City Snow Plowing- is it enough?

[GirlySports]

Originally Posted by ricoFlame

Just be kind and help push people who are stuck. Karma can be a great thing to have on your side!

I've tried! By I'm like 100 pounds so I can't push very much

[Eddie Bronze]

Yesterday morning, what do we hear them talking about on 660News? The police think people are adjusting to the winter driving conditions because they were expecting a spike in accidents over the weekend. It didn't happen and things were quiet on the weekend so people suddenly have adjusted? Laughable. Monday there were what, over 200 accidents? I guess it never occured to the police that the reason there were no accidents on the weekend was because no one got in their cars and there was no traffic.

Someone alluded to the speed being a factor and without a doubt, it is, but there are other issues, too. Yesterday, coming home from work, I nearly slid into a van travelling in front of me. I'd never seen anything like this before. The lady driving it (a courtesy van for Honda West) was approaching the intersection of southbound 85th St and Bow Trail SW. North-south traffic there have no stop light or stop sign. You have the right away no matter what you are doing. For some stupid reason (woman driver?) she decides to come to a complete stop and let the person turn left who is sitting at a stop sign. I started to brake probably 20 feet or more behind her, going maybe 20-25km/h when I started to brake. Thinking she was going to turn, and seeing no brake lights because they were covered in snow, I thought I had time but I hit black ice and lost it. Slid the entire distance, stopping maybe a foot or two short of rear-ending her. It's not just speed, it's dummies who plain and simple, don't know how to obey the rules of the road, regardless of condition. That could have been a bad situation on ideal roads.

[TurnedTheCorner]

ken0042, thanks for clarifying the dollars and cents for me.

oilers_fan, the labor issue is a well made point - but this problem has been persistent in the city long before the current overheated economy presented itself. Much like the transit shortfalls have been around long before this day and age, where the city has more funding for buses and routes than it has drivers to operate said buses.

It all comes back to a do-nothing city council who can't plan their way out of a wet paper bag.

[Shazam]

Originally Posted by TurnedTheCorner

It all comes back to a do-nothing city council who can't plan their way out of a wet paper bag.

Hey, they're making progress on the wet paper bag issue. There's a committee and a study happening right now on determine the best egress route out of a web paper bag. The official report is due in 2010.

[Draug]

Originally Posted by TurnedTheCorner

It all comes back to a do-nothing city council who can't plan their way out of a wet paper bag.

Exactly what I think. I never used to think that Civic politians mattered. So much so, when Klien and Douer (sp) where mayor I didnt even vote. Now, seeing how useless this set of politians are, I can't wait until the next election to help vote someone else in.

[Dion]

Originally Posted by Eddie Bronze

Someone alluded to the speed being a factor and without a doubt, it is, but there are other issues, too. Yesterday, coming home from work, I nearly slid into a van travelling in front of me. I'd never seen anything like this before. The lady driving it (a courtesy van for Honda West) was approaching the intersection of southbound 85th St and Bow Trail SW. North-south traffic there have no stop light or stop sign. You have the right away no matter what you are doing. For some stupid reason (woman driver?) she decides to come to a complete stop and let the person turn left who is sitting at a stop sign. I started to brake probably 20 feet or more behind her, going maybe 20-25km/h when I started to brake. Thinking she was going to turn, and seeing no brake lights because they were covered in snow, I thought I had time but I hit black ice and lost it. Slid the entire distance, stopping maybe a foot or two short of rear-ending her. It's not just speed, it's dummies who plain and simple, don't know how to obey the rules of the road, regardless of condition. That could have been a bad situation on ideal roads.

You make a vaild point. It's the unknown factor of what drivers will or won't do that makes winter driving so crazy. Anytime i'm sitting at an icy intersection waiting for the light to turn green I'm always watching the guy behind to make sure he going to stop in time. That and I leave some space open ahead of me in case I have to move forward to avoid a rear ender.

[metallicat]

Some of you guys know I drive a snow plow for the City of Edmonton. When it starts snowing heavily all of a sudden, we often only have 7 people working for an entire quarter of the city. So if the snow is extreme, it will usually take at least four hours to have 14 people on the road working. Weekends are even worse.

During warm weather, more salt is used. As much as 50% salt, mixed with sand. When it's cold, very little salt is used, sometimes only 2% salt. And if it's snowing heavy, no matter how much sand/salt we put down, it doesn't make a bit of difference. The only real time anything is effective, if after the roads have been plowed, or the snow is so hard packed that it is almost ice. High priority roads are obviously plowed first, but it can't happen right away. It sometimes requires 4+ trucks to plow a single road, and if there are only 7 trucks working, it's impossible to do it.

I'm sure Calgary is the same, but in a major snowstorm, the only way for us to be effective is if we had at least twice as many people and trucks as we do. We simply do not have the money or the equipment to do our job properly.

[Barnes]

Originally Posted by fotze

Ya they go so crazy that they elect the same people year after year. Any other level of politicians would love to have that populace.

Why not slap 1 cent (or whatever it works out to be) per litre of gas tax? Then at least those who do the driving pay for it. Little old lady who never leaves her house pays nothing.

Cities are only allowed to tax property and nothing else.

