Here’s another update on my earlier post, Letter to City Hall. Last week Councillor Jamie Korab, Lead for Public Works, answered one of my questions on CBC Radio. I asked how much had been added to sidewalk snowclearing since 2021 and when timelines would be shortened? Councillor Korab said that timelines have been changed from 4-7 days to within 5 days and distance cleared has gone up from 161 km to 175 km. He also sort of answered another question about whether the City is enforcing the bylaw against dumping snow on sidewalks cleared by the City. He said “fines vary.” One more thing he mentioned that I found interesting is that the City decides which sidewalks to clear “based on vehicle and pedestrian traffic.” I’m not sure how they know this. They may have some way of tracking vehicles but I’ve never seen any pedestrian counters in St. John’s. So I’m left with new questions: in what sense do fines vary and how are these decisions made? And how is pedestrian traffic measured?
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Road Rage 
Last year, Winnipeg officials spoke about clearing the busy sidewalks down to the cement, but still I only see that being done downtown. I have heard nothing about how they decide which sidewalks are busy and have never seen pedestrian counts happening. We haven’t had lots of snow this year, but had warmer than usual temperatures which has meant very icy sidewalks. My area has very high pedestrian traffic all hours of the day and I have not seen any clearing to the cement happening. I often just walk on the street, seeing cars as less dangerous than ice on sidewalks. Good luck in your ongoing battle.
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That’s what happens here too, Louella–people walking in the vehicle lanes beside apparently clear sidewalks, either because they’re too icy or because the openings at crosswalks haven’t been cleared or somebody has dumped snow on a section of the sidewalk. So frustrating! Interesting about the pedestrian counters–the lack of them is just one of many indicators of what our cities’s priorities are, sadly. (Though I do believe that here in St. John’s those priorities are very slowly changing for the better. How about in Winnipeg?)
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PS I think I need to write a post about pedestrian counters.
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Well, the fact that they even brought up the idea of clearing the busy pedestrian area sidewalks to the cement is a step forward, but I think we have to continue to push and email, etc. We have lost a lot of trees to disease here and people and organizations have been pushing replanting and the benefits of trees and there seems to be an increased budget for that. Also bike lanes, etc, after years of people pushing have been improving. So I guess with icy sidewalks we have to keep at it. It does get tiring though.
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