Winter Walking and Cycling

[jamincan]

Okay, since people don't want to have the city clear sidewalks, this is what I propose for tighter standards that are a reasonable compromise between home owners and pedestrians:

- people have 18 hours to clear sidewalk once snow has accumulated 1 inch, or after snow has stopped, whichever comes first.
- no grace period; properties failing to meet that standard will have city plows clear their sidewalk for them and be billed for the full cost of clearing the snow

Do you think residents will stand for that, because that's what I think it would take.

Lol, given that we can have one inch of snow in an hour, I like this policy, no property owner can meet that standard and keep a full time job.

At this point, the city can save lots of money by billing virtually every property for snow clearing while enjoying the savings of clearing all the properties at once with a single plow.

I think you misunderstood me. The first rule would be that once 1 inch of snow has accumulated on the ground, you have 18 hours to clear it. This means that if there's heavy snowfall, you don't have to keep clearing it to below 1 inch, simply that once 1 inch has accumulated, you have 18 hours to deal with it. If another inch accumulates after you do so, you have another 18 hours to deal with it. This means in periods of heavy snowfall, home owners have to continuously deal with the snow accumulation, they can't just wait for it to finish a week later and then clear it.

On the other hand, if it only snows a small amount, you can't just ignore it if it's less than one inch accumulation. You have to go and clear it before it freezes into a solid mass. Hence, the 18 hours after it stops snowing.

Frankly, I think a lot of people have good intentions and are responsible most of the time, and that the above rules wouldn't be onerous for them to meet, but what about when they go away for Christmas or holidays? How many are making arrangements to have their sidewalk cleared? Some people just don't care, and they're a problem too, but a lot of people probably don't even consider sidewalk clearing when they're away. If they were faced with a $1000+ bill for snow clearing when they return from their week-long vacation, they would probably be a lot more vigilant in the future, or just pay the damn tax.