REGINA – Following a heavy dump of snow on the weekend, some residents are frustrated with the City of Regina’s snow clearing policy.
The region was hit with a dump of snow on Saturday, along with strong winds that made for blizzard-like conditions and resulted in large snow drifts. City crews were out in full force to clear the streets, plowing the busiest of roads before moving into residential areas.
“We did category one, two, three, and four plows (by late Monday), so that’s basically all our arterial and collector roadways,” said Chris Warren, the manager of winter maintenance.
Once that happened, there were people left to try and shovel out vehicles that were parked on the street, including Tyler Blenkin.
“The snow was up to about the door, and about two feet off the vehicle,” he explained. “It was just hard packed snow and it wasn’t nice to see.”
Other fed-up residents also took to social media to share their frustrations with what the plows left behind.
The city asks drivers to avoid parking on streets that haven’t been plowed yet, but many residents don’t have driveways – meaning there’s nowhere else for them to park.
Some Regina streets have ended up with no parking available at all.
“Obviously these are things we don’t want to do, but in reality it does happen and it’s not very frequent either,” added Warren.
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Regina Mayor Michael Fougere said Wednesday that the situation renews the conversation about potential snow routes in the future.
“We’ve announced several times that we are clearing the streets and to please stay off the street and some people just don’t get he message, so maybe snow routes to get off the street is important.”
One Regina resident decided to take the online snow clearing complaints into his own hands.
Neil McDonald drove across town to dig out Blenkin’s vehicle to “prove that it wasn’t anything more than a minor inconvenience.”
McDonald has now been nominated as a City of Regina Snowbuster.
Snow clearing Q & A
The City of Regina does answer some questions online about its winter maintenance program. Here are a few of the answers:
Q: Why don’t we have a sidewalk clearing bylaw for residential?
A: A bylaw was considered as part of the winter policy review conducted in 2006; however, the City has chosen to continue to encourage residents to keep their sidewalks clear through advertising and promotion.
Q: What is the City doing about rutting on streets?
A: Ice shaving is performed by a belly plow located under a tandem truck and is used to help cut down the rutting that occurs on residential streets once it is severe. The benefit of ice shaving for residential streets is that removal is not necessary, as no snowridges are created from this process. Ice shaving in previous years was shown to be an effective operational process to control rutting on residential streets. However, it has been identified that it may be more effective if performed on a more continual basis.
Q: What can residents do to improve snow clearing?
A: Help crews help you this winter by:
- Parking in your driveway or garage. Crews can plow the streets quicker when there are not vehicles parked on major streets and roads after a major snowfall.
- Drive carefully near snow removal equipment. Pass only when necessary and with extreme caution since flying snow from the plow may reduce visibility and the road ahead has not been cleared of snow.
- Allow extra time for travel. Slow down for safety and plan you route in advance. If you can’t drive because of the snow, consider taking Regina Transit to your destination.
- If a snowridge is left on your driveway and is higher than 30 cm or you see a snow ridge that is blocking intersection sight-lines or makes driving hazardous, you can report the snowridge’s location using the City’s online Contact Us form or by calling 306-777-7000 weekdays between 8 a.m. and 4:45 p.m.
- Do your part to help keep sidewalks safe by shovelling snow and ice. Better yet, help a neighbour, familiy member or friend that may be in need of help clearing sidewalks.
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