Quote:
Originally Posted by Red-Mile-DJ
Here's my question: why is it that other cities can have a "bare pavement" policy, within 24 hours of a snow fall, but we can't? Why does Calgary have to always seem to depend on the chinook to melt it away? "Oh, wait a day or two. A chinook is coming and it'll be dry then."
Don't tell me to get snow tires, because it isn't happening. I'm tired of the city dumping SALT on SNOW, when it should be dumped on ICE. Get the plows out, and clear the dang snow!
I would gladly pay more in my taxes(I believe a report from Global said somewhere in the range of $40 per person, per year) to have clear roads in the winter. This depending on the chinook is a joke.
|
Council increased the Snow Removal budget from about $24 million to $36 million last year. The City also implemented a bunch of different policies and new methods with snow removal such as the parking ban, which has led to clearing of those streets about 30% faster than before.
The City does have a snow removal policy that sets out time-frames for the plowing of snow within certain amounts of time on the various types of streets.
Priority 1 routes within 24 hours, Priority 2 routes within 48 hours, etc.
http://www.calgary.ca/CA/city-clerks...rary/tp004.pdf
Of course, the level of service could always be better. Montreal has a snow removal budget of $150 million per year for roughly the same number of lane km. We could have that level of service too if we wanted to, it would just mean a property tax increase of equivalent of 12%. There's always a balance between people's tolerance for tax increases and the levels of service they get. If you feel you'd like to pay more taxes for even greater levels of service in this area - definitely let your Councillor know and indicate that in budget consultations!