Winter Walking and Cycling

[jeffster]

I live in the pilot area and honestly, I was a bit worried that if sidewalks were not cleared well that it would give people reason to not support sidewalk clearing. However, I have been very impressed with the level of clearance and have heard from many neighbours the very same. I then wondered if the clear sidewalks was more due to a milder winter than say last year. However, every time I end up in a neighbourhood that's not in the pilot, I am reminded that's not the case. I have sludged through some neighbourhoods, many days after any snow has fallen, only to come home to my neighbourhood's very walkable sidewalks. Whereas last year's proactive enforcement made little, if any, improvement to the walkabiity of the city.

If the city takes over sidewalk clearing, will there be complaints about the level of service? i suspect so. However, I hear complaints about road clearing too and no one seems to be suggesting that we should cut that service just because all roads can't be cleared as soon as the last snow flake hits the ground.

I'm also curious about concerns about costs with this work as I don't think I have ever heard any serious, consistent concerns around road clearing. Because we as a society believe we need clear roads throughout the entire city, few people question the costs associated with that. Unfortunately we don't have that benefit with sidewalk clearing.

All good questions. When it comes to road clearing, the city has a certain budget for this type of work. This includes OT for workers when we have multiple snow events over a short period of time. When it is milder, workers are expected to do other stuff, it could include pothole repair, repair to playground equipment, etc. Depending on the year, you could either go over or under your budget, and obviously you have little control of this.

Something that would need to be factored in if the city decided to have sidewalk clearing, is how do you staff it? And what do these workers do in the off season? If you need reliable staff, then at the very least you need to guarantee hours to them, and chances are that union rules would require proper hours. I am thinking that this would be a concern to the city as you're not just hiring staff for 3 or 4 months, with irregular work, but it might be season work that is 10 months long (which is generally what they have to give temp workers).

My understanding is that right now plow operators have lost their wingman and this was recent. It may have something to do with the pilot project, but I am not sure on that. The city has grown a lot over the years, and likely they need more operators regardless and they're looking for ways to cut costs without service reduction and the newer trucks are easier to operator with only one person. (The older trucks were standard transmission so one hand on steering wheel, one hand on shifter -- no hands for shovel -- hence the wingman).

Has our weather been a factor this year? Considering that January was one of the warmest on record, I am guessing it was. Would there be complaints? I am guessing there would be.

I think if we got some sustained cold weather with heavy snow and some freeze thaw (due to the sun) cycles and snow packed and iced sidewalks that is difficult to take care of, then we'd have a better idea how this will all work.