I am looking for examples and ideas about good snow removal policy affecting
bicyclists and pedestrians. The situation in many cities seems to be that
the snow either gets plowed onto the right-most edge of the roadway (which
forces bikes to ride farther left) or off the roadway and onto the sidewalks.
Some places give priority to plowing streets that are designated bike facilities
but this doesn't necessarily help out the pedestrians. HELP!!
Traffic engineer, City of Madison, 215 Martin Luther King Blvd., Madison WI 53701 (608) 266-6526 email: <TWALSH@CI.MADISON.WI.US>
Bicycle/Pedestrian Program Manager, Oregon DOT, Rm. 210 Transportation Bldg., Salem OR 97310 (503) 986-3555 Fax: (503) 986-3896 email: michael.p.ronkin@state.or.us
Good luck on this one. I'm stumped. The cities with the best biking and walking systems in Oregon tend not to be where they get a lot of snow. When I visit cities that do get snow, I get barraged with complaints from users about how poor the local snow removal practices are. It's worse for pedestrians: not only is snow piled onto the sidewalks (another argument for separation with planting strips), but when the snow melts, the gravel is left on the sidewalks, sometimes clear into early summer.
There, no good answer form Oregon, but just a reaffirmation of the problem.
Sorry!
[Michael passed the question on to Nils Eddy for comment. Here's what Nils
said:
Our monthly advisory committee meeting last week discussed this issue (again). This time Steve Wilson Jr. (who is in a wheelchair) brought it up. Seems that some shopping centers not only don't clear the handicapped parking spots and accessways, they sometimes store the snow there.
None of our agencies (city, county or state) have procedures for clearing walkways or bikeways. Their only concern is to get snow off the travel lanes as fast and cheaply as possible. ODOT, with their fast-moving highway plows, are the worst. We decided to invite the public works officials to our next meeting to try and work out some more equitable procedures.
The family we stayed with in Basel, Switzerland said that the residents sweep the snow into the street where it is vacuumed up by trucks and dumped in waterways. That wouldn't work here for various reasons (fewer responsible residents, the wrong equipment, water quality issues, etc.) but at least we know they do it somewhere.
Bicycle/Pedestrian Coordinator, Wisconsin DOT HUBERT@MAIL.STATE.WI.US
*First, we receive about 50 to 60 inches of snow per year. Ice or hard packed snow presents more of a year round problem for cyclists here. One of the primary problems of snow removal exists on streets where parking is permitted with or without bike lanes. Motorists will start parking away from the gutter section as the snow builds up there. To make matters even worse, when the terrace has a significant build of plowed snow, parkers will shy away even farther to permit opening up their passenger doors. It is not uncommon during many times in the winter that 4 feet of the roadway or bike lane are infringed upon by parked autos and trucks.
*Snow removal on our roadways occurs without much regard to bicycle circul- ation. This isn't necessarily bad, except that the local streets are normally plowed last, thus making it more difficult for access. In Madison, where considerable year-round bicycle commuting occurs, bicycle paths (and I mean paths) get the same priority as roadways on weekdays. On weekends, this is not the case and has been a big concern of advocates. The Parks Dept does most of the plowing of paths.
*In my judgement, on arterials or streets where parking is not permitted, there seems to be a lesser problem. Plows can get to the gutter line.
Now to answer the question on what can be done:
*Raise the awareness on part of motorists that during snowfalls and following, bicyclists will be more apt to be assuming the entire lane or more likely to ride in the right tire space left by moving motor vehicles.
*I use the snow storage problem as one reason to make sure to add wide curb lanes on arterials. Even though a wide curb lane will only hold snow temporarily (until plows come back to push the snow onto the terrace) it seems to be an appealing reason to our northern Wisconsin district offices.
*You can try to have bicycle routes (on road) considered as priority routes, but public works depts have so many emergency routes already, I doubt that you will get very far. Since Parks Depts often plow the paths, you may have more luck with them in making the paths a higher priority than plowing off hockey rinks. Seems to work for Madison. Having arterials plowed soon and from curb to curb does benefit bicyclists, so reordering priorities may also work against you, so be careful.
*I think more attention to clearance of snow in bike lanes is probably the biggest need. Without the incessant motor vehicle movement to burn off the snow, initial clearance of snow in the bike lanes is that much more important. Same goes for wide curb lanes.
State Bicycle/Pedestrian Coordinator, Maine DOT <dtmvand@gatekeeper.ddp.state.me.us>
On your current question, unfortunately, I can offer no guidance from the State level here in Maine.
The Department is still working toward formulating a policy which disadvantages neither pedestrians nor cyclists in wintertime. We have recently reorganized the entire Department. Maintenance and Operations now has an intermodal office which works on issues of modal integration. Snow removal, snow storage, plowing, sanding, sweeping and general maintenance fall into their shop. Our 1994 bicycle plan, You CAN Get There From Here, lists a variety of action steps for M & O. Now that the Department has the M & O intermodal office, I expect we will accomplish many of them in a timely fashion.
Those of us from the Northern tier states met in a workshop to discuss issues of joint concern at ProBike/ProWalk 96. There was agreement that maintenance of bike and ped facilities is a major problem for us. Whether done by the State or by Municipalities, it does not get done consistently and well. For example, in Madison [which is often held to be a model for outstanding bike friendliness] roadways with bike lanes and bikeways are not always prioritized higher than other roadways and often do not have parking bans to facilitate snow removal.
I did a small study as a heads-up to Municipalities several years ago. I found that even when Municipalities have adequate ordinances for maintenance of bike and ped facilities, they are not routinely enforced. Even if MDOT becomes the most exemplary State agency in the nation, most facilities used by cyclists and walkers will continue to be maintained by Municipalities.
One way we are trying to encourage Municipalities is by requiring them
to commit to maintenance of facilities which are part of our program. We
do not include projects for which year-round maintenance is not agreed upon
and budgeted. So maybe I DO have something to report to others after all.
Director, Walkable Communities, 320 S. Main Street, High Springs, Florida 32643, (904) 454-3304 or FAX (904) 454-3306 DBurden@aol.com
I think Florida has the best practices.....we simply do not permit snow. End of Answer.
On a more serious vein.....I was impressed that in Washington D.C. last year during the blizzard city work crews and private businesses were all working to clear the sidewalks in the district before the plow operators could get the streets cleared. The plows may have later undone alot of the good of these workers .....but it is my impression that the pedestrian movement has a high priority.
Velo-Québec, Montréal, Québec <jean-francois_pronovost@mailhost.velo.qc.ca>
Concerning the question of snow removal here are some facts:
Montréal, as many of urban areas in Québec, has a program of complete snow removal from the streets after a certain amount of snow fall (I think it's 5 cm.). So, all the snow is removed from the streets, sidewalks and packed in trucks. Unfortunatly, it sill dumped in some sites, including (quarries) St Lawrence River!
During these operations, snow is also removed from permanent bicycle paths (those which are separated from cars by a concrete barrier).
So, in that context, cyclist are not too badly considered, but we have to face reality: cycling in a city like Montréal during January, February and March (and even December some years) is quite tough. Temperatures can go as low as minus 30o celcius (brrr) but at the same time we can also have a period of rain during these months.
In a few weeks, we will be able to share with you the results of an important study that we are completing for the Ministry of Transportation related to the use of the bicycle in Québec throughout the year.