Month: February 2023

Meanwhile in other cities…

Snowclearing policy and practice in other cities of Eastern Canada are nothing like St. John’s. Although the City’s website states, “our standards are like other cities with weather conditions comparable to ours,” this is not true. We are an outlier. What our own consultation found was that we have higher standards for streets and lower standards for sidewalks compared to other cities. And our sidewalk standards are not just a little lower, they are abysmally lower. While many other cities clear all or nearly all their sidewalks within hours of a snowfall, St. John’s only clears about 10% and it only does them within seven days, and maybe not even then if more snow falls in the meantime. Here are the details of what they do in some other cities:

Halifax

A section of the sidewalk snowclearing map for Halifax, showing that almost every street in the city is cleared.

Of the five comparison cities in St. John’s’ own consultation, four aim to clear all or nearly all their sidewalks and the fifth has a goal of 62%. Not that other cities are perfect but at least they have higher goals and allocate more resources. People often compare St. John’s to Halifax so let’s start there. In terms of snowclearing, Halifax gets about half as much snow yet they invest about twice as much per km in sidewalk snowclearing. They also clear bike lanes with the same priority level as sidewalks: Priority 1 within 12 hours, Priority 2 within 18 hours and Priority 3 within 36 hours.  They have a lot of the same challenges we do (hills, freeze and thaw cycles, old buildings and infrastructure) and were one of the comparison cities in the St. John’s’ 2014 snowclearing consultation.

Toronto

Photo of a Toronto sidewalk plow operating in a very narrow area, with a statement on the policy described below.

Toronto is a less obvious comparison than Halifax but it’s of interest because until recently the city cleared suburban sidewalks but not the downtown, on the grounds that downtown sidewalks had so many obstacles and narrow areas that plows couldn’t get through (an excuse we often hear in St. John’s). However, it changed its policy recently and now clears all sidewalks, with preliminary clearing done within about 13 hours and further clearing as needed over the next few days. They bought special small articulated plows that can get past obstructions. Areas they still can’t do are manually cleared.

Quebec City

Screenshot of Québec City’s Priority 1 policy, as described below. Their plan was so detailed it couldn’t all fit into a single screenshot.

This is just Priority 1 (!) for Quebec City (also a comparison city in St. John’s’ consultation of 2014, with a similar snow load, many hills and narrow streets). Top priorities include school routes, designated active transportation routes, routes used by high numbers of vulnerable residents, steep streets and stairs, and tourist areas as well as main arteries. Note school routes, not just a drop off area in front of the school as in St. John’s. They plan for children to walk to school safely. They aim to have all Priority 1 sidewalks clear to bare pavement within 4 hours of 0-15 cm snowfall and 8 hours of 22 cm+ snowfall. Although these are their top priority, they also aim to have every sidewalk in the city done within the same timeframe, but to a lesser standard.

Moncton

Map showing a section of Moncton’s sidewalk snowclearing program, with virtually all sidewalks cleared.

This is an enlarged section of Moncton’s sidewalk snow clearing map. You can see that they clear nearly all the sidewalks in the city. Moncton is a comparable size city to St. John’s with similar snowfall levels and plenty of freeze and thaw cycles yet they aim to have all Priority 1 sidewalks cleared within 24 hours and to finish all Priority 3 within 3 days. Priority 3 are residential and cul de sacs, streets St. John’s would never dream of clearing at all.

Waterloo

Screenshot of Waterloo’s policy as described below.

This post is a version of a thread I put on Facebook a few days ago. A commenter on the thread added the city of Waterloo with this image and statement: “I walked to work Friday morning near Bowring Park/Cowan Heights and the walk was disgustingly treacherous. I’m amazed the city has a timeline of 4 to 7 days. I looked up what my home city of Waterloo has as their timeline and their website states 24 to 48 hours which really isn’t that great even compared to some other cities. It made me really realize what I took for granted during my university years and this combined with the low-density living are big reasons why I am planning to leave soon.”

Sidewalk snowclearing by-laws

One huge challenge to walkability and accessibility in winter is the way property owners and private contractors dump snow cleared from driveways and parking lots onto sidewalks. This was discussed recently at the St. John’s: The Winter Unfriendly City Facebook group. I’m going to summarize the discussion here so it can be found again later.

According to Councillor Maggie Burton in this thread, this is permitted as long as the sidewalk isn’t part of the City’s sidewalk snowclearing program. This means it’s permitted on about 90% of sidewalks! However, it’s also very common on sidewalks that are part of the program, as in this photo, showing a huge mound of snow on the sidewalk between 56 Queen’s Rd. and 46-54 Queen’s Rd. where the building owners on both sides have cleared their parking areas onto the sidewalk between them.

Yes, I know. It doesn’t look as though there’s a sidewalk there at all but this is actually a sidewalk that the city is supposed to clear and actually does usually clear within a day or two of a snowfall. But then this happens and pedestrians are forced to walk in the street where that truck is.

People frequently complain to the city about this practice and are told that nothing can be done unless they can prove who did it, as in not the property owner but the actual person who put the snow there. So the onus is on the complainant to either track down the property owner and find out who did their snowclearing (if they can be tracked down and are willing to share that information) or to see the person in action and photograph them or get their license plate if they happen to have a vehicle. It also requires constant monitoring, documenting and complaining to the city on the part of sidewalk users, as well as the unpleasant possibility of confrontation.

So, what are the by-laws that apply here?

At the city’s snowclearing priority page it says, “St. John’s Snow Removal regulations require properties adjacent to designated downtown streets to keep their sidewalks clear of ice and snow.” So “properties,” not “persons.” But the actual by-law (1098) does use the word “person” in some places and “abutter” in others. An “abutter” is defined as a lessee, owner or occupant of a property and, on some specific downtown streets, abutters are required to clear snow from sidewalks in front of their properties. But in the case of people depositing snow on sidewalks, the word used is “person.” The same by-law states, “No person shall deposit snow or ice upon any street or sidewalk which street or sidewalk is cleared of snow or ice by the City” and “No person engaged in removing snow or ice from any property or other premises shall do so in any manner that obstructs vehicular traffic on a street or pedestrian traffic on a sidewalk.” So “abutters” are responsible for removing snow in certain areas but “persons” are responsible for not blocking sidewalks. Can this wording be changed? Councillor Burton said on the Facebook thread that she would look into it so I’ll update later when we have an answer.

The bigger question is why these by-laws aren’t enforced, considering that these piles of snow force people to risk life and limb by walking out into busy streets. An ATIPP in 2020 revealed that between 2016 and 2020 not a single fine was levied to enforce by-law sections 7 and 8 against blocking sidewalks. Still, changing the wording of the by-law would at least mean the city would have to think about the law, and would no longer be able to use this particular excuse for doing nothing.