VEHICLES fishtailing through snow squalls as if their tires were made of Saran-Wrap -- that's the sign a Winnipeg winter has settled in for the long haul.
With the return of winter's wrath comes the dangerous fallout from snow on our streets, measured in fender-benders and sideswipes that spike shortly after the first flake lands and continue until spring's melt.
Could this bending of fenders be reduced if Winnipeg upped its budget and staff for clearing the snow from our roads?
How does Winnipeg's snow clearing stack up against other cities?
Consider the results of both Autopac's accident tracking and academic research into the havoc snowfall plays on roadways.
According to Manitoba Public Insurance, 40 per cent of its accident claims come in just four months notorious for bad winter weather -- November, December, January and February. Of the 77,215 crashes recorded in Manitoba in 2006, snowy December was the cruelest month of the year with 8,192 collisions.
Not surprisingly, a study by a pair of Montreal professors shows the number of vehicle accidents increases "sharply" with increased snowfalls.
"Snow was shown to be the leading variable, as the number of accidents increased sharply with increased snowfalls. Even though the population of Montreal is accustomed to driving in snowy conditions for at least four months a year, the accident rate continues to be highest on snow days," Mircea-Paul Andreescu and David Frost said in their 1998 study of weather and traffic accidents in Montreal.
Their report warned the price for any reductions in snow clearing would be paid by motorists, who could face more damaged vehicles, longer commutes and more cancelled travel.
So how does Winnipeg's snow-job stack up?
Unfortunately for motorists here, some other Canadian cities not only spend more money clearing off their streets -- they get the job done faster too.
If you woke up after a snowfall in Ottawa, you wouldn't be careening through an intersection on the way to work, since snowplows and salting trucks are dispatched before the snow has a chance to accumulate. Major roads in Halifax are cleared within 12 hours after a storm.
By comparison, Winnipeg's Priority 1 streets only have to be cleared within 36 hours.
In a sample of the snowplowing budgets for other Canadian cities -- Edmonton, Regina, Ottawa and Halifax -- Winnipeg is on the low end when it comes to actual snowfall. Remember, it's a dry cold. However, Winnipeg is in the middle of the pack in terms of snow-clearing budgets.
Edmonton, a city to which Winnipeg is often compared, gets an average of 123 centimeters of snow per year, slightly more than the 110 centimeters that falls on the Manitoba capital. But Edmonton's slow-clearing budget is $40 million, 47 per cent higher than the $27.3 million originally allocated in Winnipeg, and 23 per cent higher than the projected total costs for this year.
Ken Allen, communications officer with the City of Winnipeg's public works department, said the city's response to snow is largely dictated by the current weather. When it first starts to snow, trucks are sent out to sprinkle intersections with sand. Once there is more than three centimetres of snow on main routes, snowplows are dispatched.
Most transit routes are cleared after more than five centimeters of snow has fallen. But you may find yourself driving in less-than-ideal conditions in between major dumps. Scattered snowfalls and city policies restricting the use of de-icing chemicals on Priority 2 streets "may result in a layer of snow on the street surface between all-out plowing operations," Allen said.
Allen said keeping the streets in clean and drivable condition in the winter is a top municipal priority. Following a storm, he said graders and plows hit the streets at 5 a.m. to clear the main arteries prior to rush hour. When the traffic is heaviest, crews move off to secondary thoroughfares and then to residential streets.
Allen could not say why the city doesn't do more snow clearing than it does. "The snow policy is approved by city council. We have a very high level of service regarding snow clearing in Winnipeg. When there's snow coming down or road conditions are affected, we're on top of it. We have sanding trucks going around the clock," he said.
The city's annual snow-clearing budget of $27.3 million is about to be used up -- the snowfall this week took a $700,000 chunk out of it -- and Allen predicted another $5.25 million will be required to finish out the year.
Last year's budget was $23.3 million. However, Allen said the city began using a different budgeting system in 2006, so discussions regarding previous years' snow clearing budgets aren't comparing apples to apples.
For MPI spokesman Brian Smiley, more snowplows aren't necessarily the answer to safer streets. Instead, Smiley says the key is the fact that people simply don't drive to the conditions.
"They don't slow down in poor visibility or when roads are slick from snowfall. They forget what driving in the winter is like and what they have to do to prevent collisions, which is lower your speed and increase the distance between you and the vehicle in front of you."
Smiley said the number of claims does not go through the roof immediately when bad weather hits. On Monday, a miserable day of cold and snow, there were 900 claims, compared to between 450 and 550 on a typical day, he said.
Smiley said drivers usually stay off the roads or slow down to a crawl when snow is falling.
"After a couple of days, they pick up the speeds and they start banging into each other."
Smiley said winter conditions tend to result in an increase in fender benders, which he defined as two-car accidents with no injuries and total damage ringing it at less than $4,000. December is a popular month for fender benders, and many of them happen in shopping centre parking lots in the run-up to Christmas.
"People take out fences and light standards in winter and summer. It's the going-too-fast factor. In the summer, they're driving way too fast, they lose control and smash into a fence. In the winter, they smash into them because they can't stop on the ice," he said.
Mayor Sam Katz said while the city's snow-clearing program might not be perfect, it's still one of the best in Canada.
"If certain cities had the type of snowfall we've had the last week, they'd have been shut down. We kept on moving, people went to work," he said. "The service we provide to citizens is so far above and beyond what other cities do. We do it so much better even though we do so much more."
Allen said snow clearing efforts after major storms are split 80-20 between private contractors and the city's own employees and equipment. To ensure the contractors tackle city streets first, and not more lucrative private property jobs, they are hired for a minimum of 30 hours per month from November to March regardless of whether it snows.
"That helps to ensure the equipment becomes available for plowing when it's needed. We have contract guarantees in place," he said.
The City of Edmonton launched a similar initiative this year. Kelly Vail, senior communications adviser for its transportation division, has just put dozens of independent snow graders on retainer for the first time, a move that pushed its annual snow clearing budget up by $6.1 million to $40 million.
"This ensures that when the city really needs them, they're clearing major streets and other public roadways instead of doing private work, she said. "It's an insurance policy."
geoff.kirbyson@freepress.mb.ca
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