Winter Walking and Cycling

[ijmorlan]

I wonder whether there is a paywall. Anyway here is a thread on Montreal snow removal pointing to a Canadian geographic article:

https://twitter.com/CanGeo/status/134653...27744?s=19

Wow, that's a lot of money. I wonder what percentage is used to truck away snow...it's probably a lot, I'd bet the majority.

I wonder how much less money it would take to clear roads if every winter 2 lanes of any 4+ lane road and 1 lane of every 2-3 lane road was converted into snow storage instead of trucking.

Real fiscal conservatives would at a very minimum consider this option.

I appreciated this tweet:

https://twitter.com/rail613/status/1346561532587606024

It makes a good point: we feel the need to clear 4 lanes or more on every major thoroughfare, but not the sidewalks. In other words, car drivers get not just the 2 lanes that are required to move a basic level of traffic, but the additional lanes required to move levels of traffic that would be much more efficiently moved on transit, while pedestrians have to rely on the inconsistent levels of service provided by numerous adjacent property owners.

Does anybody know if we’re still running a snowmelter in the Region lately? I know years ago they actually set up a gas-powered snow melt device in a parking lot off Father David Bauer Drive; I always thought it was ridiculous, because it is absolutely inconceivable that there isn’t a single vacant lot that could be used for the purpose, but the fact that we have so many oversized roads is another reason it’s crazy to melt snow — just narrow some streets over the winter and use that space.