{"id":2627,"date":"2008-01-02T12:45:14","date_gmt":"2008-01-02T16:45:14","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/spacingtoronto.ca\/?p=2627"},"modified":"2013-01-21T13:37:45","modified_gmt":"2013-01-21T18:37:45","slug":"salt-is-no-solution-for-icy-sidewalks","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/spacing.ca\/toronto\/2008\/01\/02\/salt-is-no-solution-for-icy-sidewalks\/","title":{"rendered":"Salt is no solution for icy walkways"},"content":{"rendered":"

<\/p>\n

That’s not snow in this picture of the Danforth GO train platform — it’s all salt. My wife took this photo on New Year’s Eve (well, the morning thereof), shortly after a snowfall.<\/p>\n

The ramp from Main Street down to the GO station is heated, I assume, because it was completely cleared — a welcome relief for my wife and me, as we’re both frustrated by the lack of proper snow removal on sidewalks<\/a> this winter.<\/p>\n

In a way, my frustration makes me wonder if I should complain about excessive salt at all. Have I suddenly become a civic crankpot? Surely, though, less salt would have done the job on the platform pictured above. Ice and snow on walkways is a problem, yes, but this is not the solution. As Dale Duncan wrote in issue 8 of Spacing<\/em><\/a>:<\/p>\n

Too much salt in the ecosystem is about as devastating to our environment as eating French fries day after day is to our bodies. In 2001, the federal government released a report deeming road salt environmentally toxic. It may keep cars from slipping all over the road by lowering the freezing point of water, but it also seeps into our water table, dehydrates our trees, and poisons our wildlife and aquatic life. What’s more, it causes costly damage to our infrastructure, corroding our roadways, sidewalks, and vehicles.<\/em><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

photo by Virginia Dimoglou <\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

That’s not snow in this picture of the Danforth GO train platform — it’s all salt. My wife took this photo on New Year’s Eve (well, the morning thereof), shortly after a snowfall. The ramp from Main Street down to the GO station is heated, I assume, because it was completely cleared — a welcomeContinue reading “Salt is no solution for icy walkways”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4039,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"_ef_editorial_meta_paragraph_assignment":"","_ef_editorial_meta_date_first-draft-date":"","_ef_editorial_meta_checkbox_needs-photo":"","_ef_editorial_meta_number_word-count":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[13,6],"tags":[331,23,651,3505,4767,6492],"class_list":["post-2627","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-green-space","category-walking","tag-dale-duncan","tag-environment","tag-federal-government","tag-go-station","tag-new-years-eve","tag-virginia-dimoglou"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\nSalt is no solution for icy walkways - Spacing Toronto<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/spacing.ca\/toronto\/2008\/01\/02\/salt-is-no-solution-for-icy-sidewalks\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Salt is no solution for icy walkways - Spacing Toronto\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"That’s not snow in this picture of the Danforth GO train platform — it’s all salt. 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