Let’s talk snow

“To everything, there is a season.”

You can credit that line to folk singer Pete Seeger, or to Ecclesiastes 3:1, whichever suits your personal convictions.

Either way, the sentiment is the same: there is a time and place for all things.

For the City of St. John’s, apparently, the time and place to talk about sidewalk snowclearing is just as the leaves appear, when most of us are quite happily putting all thoughts of snow well and truly behind us until, all too soon, next winter arrives.

So be it. The city has asked for comments online and is preparing for virtual online meetings.

And despite the timing, the topic’s well worth discussing.

For years — since the age of Andy Wells as mayor — St. John’s has called itself a winter city. The Winter City Institute has this view of what that’s supposed to mean: “Those who live and work in northern cities recognize the need for better planning and design. The sustainability of winter cities requires a creative, innovative approach that addresses the problems of snow and cold while enhancing the advantages, opportunities and beauty of the winter season.”

But the hard truth is that, as far as winter transportation goes, the only group in St. John’s that’s truly and regularly served is drivers.

Pedestrians get a second-class, often irregular service that starts at school drop-off zones and then wends its way outwards for 161 kilometres of sidewalks, almost all of which are designated as “high priority.” Problem is, when everything’s high priority, nothing is — walkers trying to find routes that will actually be cleared first may be successful one day and stranded in mounds of plowed-in street snow the next. Sidewalks might be cleared right after a snowstorm; they might be cleared three days later.

Complicating the process is that, should more snow appear before a first round of plowing’s done, the city goes back to ground zero, clearing the school zones again and once again trundling outwards.

The answer might well be consistency. Vastly reduce the number of priority one sidewalks, but provide regular plowing on a framework of core routes along high-traffic roads, making it possible for people to plan on dependable and consistent foot travel. After that, sidewalk plows could move on to lower-priority sidewalks. (That is, after all, how the city plans its road snowclearing, using a system of three priority levels.)

The problem, honestly, is that the city’s sidewalk snowclearing plan has always appeared to have been devised by people who drive to work, rather than those who actually and regularly walk.

More than anything else, city planners have to realize that walking or cycling has to be not just a sunny-day option, but as much of a regularly available choice as driving.