Spacing Toronto contributors have been writing up a storm of posts about snow removal on sidewalks and roads. We learned that the City didn’t start to address sidewalk snow removal until four days after the December 16th blizzard. A number of us did see a concerted effort from City crews to clear snow from sewer grates and TTC stops after the storm that hit us a few days ago.
What was really surprising today, after we got walloped again yesterday, was to find my street’s sidewalk had be cleared before the road. Maybe I got lucky or maybe the City’s snow removal department is paying attention.
18 comments
Don’t be fooled, Matthew. The rehab hospital has a crew that does all around their grounds. If you go over to Dunn Ave., you see that the hospital side of the street in in great shape and the other side (my side) is a giant snow heap from the street plows. I was out digging out my walk this morning and saw the grounds guys at the hospital doing their stretch.
I noted on Monday night biking on Bay St. and area that someone – perhaps the City – had shovelled away the snow banks obscuring the ads on the garbage bins. With the white line riding conditions on some of the bike lanes I wasn’t thrilled at what merited attention by those “responsible” for clearing public spaces and the private ads. They may not be the same, admittedly.
If it’s about $ in revenue, what about a class action suit against the city for all the damage to footwear from wading through slush etc.?
I’m aware of that, Josh, and considered it but then I saw the City crew doing it. Its becuz there is a park and school on the west side of the road. The side I took the photo is not cleared by the hospital (though you can see they have cleared they’re space too).
You lucky duck…only a half-way house on Dunn Ave. That clearly doesn’t rate!
HA!
Hamish, maybe if the bike lanes were reimagined as “Ad Lanes” they would be cleared much more often. We could have 2 meters of ad space at the edge of the street for cyclists and advertisers to use.
I think the idea might go over well at city hall.
Speaking of bike lanes…I’ve been noodling on the need for a bike plow to clear bike lanes in Toronto.
I’m thinking a smaller version of that 50 seat bike used for charity events but with a snow plow mounted on the front wide enough to clear bike lanes.
Heck, maybe it could push snow into the…..car lanes. Mischevious laugh…
Or how about this:
http://tinyurl.com/3dm68
Who’s got a welding torch?
I guess I should drive on the sidewalks from now on then.
My 50 minutes walk to work was a real workout this morning from trudging through all the snow on the sidewalks and climbing over snowbanks.
I get particularly irritated at the house on the corner of my street where the walkway from the front door is cleared promptly but the sidewalk itself is never cleared. Seems someone is ignoring their duty, but I imagine plenty of others have legitimate excuses: those who don’t qualify for city snow clearing and can handle a typical Toronto snowfall but for whom this much snow is more than they can handle, or those who have a temporary condition, or are out of town.
It would be so much easier if the city cleared all the sidewalks – especially since we don’t get nearly as much snow as Montreal or Ottawa.
What got me particularly irritated was that I did my civic duty and cleared my sidewalk at 1 AM, and then when I went out to go to work this morning at least half of the sidewalk had been covered by the windrows from the snow plows clearing the street overnight.
On my street the plows pushed the snow onto the sidewalk. My neighbour has mobility issues, walks with a cane, she was literally just standing and staring this morning – there was no way she could get through the gigantic pile of snow on the sidewalk.
The other problem with the sewer grates is that if you’re sick of the huge puddle of water forming in the street that every passing car sprays all over the sidewalk, and you decide to clear the grate yourself, you can’t find the damn thing because its under a metre of snow!
There should be some sort of mark, either on the sidewalk or in the middle of the road, that points to the nearest sewer grate. I remember that North York had a white trident painted on the middle of the road, with the tips pointing to the sewer.
Ad lanes – hmm. Might get some enforcement of the four-wheelers always parking in them too…
The bike plow was quite interesting – thanks for finding and sharing Dabusan.
The bike lanes are maybe .25% of all the lanes in Caronto – but the ones I saw today were quite filled in so it wasn’t even white line riding.
I know that it’s a massive snow and it has to go somewhere, and the guys doing it are human and working long hours, but even some tidying up after the events would go a long way to equity.
And for a novel idea: why not put some back onto the roads to get the cars to perform a useful function and liquefy it with the added bonus that maybe they’d slow down.
Carazy?
You southern Ontario weenies need to stop crying “Blizzard! at the drop of a snowflake:
“According to Environment Canada, a winter storm must have winds of 40 km/h (25 mph) or more, have snow or blowing snow, visibility less than 1 km (about 5â„8 mile), a wind chill of less than −25 °C (−13 °F), and that all of these conditions must last for 4 hours or more before the storm can be properly called a blizzard.”
Low temps and windchills were nowhere near that during the December 16th storm mentioned in the piece. US and UK definitions omit temperature but we’re in Canada last time I checked.
Now stop acting like a bunch of mini-Mels, go make yourselves a nice hot cocoa and calm down; spring will be here soon.
No, we didn’t have low temps or wind chill. But we had snow. Lots and lots and lots and lots of snow.
Complaining about the weather is a Canadian trait, not a Southern Ontario Weenie trait. It’s un-Canadian NOT to complain about the weather.
But speaking of shovelling sidewalks … I’m not sure what the bylaws are concerning commercial space, but why don’t corner businesses shovel the sidewalks all around their property? Most simply shovel the sidewalk directly in front of their doors, but not the side. That annoys me.
“But we had snow. Lots and lots and lots and lots of snow.”
Stop that pathetic mewling before I smack you with that useless, dollar-store, toy plastic “snow shovel” of yours that Torontonians seem to favour in their ineffectual attempts at shovelling!
Canadians TALK about the weather, incessantly, and respect it and deal with it. Torontonians whine about it, and call in the army.
Why do people think, as a city, we called in the army? It was done once, nearly 10 years ago in the biggest snow storm to ever hit the city. Our idiotic mayor called in the army because the city is the economic engine/capital of the country and the leaders of big biz were howling to keep the city working.
I love this country, but sometimes I don’t understand the need for non-Torontonians to bash this entire city and everyone of us that lives here because of one small event or experience they had while visiting (or their third cousin told them about). I don’t think most Torontonians hate any other city. We have rivalries that exist mostly through sports, but the full-on hate directed at Toronto is so, …well, juvenile. I love most of the cities and towns I’ve visited in Canada, and so do my friends.
Before moving to Toronto I lived in Calgary. Trust me, Daemon, we moaned about the weather there too. Especially on the -35C days. You want wind chill? That’s some serious wind chill.
I also lived in Vancouver for two years. Same thing. Only it was about the incessant rain and oppressive greyness.
As far as the army thing goes, Toronto only did that once. Years ago. It was kind of silly, but why does the rest of Canada cling so deperately to it as an example of why Toronto sucks? If that’s all ya got ….
At -35C you may have reason to moan. Suck it up T.O.!
Oh, and if I hear one more time about how Toronto is the “economic engine of the country” I’m gonna puke.