01-19-2022, 06:14 PM
(01-18-2022, 05:06 PM)ac3r Wrote:(01-18-2022, 02:41 PM)Bytor Wrote: Also, how were the City snow plows allowed to just plow the snow over the LRT tracks
Well...where are they supposed to put the snow? Snow plows - at least the ones we/most cities have - have angled blades that push it to the right side. Some sections of the track do run on the right side of where vehicles drive. Unless we bought a fleet of plows that have snow blowers that can blow it into a dump truck (which is extremely inefficient), they have to push the snow somewhere. Example, places like this or this. The normal snowplows don't or can't plow this since there is a curb and because the plow can damage the track, so there will be challenges.
When they designed and engineered this thing, they tried to put the tracks in the middle as much as they could for these sort of issues, but there are still sections it was not possible. And, since we live in a climate where we get tons of snow (sometimes, anyway), there will be challenges with snow removal. TBH, the system here runs okay. Comparably, I've spent a lot of time in Russia where they have heavy snowfall and streetcars/trams just like ours (sure it's "rapid transit" LRT and grade separated but still suffers from the same problems with climate and is as slow as a streetcar) and over there you still face days where the snow buggers things up. It's a pretty normal thing, though over here you'd think we would invest in better clearing measures given that we're economically superior.
The same way they do it in DTK. Tractors with blowers and a dump truck following them.
In heavy snow fall pull out the secondary plan book which moves priorities around. It tells the snowplow operators to not cover that stretch of Ottawa street, and takes one of the tractor/dump truck teams from DTK to clear that stretch of Ottawa St. When done, they go back to DTK. No extra equipment needed, just a rejigging of priorities.
Yes, more snow than usual causes problems, but it can still be planned for and to not do so is, to put it bluntly, incompetence.