, and indeed, all cities, from Timmins to Toronto and Wiarton to Waterloo. As it is small folksy belief, as you said. We'll see how awesome the cities are after that.

Quickly: Name a city that clears its sidewalks to bare cement within 24 hours....

1) Your snark is not justified by the dictionary, the word "danger" means "possibility of suffering harm or injury"...if you are are suggesting there are health and welbeing issues with sidewalk plows, the word for that is in fact "danger".  

Now I haven't spoken with any operators, have you? Regardless, this is completely out of the blue, nobody anywhere else has suggested that operating small sidewalk plows has a possibility of harm or injury above and beyond that of road plows.  If they suffered serious health consequences, this would be a real health and safety issue in the workplace affecting thousands of plow operators in this province alone, including dozens in our city, but frankly, I just don't believe you.

2) Yes, I'm aware of the volunteer requirements, well aware, as I was requried to complete them. Volunteers should not be counted upon to provide essential city services.  Do you also think that we should get highschool students to maintain our water supply system?  The delusion is that using child labor and volunteers is a real solution to anything.

Quickly: Name a false argument that isn't valid.

I could name a dozen cities which use city sidewalk clearing, none of them achieve the false standard you suggest for no reason, and every single one of them achieves better results than we do.