Share which paths you’d like to see maintained in the winter.
I hate to be the one to break it to you, but winter is coming, in anywhere from 6-16 weeks. I hope you’ll join me in thinking ahead to the coming arrival of snow.
Source: Convent Glen North Winter Path Maintenance
Every fall for the last several years, I have reached out to our city councillor sharing my thoughts on the state of our winter maintained path network, including some routes I think should be added. I’ve seen far too many paths in the area go unmaintained or have a sign like this at the start ‘No sidewalk plows beyond this point’:
This year, I’m publicly sharing the map I refer back to each fall/winter showing the key winter maintenance priorities I’m asking for. Some are key routes to get kids to and from schools or just around the neighbourhood. Others are critical ways winter cyclists (like me) can connect to the rest of Orleans without having to blaze their own trail or risk slipping and sliding on ice. If you know the status of paths I’ve marked in blue, or want to help fill out paths in the rest of the east end with winter maintenance status, please let me know!
It can be very frustrating to see the disparity between how winter maintenance of roads are treated by city policy compared to unmaintained paths, we can change this by sharing routes we’d like to see kept clear. This is less political (given we’re in election season) than it is just the nature of how active transportation infrastructure is maintained in a car-centric environment. If a bunch of residents let their representatives know this is an issue they face, it will be addressed as a higher priority.
If you want to see your local paths added to the winter maintenance network in Orleans, send an email to [email protected] (I’d love to hear about it too if you CC [email protected]).
Leave a Reply