[Bill Bumface]

Originally Posted by fotze

Ya they go so crazy that they elect the same people year after year. Any other level of politicians would love to have that populace.

Why not slap 1 cent (or whatever it works out to be) per litre of gas tax? Then at least those who do the driving pay for it. Little old lady who never leaves her house pays nothing.

Won't I be laughing when I go zipping by in my Tesla! www.teslamotors.com/

[Shazam]

Originally Posted by fotze

What about hotel taxes? How do those work?

That's a provincial tax.

[soulchoice]

Originally Posted by Bobblehead

Very true.

If you buy a used car here try and be sure it didn't come from out east or you may have salt issues.

The thing is a majority of cars on dealers lots out here are from out east. All the major dealers, small and large get cars from out east from dealer auctions.

[Dion]

Originally Posted by soulchoice

The thing is a majority of cars on dealers lots out here are from out east. All the major dealers, small and large get cars from out east from dealer auctions.

Ford used to have a stake in Hertz car rentals. Most of their used vehicles came from Hertz with the rest from customer trade ins.

Dealers don't normaly bring in vehicles from out east. There a transportation cost associated with that that gets passed on to the customer. Instead they look for vehicles within the province first and head outside the province as a last resort. In most cases a dealer can find what the customer wants within the province or local auctions.

[STAMPEDRED]

I really don't like it when the news - being Global, CTV, or whoever - constantly criticizes the city on how its doing its job. No one seems to appreciate anything anymore. Snow happens in the winter. I'm glad we can have weather like this once in a while that takes away from the dead, cold brown look that we have become accustomed to lately.

How many of you bothered to shovel your walk any of these mornings before heading to work and griping about how lousy a job the city did witht the streets? I wonder how many of the news people trying to say the city deserves an "f" for a grade wise actually bothered to shovel their own walk as well?

If people would be more thankful for what others do for them (the city included in this) then I'm sure we would all start to become a little more understanding that the world does not revolve around "me" and at least be thankful that the city is doing something and is trying to keep up!

Unfortunately for you Eddie, this won't help with the lousy drivers, but at least it could be a start!

[Shazam]

Originally Posted by STAMPEDRED

How many of you bothered to shovel your walk any of these mornings before heading to work and griping about how lousy a job the city did witht the streets? I wonder how many of the news people trying to say the city deserves an "f" for a grade wise actually bothered to shovel their own walk as well?

Eh? Since snow needs to be removed within 24 hours on sidewalks, I'd say lots of us went out and shoveled. As for "me", I could care less about the city clearing residential roads.

If people would be more thankful for what others do for them (the city included in this) then I'm sure we would all start to become a little more understanding that the world does not revolve around "me" and at least be thankful that the city is doing something and is trying to keep up!

After listening to the Silly Hall resident bimbo Helen Laroque yesterday, I firmly believe that Silly Hall has no idea what they're doing. She kept harping on about how much it would cost "to clear every street in Calgary". Most people don't want "every street in Calgary" to be cleared. We'd just like it so that, oh, Crowchild Trail wasn't a skating rink every time it snowed.

[jolinar of malkshor]

It is not just the city....a lot of business haven't cleared their lots. I was at a Shoppers Drug Mart last night. I pulled into the parking lot and it kind of faces down hill. Well....do you think I could back out? I have a dakota 2 wheel drive and there is no weight in the back. Throw a foot of snow under the vehicle and nothing but pure ice under the snow. All I did was spin. I had to go back into shoppers and buy a back of kitty litter to put under my tires.

[FireFly]

That's the worst, businesses who dont' clear their sidewalks. I do not need to land on my ass because you're too lazy to do more than 5 feet on either side of your entrance, especially when you have a full parking lot beside your building and you also need to clear that sidewalk too. Not point any fingers at the Vietnamese reataurant on 9th Ave SE or anything...

[Dion]

Originally Posted by jolinar of malkshor

It is not just the city....a lot of business haven't cleared their lots. I was at a Shoppers Drug Mart last night. I pulled into the parking lot and it kind of faces down hill. Well....do you think I could back out? I have a dakota 2 wheel drive and there is no weight in the back. Throw a foot of snow under the vehicle and nothing but pure ice under the snow. All I did was spin. I had to go back into shoppers and buy a back of kitty litter to put under my tires.

That's a joke! It's a sad day when a customer has to buy kitty litter to get out of their parking lot.

Hope you complained to the manager.

[jolinar of malkshor]

Originally Posted by Dion

That's a joke! It's a sad day when a customer has to buy kitty litter to get out of their parking lot.

Hope you complained to the manager.

It was late at night and no manger was in. I wanted to say something to the cashier but I didn't....I just kept it to myself.

[Robbob]

I don't think it really is necessary to give the city more money because of a freak month of snow fall. I just don't think the city effectively uses the money to start with and once they have our money and don't need it I'm sure they will end up spending it on a new bridge somewhere. Correct me if I'm wrong but is Carmack not contracted out to deal with the deerfoot? The difference was night and day coming off the deerfoot to Anderson today.

Regarding using salt, I know Carmack uses a salt/sand mixture. They used to come to Southcentre mall every once in a while and that stuff would work wonders.

[Shazam]

Deerfoot is maintained by the province. Exits and merges are maintained by the city.