Snow-Cleared Sidewalks as Important as Roadways

Transportation

Snow-Cleared Sidewalks as Important as Roadways

By Jason Leach
Published January 09, 2013

I have a real concern that doesn't seem to be getting any local press at the moment: the lack of snow clearing on our sidewalks. It's been two weeks since our snowfall, and block after block is still not cleared.

Uncleared sidewalk at Hunter and Bay a week after the snowfall (RTH file photo)

I use Cannon Street to come home from work each day and have cringed at how many times I've seen mothers and their kids slip and fall on the way home from school.

Yesterday I saw a little six-year-old girl take a huge spill and hit her head on the ice mere inches from the speeding live lanes of Cannon Street. Her mother was holding her hand the whole time but also lost her balance and couldn't keep them both up.

The little girl got up crying again and both fell a few steps later, trying to climb a mountain of snow on the sidewalk.

I've seen a ton of seniors walking down the middle of the road all through my neighbourhood and elsewhere downtown.

Public Safety Nightmare

This is a massive public safety nightmare potentially facing the city. Someone is going to get killed or seriously injured. Dundurn Street already has crazy narrow sidewalks between King and Main, and now half the sidewalk is filled with the snowbank from the road.

I walked to Fortinos yesterday and got to chatting with another pedestrian - a young professional woman pulling her briefcase trying to catch the GO bus to Toronto. I thought she was going down. We were both dismayed at the complete lack of safe walking options.

I wore my boots because I knew I'd encounter dangerous sidewalks, but she was dressed for work in a skirt and heels. Thankfully we made it to the corner and across safely.

I could go on and on with stories. Surely the city will be facing lawsuits as people encounter broken bones.

I saw one bus-stop on Cannon where the bobcat had cleared the waiting area for the bus by pushing all the snow directly ahead on the sidewalk leading to the bus-stop. There is a two-foot high snowbank now completely blocking the sidewalk.

Ideas for Improvement

So here are a couple of ideas, though I realize some are more doable than others, especially in the short-term:

1. Have the city clear the snow off all sidewalks. Why are roads considered essential public infrastructure but sidewalks are not?

2. Have the city clear the snow off all sidewalks that have a bus route, a bike lane, are major arterial streets or are commercial streets. Locke Street South, for example, has been a nightmare to walk to from Strathcona neighbourhood.

3. Complete streets. The simple act of adding 24-7 curb parking on both sides of Main, King, Cannon, Wilson, Wellington, Victoria and our other arterials would create a buffer area for the snowbanks to be cleared from the live lanes, but not pushed right onto the sidewalks.

And of course, it would also create the safe buffer zone between pedestrians and live traffic - in any weather, not just winter. We need complete streets ASAP, or at least a first phase that could quickly and easily be accomplished by adding curb parking.

Curbside Parking Sidewalk Buffers

I published the traffic volume data recently on RTH and as you can see, we have way more lanes than we need.

If retail areas that are already successful, like Waterdown and Stoney Creek, can have curb parking with no meters, I would propose this as a quick win, and first step towards complete streets:

Add free 24-7 curbside parking on both sides of King from the Delta to the 403.
24-7 curb parking on Main from the 403 to Delta.
24-7 curb parking on Cannon from Sherman to Queen.
24-7 curb parking on Wilson from John to Sherman.
ditto for Victoria, Wellington, Wentworth and Sanford in their entirety.

Traffic will not be congested with these measures, as there are way too many lanes already, based on the number of cars per day/per lane that is considered appropriate in the planning world.

Traffic will be slightly slower, which as we've seen on James Street is a good thing - for pedestrians and businesses. There will then be a buffer zone between sidewalks and live lanes. There will be thousands of new parking spaces added to our urban core, which again supports businesses, and can hopefully lead to less demolitions for off-street parking lots.

Finally, I also think there needs to be a quick response by city hall when it comes to sidewalk clearing. Two weeks is simply not acceptable.

Jason Leach was born and raised in the Hammer and currently lives downtown with his wife and children. You can follow him on twitter.

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By @bmoore123 (anonymous) | Posted January 09, 2013 at 10:47:09

I couldn't agree with this more strongly. While I appreciate that the streets need to be clear, sidewalk travel in Hamilton can be a frustrating experience. I am blind and travel with a guide dog
often the sidewalk isn't wide enough for the two of us because of the snow banks.

street rossing is another fun part. we will often get to a corner and the cross walk is blocked with a couple of foot high bank of snow. this usually means going somewhere other than a cross walk to cross if there is a path at all. often there isn't and I just hav to convince the dog that we really want to climb over this snow rather than go around it which is what he's trained to do. This is a little more compounded when taking my child to and from school. Now I have to add the responsibility of the safety of a child to the mix. this is doable but would be a lot less frustrating and stressful if there were actually a path to get around as a pedestrian. Not all of us drive everywhere although the amount of empty hsr buses I have been on is amazing. are we sure that the 24 route ever actually has any people on it?

Brian.

Raise the Hammer

Transportation