A new snow clearing project in south east Calgary is taking on snow covered bus stops that have become hard to access with all the recent snow.
The adopt-a-stop project was launched on Friday in the midst of yet another huge dump of snow in Calgary. It was started by a resident of Acadia who wishes to remain anonymous.
“We have a resident in our neighbourhood who has recognized the different mobility issues with some of our residents and wanted to do a little bit more especially with snow clearing and getting to the bus stops,” Acadia resident Erika Topola said.
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Volunteers can sign up via Twitter and pick a bus stop they would like to clear of snow.
“I personally love it. There are a few of my favourite residents that are mobility challenged and I see them struggle in the snow, and it’s one of those things that it’s just really heartwarming that the neighbourhood would step up and help us all out,” Topola said.
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The grassroots volunteer effort comes as great news for people who were out waiting for the bus on the weekend.
“I think it’s a great thing to have. Just encouraging people to get out and help in their community and take care of public transit,” Will Jorgensen said, who was waiting for a bus in Acadia on Saturday morning. “We all use it. Even if you have a car, occasionally you need to hop on a bus sometimes or train.”
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Jorgensen said depending on which bus stop you are at, some can take much longer than others to be cleared.
“It would just be nice if when you’re getting up at 7 a.m. to get to work by transit, it was shovelled or something instead of having to wait all day,” Jorgensen said.
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Acadia resident Bob Freeman was happy to hear of the volunteer effort. He’s fed up with the plowing that has been done on his street, which he said makes it even more difficult to access the bus stop and the community mail box.
“I went out front after they plowed and it was big ice chunks and it’s literally in front of the bus stops. I have one just outside my house so I have to watch those old people have to hump over a three foot berm from the sidewalk to where the bus has to come in,” Freeman said.
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The City of Calgary said it doesn’t remove snow, except in certain areas of the city such as its core.
“Right now it’s just a focus on the plowing and making sure that the through lanes are clear and passable,” City of Calgary Roads spokesman Chris McGeachy said.
“We do remind citizens that if they have a problem with something that our plows have done, our operators are going to do the best to mitigate these things but obviously there’s been a lot of accumulation over the past few days.”
You can find more information at acadiaadoptastop@gmail.com or on Twitter.
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