Pedestrians Complain About Post-Storm Sidewalks
Posted December 19, 2007 12:00 pm.
This article is more than 5 years old.
The snow fell heavily on Sunday, and when it finally stopped early Monday morning Toronto’s army of snow plows hit the streets hard, making sure more than 5,000 kilometres of roads around the GTA were clear for vehicles.
But that certainly couldn’t be said for the city’s sidewalks, which in many ways were worsened by the piles of snow and slush forced to the curb by the passing plows.
It’s a problem that again pits the city’s drivers against its pedestrians.
“We can’t cross the snow banks, they’re so high,” said frustrated pedestrian Clyde Chipec. “Every time you come to an intersection there’s a puddle of water … it’s horrible.”
Some say part of the problem is budgetary. Toronto doesn’t spend quite as much on snow cleanup as some other Canadian cities. Ottawa, a much smaller metropolis, spends just $5 million less than the $67 million Toronto earmarks each year, but compared with a more comparable city like Montreal which spends $128 million annually, the GTA is arguably lagging significantly.
City officials have openly admitted there’s lots of room for improvement in their attempts to clear the concrete, but wet walkers with slush-filled shoes aren’t too impressed.
“Pedestrians are treated as secondary, they’re not treated as equal to cars,” said Dylan Reid with the Toronto Pedestrian Committee. “People are having to walk around into the street, which is obviously dangerous.”
Toronto’s budgetary allotment is based on the cost of covering the cleanup of four major storms, and with one massive one out of the way, the worst could yet be to come.
