It’s winter and sidewalks are an issue

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This article was published 17/12/2021 (1399 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Winnipeg is well into winter, with snowfall and persistent below zero weather. For many pedestrians, this means icy and inaccessible sidewalks.

“They’re some of the worst I’ve ever seen”, said West Broadway resident Brian Pincott.

Pincott moved to West Broadway about three years ago and has previously lived in Calgary and Nova Scotia. He has also travelled to many Canadian cities in his past role as a member of the board of directors of the Canadian Federation of Municipalities.

Snowed-in sidewalks have profound impacts on quality of life, Pincott says.

“I have friends, who are seniors, who stay inside for six months of the year. So many people are stranded and housebound”, Pincott noted.

The City of Winnipeg gives specific streets and sidewalks priority levels for clearing under its snow clearing policy. Priority one streets that have accumulated over three centimetres of snow are ploughed within 36 hours of snowfall. Michael Cantor, the city’s manager of streets maintenance, said this is the policy for priority one sidewalks as well.

“Many times we start ploughing priority one streets (during snowfall) to ensure we have good access for emergency services”, Cantor said.

Sidewalks are usually only ploughed once it has stopped snowing, however.

Mel Marginet, part of the sustainable transportation team at the Green Action Centre, finds the city’s prioritization of sidewalks off-base.

“You can see these main routes that have lots of footprints through them, that are very clearly heavily used. Yet it can sometimes be three, four days, sometimes a week or two weeks to get them cleared” Marginet said.

She added that priority designations for sidewalks are overly attached to the streets they run beside which ignores the fact pedestrians often prefer sidewalks and pathways away from roads with intense car traffic. Overall, Marginet would like to see more resources allocated to sidewalk clearing.  

She noted that a gender-based analysis of snow-clearing conducted in Stockholm, Sweden showed that women were more likely to walk, bike, or bus than men. This resulted in Stockholm prioritizing clearing key pedestrian infrastructure, including bus stops, first and then major roads.

Cantor said that sidewalk ploughing machines take longer than the machines ploughing the streets, so roads are often cleared sooner. He said more sidewalk ploughs and operators could speed up the process, but “we’re limited with our resources, our operating budget, and we’re also limited by how much the industry is providing rental (plough) units.”

Pincott said it’s all about priorities.

“The clear message from Winnipeggers to city council needs to be that sidewalks should be bare and safe”, Pincott said.

Dylon Martin is a community correspondent for West Broadway.