Temperature drop adds to mobility woes for some
Icy conditions create a nightmare for commuters, transit operators and those with disabilities
With Toronto still digging out from Monday’s massive winter storm, a new threat emerged Wednesday: plunging temperatures after a brief thaw quickly turning snow into ice.
“We’re making very solid progress,” said Mayor John Tory at a press conference midday Wednesday, about efforts to clean up Monday’s dump of snow.
He said there were about 600 road plows, 200 salt trucks and 360 sidewalk plows “going non-stop,” as crews worked 24 hours.
With the forecast calling for frigid temperatures to return, snow needs to be removed, he said, when in the past the city would rely on a thaw.
Monday’s storm was the heaviest blizzard Toronto experienced in some time. By Wednesday morning, Environment Canada had issued an alert on temperatures plummeting from a daytime high above freezing, threatening to turn snow mounds into solid chunks and sidewalks covered in runoff into sheer ice.
Thursday’s daytime high was forecast to be -10 C, according to Environment Canada.
The salting of major roads and sidewalks by city crews continued through Wednesday evening.
The icy conditions create another nightmare for those commuting, transit operators and especially those with mobility concerns, who have already had to struggle with piles of fresh snow.
It’s a potential hazard that Toronto resident Patricia Pyrka and her teenage son Finnan, who has cerebral palsy and who uses a wheelchair, know well.
“At some point the roads got cleared and pushed the snow on the sidewalk. Some people made the effort to clear the sidewalks, (but) the snow got pushed back,” she said. “It became too narrow for a wheelchair.”
Finnan’s school has temporarily provided him with taxi vouchers so he can get back to class. But with temperatures falling and the snow becoming hard and icy, it may take even longer to clear, said Pyrka.
“I can’t afford to pay for taxis or Ubers to get everywhere, and I don’t have a car,” she said. “It makes me nervous thinking about the next week,”
Toronto spends about $90 million on winter operations each year and it takes on average about 14 to 16 hours for the city to clear neighbourhood roads after the snow has stopped falling. For major roads, streetcar routes, streets with hills and bike lanes it takes about six to eight hours.
Homeowners and business owners are expected to clear ice and snow from sidewalks in front or adjacent to their property within 12 hours of a snowfall. Seniors or those with disabilities can apply to a city program for snow removal.
Trudging through midtown Toronto with her service dog, Kat Berg has experienced first hand how winter storms can have the greatest impact on those with disabilities.
And the number of sidewalks Berg has seen that have yet to be fully cleared has made her commute to work difficult. Berg, a third-year student at Ryerson University, has a service dog for medical alert purposes.
“I have tried not to leave my apartment as much as possible simply because my street is extremely inaccessible,” she said.
“It leaves a lot of people including myself in a very complex situation, and to have limited options in general for folks with disabilities when it comes to commuting — it’s already tough,” she said. “And those options are completely gone when the snow is here.”
In a 2014 report on winter maintenance, the city said that it was in compliance of the Accessibility for Ontarians with Disabilities Act (AODA) as it applies to winter sidewalk clearance. The Act requires municipalities to have a plan on how to maintain infrastructure like sidewalks and to “promptly” clear snow on accessible routes.
But the AODA does not require all sidewalks to be cleared or the minimum width for how much clearing should be done.
The city of Toronto did not respond by deadline on further questions regarding snow removal and mobility concerns.
The rock-hard ice will be a challenge to remove and an over-reliance on salt can also hurt the environment, said Claire Oswald, an associate professor at Ryerson University who specializes in hydrology and urban water.
“We do overuse salt in some areas and often it’s private properties where there’s an over-application of road salt,” she said. “It gives way into streams and water bodies and has a negative impact on the ecosystem.”
Shovelling first is a better option and that includes helping others who need assistance, she said. A teaspoon to a tablespoon of dry rock salt is enough for a typical sidewalk.
“Be mindful of how much you’re putting down … you want to see nice big spaces between the salt granules,” she said.
“You really want to take the extra time and spread it out evenly … that’s one of the main things that can be done,” she said.