Should the City reconsider the snow removal policy? [Split from weather]

[fundmark19]

Originally Posted by kevman

So the guy from Cochrane is complaining about the City of Calgary's ability to clear snow? That's grand.

I am not allowed to complain that my friends and family who live in Calgary still can't have their roads cleared 2 weeks after a snow fall?

If you are happy about the snow clearing in the city that is great! All I am saying is that in my experience living in Calgary (I have only been gone for 1 year) The snow clearing system has been a complete joke the last 8 years I have been driving and it sure seems in the last year I have been gone has not gotten any better. But hey my opinion doesn't matter so at least I can sleep every night knowing that when I wake up in the morning my town actually takes care of the plowing of our roads and I won't get stuck leaving my own community.

[Ducay]

Originally Posted by kevman

So the guy from Cochrane is complaining about the City of Calgary's ability to clear snow? That's grand.

Wait for his thread about how Crowfoot LRT parking is always full..

[fundmark19]

Originally Posted by Ducay

Wait for his thread about how Crowfoot LRT parking is always full..

Transit is for inner city latte sippers. I obviously drive a jacked up Ram 3500 and take up 3 precious inner city parking spaces while only paying for 1

[The Ditch]

if you don't live in Calgary you don't have the right to complain about snow removal in Calgary. Why do you even care.

[fundmark19]

Originally Posted by The Ditch

if you don't live in Calgary you don't have the right to complain about snow removal in Calgary. Why do you even care.

Ok I will get my Mom and Dad to sign up for the forum to complain how they still can't easily get out of their community because the city hasn't cleared the roads yet.

I didn't know complaining about snow removal was a right! I am terribly sorry that I have offended all Calgarians for thinking they should have better snow removal strategies in place, I had no idea you were so sensitive on the subject.

[undercoverbrother]

Originally Posted by Slava

I realise this isn't to be popular before I say it, but here goes. People have to understand that they've paid for a vehicle, and pay some gas taxes and registration, but they don't pay for the cost of driving on all of these roads. A toll would make some of these roads pay for themselves through time. Take something like the ring road. Its an enormous cost to build, and ongoing maintenance as well. To me that's a perfect candidate for a toll. The airport tunnel is another. People have other options, but they might take longer, or they can pay a toll for the convenience of a faster road.

Like I say, its not popular. I get that no one wants to pay tolls and no one wants to hear that as public policy. As far as the "what if you have to work late?" or "what about more buses?" I have no idea. I guess if you work late, you pay the toll on your way home? I have no idea what that question is getting at. Transit demand might increase with tolls, or might not. That would be something to address down the line though as I'm not suggesting every road everywhere be tolled. What if the toll for say Deerfoot Trail was $1/day? How many drivers would switch to transit? I would venture that would be minimal impact, and yet generate significant funds for maintenance and upkeep.

Do "For Profit" private roads exists?

[kevman]

Originally Posted by fundmark19

Ok I will get my Mom and Dad to sign up for the forum to complain how they still can't easily get out of their community because the city hasn't cleared the roads yet.

Maybe ask Mom and Dad if they're interested in paying higher taxes to clear the roads while you're at it. Seniors love paying higher property taxes!

Edit: That was probably a bit rude. You get what you pay for and Calgary pays a below average amount for snow clearing and as a result get's a below average result. It's unfair to assume that it's as easy as saying "do it better" when in reality doing it better costs more money. Are the citizen's willing to pay more taxes or re-prioritize spending to get better snow clearing results? I'm not.

[Addick]

Originally Posted by undercoverbrother

Do "For Profit" private roads exists?

The 407 in the GTA might fit into this criteria.

[fundmark19]

Originally Posted by undercoverbrother

Do "For Profit" private roads exists?

I don't know if they exist but a quick google search turned up this book on the matter http://mises.org/document/4084/ Privatization of Roads and Transportation by Walter Block. Might be an interesting read

[fundmark19]

Originally Posted by kevman

Maybe ask Mom and Dad if they're interested in paying higher taxes to clear the roads while you're at it. Seniors love paying higher property taxes!

