Inspired by ‘The 99% Invisible City, A Field Guide to the Hidden World of Everyday Design.’
Last year my son gave me the above book which is based on
the podcasts The 99% Invisible City.
I’ve read some of the book, though I haven’t yet listened
to any of the podcasts, which appear to be wide ranging and are into the 400’s
by now. The website is 99percentinvisible.org
I got fascinated by the parts of the book that I’ve read so
far and decided that my 2022 blogs would be about my own city, Saskatoon.
To begin, because it’s January and as is usual at this time
of year we’ve had a lot of snow, I decided to write about snow clearing (which
the book doesn’t touch on). It’s one of the ubiquitous winter issues that we
love to complain about in many parts of Canada. This year has been particularly
challenging in some cities because the extreme cold (hard on staff and
machines) has prevented work at certain times.
The City of Saskatoon like a lot of other Canadian cities,
has some of its own snow clearing equipment and staff. Some work is contracted
out. Much of the year we don’t even think about this function, but when our streets
are filled with the white stuff, we notice!
I remember one year a taxi driver telling me that for
certain residential streets they weren’t able to get down them and had to ask
potential clients to meet them at a corner.
Cities set priorities, as does Saskatoon. Here is
information from their web site:
When it snows
- City staff and equipment will
keep the driving lanes of Circle Dr and major roads such as Idylwyld Dr,
College Dr and 22nd St clear while it snows. They will spread
salt/sand on slippery intersections, on/off ramps and bridge decks.
- When more than 5 cm of snow
falls, a Snow Event is declared and contractor graders are added to the
City fleet as the snow stops to clean-up freeways, arterial and
collector streets, storing snow on medians, boulevards and in parking
lanes. They will also clear City facility sidewalks, Meewasin Trail,
park pathways with street lighting and bridge/overpass walkways.
- If another snowfall or blowing
snow occurs before these areas are cleaned up, crews may be redeployed
to major roads.
In terms of priority streets:
·
Freeways,
major arterials, bridges will be plowed within 12 hours after a snowstorm ends.
·
Arterials
with double-lanes and Saskatoon Transit routes will be graded within 36 hours after
a snowstorm ends.
·
Collector
streets, remaining Business Improvement District streets and school zones will
be completed within 72 hours after a snowstorm ends.
·
City facility
sidewalks, Meewasin Trail, park pathways with street lighting, pathways along
freeways and arterials and bridge/overpass walkways are graded within 48 hours.
Some statistics from other Canadian cities:
In Halifax “crews are
responsible for approximately 3,844 lane kilometres of streets. Stretched end
to end, that’s the same distance as driving from Halifax to Winnipeg. Crews
also clear about 1,000 kilometres of sidewalks, 6 kilometers of protected bike
lanes/local street bikeways, 11 kilometers of multi-use pathways and
approximately 2,300 bus across the Halifax region.” (From the City’s
website)
Apparently
the city of Montreal “spends more than any other in the world on
picking up snow and putting down salt on its 10,000 kilometres of roads: in
2019–2020, its snow removal budget hit $166.4 million.” (Canadian Geographic
article by Tracy Lindeman)
Edmonton’s snow and ice clearing budget for this year (58.5
million) is to include residential snow clearing for large snowfall events.
And in case you’re wondering why your
residential street in Saskatoon almost never gets cleared, did you know that in
normal Saskatoon winters snow removal for residential/local streets is not in
the budget?
However, the above may vary, as it did in November of 2020
when an extreme snowstorm changed the game, making it the first year in decades
that residential snow clearing occurred. The total costs for 2020-21 were about
$14 million. (Star Phoenix)
This year is considered (so far) a normal year, so no
residential snow clearing.
February’s topic: Lovelocks
