The Edmonton Method - Snow Removal

[IanO]

Job (1/2) done! Nice to see that the entire west side of the street with a few hundred residents and multiple businesses will not have parking, no loading zone or handicapped spaces.

How these windrows from over two weeks ago are not cleared in our Downtown core is beyond me.

 

[IanO]

Call me crazy, but one would think that over the past week and PRIOR to the return to work today, that these windrows would have all been removed when there was substantially less traffic and fewer parked cars to content with.

 

[The_Cat]

Temperatures will be in the plus range on the weekend. Please, clear these windrows before we have giant lakes and ice.

 

[northlands]

I can give a fair amount of grace given the amount of snow that has fallen but definitely some bizarro choices as far as priorities.

Think my no 1 issue of late is when the City plows a windrow onto a left turn lane with a protect and detect signal, which then doesn't allow the turn signal to activate, so you're forced to make an illegal left turn.

 

[Airboy]

Downtown Windrows should never be left. They should be picked up right after. But overall the snow removal was OK but for the constant snow. I do wish they would install more wingplows on trucks. They could cover more ground with few trucks. Why have 7 or 8 trucks in a line when 4 will do.

As for accessibility, It is horrendous for a wheelchair. Every intersection had snow that had to be navigated. At Strathcona Market Saturday. All of the accessible parking stalls had snow piled in the. even the street ones. Was at Spice road on white on Sunday. 3 feet of snow out from the main sidewalk out onto the road.. That was after the road was cleared. The shop owners just pushed it out. I feel for the people with aids that have to navigated the roads and sidewalks without an assistant.

 

[IanO]

Unsure if COE or Marigold, but as you can see here, the crosswalk north is fully impeded requiring you to go outside of the designated area and straight into a bike lane to cross.

 

[thommyjo]

Here’s the good news, sorta like the clown show of Toronto’s new LRT.

If it’s bad enough, it forces change.

I suspect council, especially our new ones, will want to see improvements here as one of the first big/public criticisms many of them are facing.

We need improvements for roads, and also for active modes. Imo, all of the central city node (downtown and Whikwentowin), along with all main streets need to have city clearing of sidewalks. Whikwentowin has far too many individual homes/businesses. All it takes is 1 to mess up and your entire walk can become impassable if you’re in a scooter or using a stroller. These sidewalks must see 10-50x the daily usage of most in our city and it’s some of the highest tax revenue per sq/m in the city. Take care of it!

 

[ntt1]

I mean it's a pretty sad indictment when 90% of the resident-maintained sidewalks in one given area are passable yet the one big city-maintained section(s) are the worst offenders.

 

[kcantor]

I mean it's a pretty sad indictment when 90% of the resident-maintained sidewalks in one given area are passable yet the one big city-maintained section(s) are the worst offenders.

I sometimes wonder if sidewalk snow removal (all snow removal?) wouldn't be better done if it wasn't completed by civic employees who don't have quite the same incentive when it comes to timeliness. If it were done by private contract, it would be easy enough to accept the most attractive tender pricing for the upcoming season on a $/month basis for each "block" of sidewalks to be cleared. It wouldn't have to be tendered on a city wide basis, it could be done on anything from individual neighbourhoods to individual blocks (perhaps an opportunity for those living on a block to earn extra income by providing a service to an area they're already present and have a vested interest in knowing their neighours have a vested interest and have the ability to oversee?)? The successful proponent would simply bill the city at the end of each month for the contract amount less a 1/30 deduction for each day that block wasn't cleared to acceptable standards. At least that way taxpayers wouldn't be paying for an undelivered service.

 

[ntt1]

I sometimes wonder if sidewalk snow removal (all snow removal?) wouldn't be better done if it wasn't completed by civic employees who don't have quite the same incentive when it comes to timeliness. If it were done by private contract, it would be easy enough to accept the most attractive tender pricing for the upcoming season on a $/month basis for each "block" of sidewalks to be cleared. It wouldn't have to be tendered on a city wide basis, it could be done on anything from individual neighbourhoods to individual blocks (perhaps an opportunity for those living on a block to earn extra income by providing a service to an area they're already present and have a vested interest in knowing their neighours have a vested interest and have the ability to oversee?)? The successful proponent would simply bill the city at the end of each month for the contract amount less a 1/30 deduction for each day that block wasn't cleared to acceptable standards. At least that way taxpayers wouldn't be paying for an undelivered service.

I've always thought the same. It's aggravating to see tire tracks made by private snow-clearing equipment driven through unplowed, city-maintained portions of a pathway, have them just do their portion, then leave. Extra salt in the wound when it it goes on for days while the city portion gets increasingly worse. Especially when you are struggling to trudge through deep snow just to get from point A to B.

 

[TAS]

I've always thought the same. It's aggravating to see tire tracks made by private snow-clearing equipment driven through unplowed, city-maintained portions of a pathway, have them just do their portion, then leave. Extra salt in the wound when it it goes on for days while the city portion gets increasingly worse. Especially when you are struggling to trudge through deep snow just to get from point A to B.

With this approach, would city dollars go further than they do now? Would we get more roads, sidewalks and multi-use paths cleared for the same amount in our budget? If so, I'm all for it.

I keep going back to the city's snow removal budget which was reportedly funded for the 2023-26 term at 20% of what city admin asked for. We're probably not going to be meeting our targets, especially with a year like this, if snow removal is underfunded regardless of what approach. But we should go with the approach that gets the most done for the same amount of money.

Over the past 5 years, a lot of new transportation infrastructure has been added. Has the budget kept up with that growth?

 

[johnnyboy]

I keep going back to the city's snow removal budget which was reportedly funded for the 2023-26 term at 20% of what city admin asked for.

Over the past 5 years, a lot of new transportation infrastructure has been added. Has the budget kept up with that growth?

Knack posted this a couple of days ago, where he said the budget has increased every year since 2023, but did go on to say that the budget hasn't been keeping pace with the growth over the last 20 years or so:

Navigating an Unprecedented Winter: What You Need to Know About Snow Clearing in Edmonton

If it feels like this winter has been especially challenging, you’re not imagining it.

substack.com

 

[IanO]

Interesting observations again this morning.

104st south of Jasper with very few (only Shoppers) businesses operating from the Milner north on the east side bare to the bone clean.
104st north of Jasper with multiple operating curb-side businesses and a few hundred residents completely blocked by a giant ice windrow 3' high.

Similar to street sweeping, seemingly little logic and very poor QA/QC.