If you go back to page one where I was all for that idea of having a separate slush fund applied to your utilities like garbage pick up they were ok with it. For example 3 bucks a month x 464,000 households (census from 2011) would give an additional 16,704,000 per year. Would anybody really notice 3 bucks tacked onto their enmax bill?

[kevman]

Sure. But if it's a utility can we pay based on use like other utilities? Say a rate of serviced km/resident on a community by community basis?

People will notice, and complain about, $3/month when it's tacked onto their bill in the middle of July.

[Zarley]

I've been driving in Calgary for 10 years (always in a small, low to the ground sedan without winter tires) and I've never once got stuck or had any problem. I've come to the conclusion that people just love to bitch about this every year.

[Kerplunk]

Originally Posted by fundmark19

Snow wont but ice sure will. It can easily rip your muffler off if you catch it right. Not to mention those deep ruts make it real easy for you to get your car high centered if you aren't careful. I am sure everybody in the NE would love to get stuck 15 days after the initial storm. There is no possible way anyone can argue that the city has done a good job with the roads.

I'm lucky the snow was just slush last night and not ice...the roads by my place are pretty much one car only and I got run out of the rut by a delivery truck. As it was I just got temporarily stuck. If the snow was harder I would be out getting my car fixed.

[SebC]

Originally Posted by fotze

It really should be if you live in a cul de sac where only those 15 homes benefit from the plowing, then the full cost of that plowing is borne by those 15 homes.

But the guy at the end of the cul-de-sac uses the full length of it, whereas the guy next to the corner barely uses it at all!

[KelVarnsen]

To say the roads were terrible today would be putting it nicely.

[SebC]

Originally Posted by fotze

But the lions share of the cost is to get it there, not to drive it an extra few meters.

Of course... that's what makes my comment a bit of a joke, even though the priciple is sound.

[calgarywinning]

These are extreme conditions. Calgary Sun ran an article that this was the most snow in 112 years. It's hard to judge a system based on extreme circumstances or adjust future budgets, clearing based on our recent spate of bad weather. This year we've experiences massive precipitation!


http://www.calgarysun.com/2013/12/17...-112-years-ago

[Slava]

Originally Posted by calgarywinning

These are extreme conditions. Calgary Sun ran an article that this was the most snow in 112 years. It's hard to judge a system based on extreme circumstances or adjust future budgets, clearing based on our recent spate of bad weather. This year we've experiences massive precipitation!


http://www.calgarysun.com/2013/12/17...-112-years-ago

Ya, well that's kind of playing with statistics to generate an outcome. I don't know how much snow fell today, but our city should be able to deal with however much that was. We have had a lot of snow, but its been over what, 3 weeks? Its shocking that a city this close to the mountains hasn't figured out snow clearing effective enough for these 5-10cm events that seems so commonplace. I can also totally cut slack for when the snow shows up at rush hour, but on a day like today it was snowing all day...hardly an unknown.

[calgarywinning]

Originally Posted by Slava

Ya, well that's kind of playing with statistics to generate an outcome. I don't know how much snow fell today, but our city should be able to deal with however much that was. We have had a lot of snow, but its been over what, 3 weeks? Its shocking that a city this close to the mountains hasn't figured out snow clearing effective enough for these 5-10cm events that seems so commonplace. I can also totally cut slack for when the snow shows up at rush hour, but on a day like today it was snowing all day...hardly an unknown.

I really don't need any more than my nenshi 5 years of 5% increases in my taxes because of these "events". My point is that these weather conditions are extreme.

Do I want better snow clearing for the same amount of money or less money? Yes. Now with this extreme weather is to over-react and for an explosion of city pay rates, contracting and many other things to deal with notarized extremes. Just look at Montreal as a prime example.

[btimbit]

Plows plowing 52nd st even though it was bare, sparking along like a fireworks show. Meanwhile none of the nearby side roads had been touched.

Now I'm not a city roads worker, snow plow driver, or have any real technical knowledge of how the system works. Buuuut doesn't this seem a little inefficient? Not a one time thing either, see this quite often.