In March of 2011 Macleans published an article by Tom Hanson titled 'Down Shovels: the city should clear the sidewalks'
http://www2.macleans.ca/2011/03/17/down-shovels-the-city-should-clear-the-sidewalks/
Downing shovels completely would not encourage personal responsibility or health but the article does raise interesting points. The article was mentioned at a Cranbrook Council meeting a year ago and here we are again, discussing the same issue and this happens year after year. By the time we get around to making the situation better, maybe climate change will have solved the problem for us. Of course the major impediment to seeing this happen is always cost, no surprise, so we have posted a poll to the side of this post to see what you think.
An excerpt from the Macleans article:
No Canadian city would ever expect residents to keep the roads in front of their houses clear of snow and ice for the benefit of cars and buses. Yet Vancouver residents are expected to have their sidewalks cleaned for pedestrians by 10 a.m. daily. Saskatoon gives its citizens 24 hours to get the job done. Numerous other cities, including Edmonton, Windsor, Ont., Hamilton, Kitchener, Ont., and Waterloo, Ont., have also off-loaded responsibility for sidewalk shovelling onto residents, although Calgary appears to be breaking new ground with its demand that citizens shovel the path behind their house as well as the sidewalk out front.
Curiously, many other Canadian cities, including Winnipeg, Ottawa, Montreal, Quebec City, Fredericton and the majority of Metro Toronto, manage to keep sidewalks clear as part of their routine duties. Sidewalks may be lower on the priority list than roads and bridges, but the effort is there. So what explains this snowy divide?
Cities that require citizens to do their own shovelling frequently cite the heavy cost of sidewalk clearing and limited budgets. But sidewalk plowing appears to be one of the great bargains of municipal governance. Winnipeg, for example, manages to keep its sidewalks free from snow and ice for $2 million a year, or less than $7 per household. Try finding a teenager willing to shovel your driveway just once for $7, let alone a whole season.
I don't mind getting out and clearing our sidewalk even though we live on a large corner lot. Paying an extra $7 dollars a year seems almost too cheap. We would still have our driveway, front and back to contend with, so that is fine.
ReplyDeleteI have one issue with the city clearing the sidewalks. A few years back, when I was out shoveling, a man came down the road in his motorized wheel chair. He made a comment to me about how he was glad to see some people still get out and clear their sidewalks. I replied that at least some of the side walks get cleared by the city with those little machines. The man told me that the path those machines clear was too small for his wheel chair so he still had to ride on the road.
I also don't think worrying about the sidewalks near care facilities should be the priority as a lot of those people take the bus. I live in a neighbourhood with a lot of elderly people and they are active and go for walks regularly no matter the weather. Luckily none of them have fallen that I am aware of.
Very insightful. In fact I was most surprised that the city of Cranbrook did not clear most sidewalks. In my home town in Ontario which historically has much more severe winters than Cranbrook, sidewalks were always cleared by the municipality. And, woe betide the mayor or councillor who would dare suggest otherwise at the next election.
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