Winter Walking and Cycling

[danbrotherston]

Re Ottawa, the letter's comment about students having to walk in the street is an exageration (I'm sure it happens, but it's not a regular feature of winter life in Ottawa), at least from what I've seen.  The City-cleared sidewalks, however, are not great.  Not only wrt how long it takes to clear them, but their condition after "clearing".  I've noticed as well that, outside the core, no effort seems to be made to clear snow from bicycle lanes in the roadway, beyond the standard periodic removal of accumulated snow along the sides of roads.

This is definitely the case.

And this is in spite of the fact that I saw literally a dozen (not like 12, but actually 12) cyclist on my walk to work this morning.  I don't usually see so many, but it's plainly clear that people will bike in the winter, if they are enabled to do so.