WATCH: The city of Toronto is facing some criticism over last night’s rush hour that saw snow accumulate on local roads and highways. City Councillor Denzil Minnan-Wong explains what the city may or may not have learned from last night.
TORONTO – Only five centimetres of snow fell in Toronto Wednesday, so why was traffic so bad? City of Toronto officials say the timing of the storm coincided with rush hour and slowed everything down.
“It wasn’t a big snow storm but unfortunately it hit at an inopportune time. Snow storms during rush hour are always the most problematic,” Steve Buckley, the general manager of Toronto’s Transportation Services said in an interview Thursday. “Our vehicles in many cases get stuck in the same congestion as all the drivers as well. So it makes doing our job a little harder.”
A video posted to YouTube overnight shows dozens of cars struggling to get up a hill on Avenue Road, two vans had pulled over, a car can be seen stopped beside a slow moving Greyhound bus and an SUV, with its four-way blinkers on, struggled to move.
WATCH: Minnan-Wong explains when snowplows will be used during winter 2014-2015
Buckley said road crews began salting roads at about 3 p.m. but got caught in the rush-hour traffic which started an hour later. He said most arterial roads were done by 6 p.m. and all the roads were completed by 7 p.m.. Further, salting continued overnight.
Buckley, alongside Councillor Denzil Minnan-Wong, said at a press conference Thursday morning the city is ready to clear snow during the winter. Minnan-Wong said the city has roughly 600 snowplows, 200 salt trucks, and 300 sidewalk plows that will form the core of Toronto’s road-clearing operations, which will also include 24-hour patrols checking road conditions.
“Our main focus again this year is to keep the main roads clear for TTC and emergency vehicles,” Minnan-Wong said.
Salt trucks will begin priming the roads as soon as snow begins falling and plowing will begin when at least two centimetres has accumulated on freeways and five centimetres on arterial roads. Minnan-Wong said it takes up to 16 hours to clear all the roads in the city of snow.
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