Raise the Hammer

Simple explanation for roads being cleared first is that if you clear the roads after the sidewalk is done, you have to clean the sidewalk 2 times. Also, the sidewalks were being cleared already on Sunday morning. They're cleared by bobcats which take longer to clear than something like a snowplow on a road. Havings said that, I shovelled snow in my friend's neighbourhood (where the road wasn't plowed until one of the neighborhood guys cleared it with the plow on the front of his truck) and I was shocked by the number of people who don't clear the sidewalk in front of their houses. It's not a difficult thing to do and it's definitely not a new problem because I remember having to wade through snowdrifts on the way to high school but still, why's that such a hard thing to do?

Oh, I saw city workers shovelling snow at the bus stop at the corner of Upper Wentworth and Rymal on Monday evening. I think instead of using bobcats with the traditional blades or scoops on them, they should be fitted with a blower like attachment, this would allow them to move snow faster than one bucket at a time. This wouldn't really work downtown where the glass windows front the sidewalk but nearly everywhere else it'd be ok.

So in summary, it may partially be because of priorities, (don't forget, most people want to drive rather than walk if it's cold outside and all that's being done is addressing the majority) but I think the main reason sidewalks took so long to get cleared was because it has to be done last and it takes longer to do. I do however think that a good idea would be to have the bus terminals like the one at eastgate and downtown cleared continually because of high traffic but as far as the rest of the city, it wasn't as bad as it could've been. Next time...we should call in the army! ;)