06-19-2018, 11:14 AM
(06-19-2018, 11:11 AM)MidTowner Wrote:(06-19-2018, 09:24 AM)creative Wrote: I have to shovel my driveway anyways and the sidewalk only takes less than a minute to do in light snowfall and maybe a few minutes in heavier snowfall. It is also good exercise. I and most of my neighbours will continue to shovel our sidewalks along with our driveways so I don't see how we benefit! I am all for prompt clearing of sidewalks and tighter enforcement which I am sure would be far less expensive. Other than the increased cost of plowing, our neighbourhood would also end up with poorer clearing of sidewalks as we would have to wait for days after a heavy snowfall before our sidewalks would be clear.
Well, you'll benefit when you go somewhere, and everyone else's sidewalks are cleared, too.
I wouldn't expect effective enforcement to be less expensive than the city just clearing the sidewalks, but I guess I don't know for sure. In the neighbourhoods I walk in, I think the city is likely to do a better job of clearing the sidewalks than is done now, but I guess I don't know that for sure, either. It's a good idea for the City to do pilots so we can determine these kinds of things definitively.
The problem with enforcement is the bylaw. Everyone talks about how sidewalks are clear the day after a storm in their neighbourhood, well the bylaw doesn't require that. In fact, most weeks in the winter, we get some flurries every day, or every other day, those weeks, there is no bylaw requirement to ever clear your sidewalk.
Moreover, even when bylaw does enforce, you get another 24-48 hours (with zero snowfall, again, or the whole thing resets) to clear the sidewalk. If the property owner fails to do that, city crews will come clear, you know, 36-72 hours later, again, if there's no snow.
So even with 100% enforcement of every sidewalk in the city (expensive) sidewalks could remain blocked nearly indefinitely.