Snowmageddon
Can you believe this weather? It seems like the snow will never stop.
There has been much coverage in the local and regional media about snow removal over the past few weeks. It doesn't seem like any jurisdiction has been able to live up to residents' expectations in coping with the amount of snow that has fallen.
I, for one, have been thinking about this in depth. Mainly while I am shoveling my driveway, sidewalk, and lane over and over again.
I previously blogged about the need to better coordinate plows and emergency (public safety) services. I think this is still the case. We need to make certain that there is perfect coordination between the two to avoid police cars, fire trucks, and ambulances getting stuck en route to incident scenes. This may come in the form of better radios or even dedicated plows.
We also need to better educate our residents on their responsibility to clear their sidewalks. If we all pitch in a litte, we can make things a lot better for everyone.
But the Township's snow removal policy is clearly unable to scale up to a series of storms of this magnitude. It is fine for lesser events, but is unable to handle a prolonged season of snow like this one.
The issue aren't the main streets--the crews have been doing a good job keeping them clear and passable. Even the secondary roads have been fine. It's the third priority streets--the side streets--that are frustrating so many people. Third-priority roads with tricky hills. Third-priority roads that are the main entrance for subdivisions. These roads have not been done and they keep getting worse. Garbage and recycling service have been affected (although I am hopeful and confident our next contractor, who takes over in the spring, will do a better job than the current one). Mail service has been spotty at best (still waiting for some delivery, Canada Post!).
I think we need to look at creating a new third priority set of roads. These would be the side streets that have tricky topography (i.e. hills or dangerous curves), or roads that have heavier vehicle traffic. These roads would go to a new level of service that would see them plowed after the first and second routes are passable. The remainder of the roads in the Township would go to a fourth level, and would only be done in very difficult circumstances.
This, of course, would cost money--but I wonder what the economic cost has been of slowing down so much commerce, losing snow-bound employees, and other financial outflows of these storms. I think more snow removal would be a prudent investment in our local economy. We could look at contracting private pieces of equipment for these new third priority routes--smaller, one-ton trucks, with blades.
As always, I'm open to ideas and feedback on this. How can we make this better?
There has been much coverage in the local and regional media about snow removal over the past few weeks. It doesn't seem like any jurisdiction has been able to live up to residents' expectations in coping with the amount of snow that has fallen.
I, for one, have been thinking about this in depth. Mainly while I am shoveling my driveway, sidewalk, and lane over and over again.
I previously blogged about the need to better coordinate plows and emergency (public safety) services. I think this is still the case. We need to make certain that there is perfect coordination between the two to avoid police cars, fire trucks, and ambulances getting stuck en route to incident scenes. This may come in the form of better radios or even dedicated plows.
We also need to better educate our residents on their responsibility to clear their sidewalks. If we all pitch in a litte, we can make things a lot better for everyone.
But the Township's snow removal policy is clearly unable to scale up to a series of storms of this magnitude. It is fine for lesser events, but is unable to handle a prolonged season of snow like this one.
The issue aren't the main streets--the crews have been doing a good job keeping them clear and passable. Even the secondary roads have been fine. It's the third priority streets--the side streets--that are frustrating so many people. Third-priority roads with tricky hills. Third-priority roads that are the main entrance for subdivisions. These roads have not been done and they keep getting worse. Garbage and recycling service have been affected (although I am hopeful and confident our next contractor, who takes over in the spring, will do a better job than the current one). Mail service has been spotty at best (still waiting for some delivery, Canada Post!).
I think we need to look at creating a new third priority set of roads. These would be the side streets that have tricky topography (i.e. hills or dangerous curves), or roads that have heavier vehicle traffic. These roads would go to a new level of service that would see them plowed after the first and second routes are passable. The remainder of the roads in the Township would go to a fourth level, and would only be done in very difficult circumstances.
This, of course, would cost money--but I wonder what the economic cost has been of slowing down so much commerce, losing snow-bound employees, and other financial outflows of these storms. I think more snow removal would be a prudent investment in our local economy. We could look at contracting private pieces of equipment for these new third priority routes--smaller, one-ton trucks, with blades.
As always, I'm open to ideas and feedback on this. How can we make this better?
posted by Jordan Bateman @ 10:34 AM
