Saturday, January 29, 2005
Sidewalk Plowing
Well in my area the sidewalks are plowed and we are taxed accordingly. Lately there is talk of plowing all sidewalks in the region at a cost of six million or more.
Well no freakin' wonder the price is so high. I have mentioned many time how the current plow operators have no idea how to plow snow properly. To expand on that topic, that is one reason sidewalk plowing would cost such big bucks. The big street plows plow snow into the intersection instead of away from it.
I have watched throughout the city as they pile the snow fifteen feet or higher right at the corner of the intersection, using their plow like a bulldozer. They back up and go ahead many times creating this mound right at the very corner. This has two effects. One, the visibility of all motorists is severely restricted. They cannot see traffic until they are already in the through street. Two, this mound of hard packed snow is piled high right in the middle of the sidewalk.
Then a few hours later, along comes a Bobcat type mini-loader, usually with a blower attachement to try and make a hole through it for pedestrians. I have seen these small machines work for extended periods of time working at a pile that should not be there.
We are paying for that through our tax dollars. Paying one machine to pile it up, and paying another smaller one to make a hole through it. No wonder the figure for doing all sidewalks is six million plus.
There is no need for this. There is a correct way to plow intersections without piling snow on the corner, without reducing lane width, and without cutting across lanes on corners.
The problem is, both the workers and the supervisors have no one to show them the correct way. The experience was retired early.
This work by NSCAVE is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NoDerivs 3.0 Unported License
Well in my area the sidewalks are plowed and we are taxed accordingly. Lately there is talk of plowing all sidewalks in the region at a cost of six million or more.
Well no freakin' wonder the price is so high. I have mentioned many time how the current plow operators have no idea how to plow snow properly. To expand on that topic, that is one reason sidewalk plowing would cost such big bucks. The big street plows plow snow into the intersection instead of away from it.
I have watched throughout the city as they pile the snow fifteen feet or higher right at the corner of the intersection, using their plow like a bulldozer. They back up and go ahead many times creating this mound right at the very corner. This has two effects. One, the visibility of all motorists is severely restricted. They cannot see traffic until they are already in the through street. Two, this mound of hard packed snow is piled high right in the middle of the sidewalk.
Then a few hours later, along comes a Bobcat type mini-loader, usually with a blower attachement to try and make a hole through it for pedestrians. I have seen these small machines work for extended periods of time working at a pile that should not be there.
We are paying for that through our tax dollars. Paying one machine to pile it up, and paying another smaller one to make a hole through it. No wonder the figure for doing all sidewalks is six million plus.
There is no need for this. There is a correct way to plow intersections without piling snow on the corner, without reducing lane width, and without cutting across lanes on corners.
The problem is, both the workers and the supervisors have no one to show them the correct way. The experience was retired early.
This work by NSCAVE is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NoDerivs 3.0 Unported License
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