Winter Walking and Cycling

[danbrotherston]

Does anyone have any real sense if the municipalities are enforcing their snow clearing bylaws? I think Waterloo may be, but it seems like Kitchener isn't. They say "yes," but that the volume of complaints is high, only so many bylaw officers, etc. But many sidewalks that have not been done a single time this season just get worse and worse, exacerbated by the thaw and freeze over the weekend which made some of the thickly-packed stuff difficult to traverse.

I'm just curious if anyone has the straight dope on it, and whether we just have to wait for natural conditions to take care of things eventually.

I am laughing and crying. Because I asked basically the same question 13 years or so ago. Spent 10 years of that learning, evolving, advocating, then I moved out of the city, at least in part because the sidewalks were intolerably blocked every winter and I did not foresee that ever changing. So no, I don’t think anything will ever change. But if you call your ward councillor there’s a small chance they’ll eventually clear some habitually uncleared sidewalks, once, after 2-4 weeks of constant calling. Might be worth it if you go every day. But call your ward councillor, not staff would be my advice. Ask to be CCed on the internal email.