When I got to Queen Street West around Spadina on my way to work this morning, I discovered a pleasant surprise — a long stretch of the sidewalk had been ploughed, by a machine, by the city. Wonder of wonder, miracle of miracles! Instead of the usual mishmash of salt, half-shovelled sidewalk and packed-down icy patches, there was a long clean line of clear sidewalk awaiting pedestrians as they headed off to work.
See, it wasn’t that hard. Downtown sidewalks *can* be ploughed, and sidewalks can be ploughed at the same time as roads. It’s great to see that the city has finally worked this out.
Kudos to the city for finally getting this right. I hope it continues, and I hope pedestrians in other previously un-ploughed parts of the city had the same pleasant discovery today.
Photo by Magoo23.
7 comments
I had similar surprise this morning around 7:30am when the sidewalk plough came by while I was shoveling my driveway. A few minutes later and I would have moved on to the sidewalk myself. I’m on sleepy little street near Main/Danforth and didn’t expect to see sidewalks cleared at all, let alone that early. I hope they’re able to keep it up, I could definitely get used to this. Way to go, T.O!
The stretch i walked this morning down bathurst from college to queen was not ploughed. Hopefully, ploughing will start happening all over.
I grew up in Winnipeg where sidewalks were always ploughed – often BEFORE the streets. When i moved here, it was one of the things i found odd… because I consider Toronto to be so much more pedestrian-oriented than Winnipeg. I suppose it has more to do with the sheer volume of snow Winnipeg gets compared to Toronto. Still though, I expect better!
What makes you think it was the city who plowed the sidewalks?
Wouldn’t space aliens be a more likely explanation?
😉
Try walking on Bloor Street on the bridge that crosses the Humber. The city plows the snow off the street onto the sidewalk and then never plows the sidewalk.
Somehow the property owners on either side of the bridge manage to keep the sidewalks cleared nicely – why can’t the city?
Toronto: a day late and a dollar short.
I had the same experience! My sidewalk in north york that wasn’t plowed last time was gloriously clear today!
Of course City sidewalks can be plowed! Montreal is a City with narrow sidewalks and they seem to manage fine. The difference is that in Montreal they do not install ‘street furniture’ in locations that make plowing impossible (transit shelters too close to lamp posts for example)and there are far fewer (illegal) “A frame” advertising signs cluttering up sidewalks. There may be financial reasons why the City can’t plow sidewalks but that’s another story …