City wants to improve sidewalk snow clearing
KITCHENER — City staff are recommending a $760,000 test of several ways to improve snow clearing on Kitchener sidewalks.
The test would include everything from proactive enforcement of the sidewalk clearing bylaw, to using high-tech sensors to monitor snow and ice levels on some sidewalks. If this coming winter isn’t typical, the city would run the test a second year, for an extra $460,000. Kitchener now spends about $1.1 million a year clearing sidewalks.
Kitchener has about 1,200 kilometres of sidewalk, of which city workers clear 216 kilometres — in the downtown where businesses pay for the service, as well as on city property and properties where sidewalks are next to backyards rather than the front.
Everywhere else, property owners are responsible for shovelling sidewalks.
Under the proposal, which councillors will consider at a community services meeting next Monday, the city would test five different sidewalk snowclearing programs this coming winter, and evaluate each of them.
The five programs include:
• Having a bylaw officer dedicated to proactive sidewalk inspections from mid-November to mid-April, instead of responding only to complaints. The test would cost $42,000, and if the program were expanded across the city it would cost $170,000 a year for four bylaw officers;
• Contracting out clearing all sidewalks in a test area within 24 hours after snowfalls of eight centimetres or more. Property owners would be responsible for clearing sidewalks when less than eight centimetres of snow falls. The city estimates it would clear snow four to six times a season. Testing an area of 40 kilometres of sidewalks — about 1,500 properties — would cost $67,500. Expanding the program across the city would add $2 million a year in operating costs;
• Having city staff clear all sidewalk snow and ice in a test area, even when less than eight centimetres of snow falls. The test would cost $179,000; providing city-wide service would cost an estimated $3.6 million a year as well as $4 million to buy more
equipment;
• Setting up two “sensor stations” in the north and south of the city that would monitor the amount of snow or ice on the sidewalk, the temperature of the sidewalk and how slippery the surface is. Data would be used to help co-ordinate winter sidewalk maintenance. The test would cost $82,000; adding two more sensors in the east and west parts of Kitchener would cost another $80,000;
• Partnering with The Working Centre to provide sidewalk shovelling services for seniors and disabled people who can’t clear their own sidewalks. The city would chip in $26,700.
If council approves the test, staff will choose the test areas, with the aim of including areas that generate lots of complaints, areas with schools and community centres that attract more walkers, as well as areas with curbside sidewalks where there’s no room to put snow, said Aaron McCrimmon-Jones, who is spearheading the project for the city.
“We want a comprehensive picture of all the challenges we face out there in the field,” he said.
Communications, including a statistically valid survey, buying an extra sidewalk plow, and other costs would run to about $320,000, for a total of $760,000. The test would be paid for from various reserves and wouldn’t affect property taxes, though city staff have said expanding snow clearing services permanently would mean a tax hike.
At the end of the test period, the city would evaluate each of the programs on things such as cost, how well sidewalks were cleared, how long it took, the amount of salt used, and public satisfaction.
Council would decide in 2019 on whether to change its sidewalk snow-clearing policy.
The new policy could include a combination of any of the test programs, said McCrimmon-Jones.
The issue of sidewalk snow clearing has dogged the city for years. Residents regularly complain about uncleared walks that make the city less walkable, or even impassable for people with disabilities. Others say it’s not reasonable for the city to require every property owner, regardless of age, ability or income, to clear cityowned sidewalks.
Tri-Cities Transport Action Group, known as TriTAG, carried out a study on 12 streets in Kitchener last winter and found that people walking as little as 50 metres had a 50/50 chance of hitting an uncleared patch of sidewalk. It urged the city to carry out a pilot project very much like the one the city is contemplating.