St. John's residents not impressed with sidewalk snow clearing, says city survey

More needs to be done to make sure the city's sidewalks are clear this winter, according to a public survey that polled1,000 St. John's residents.

The findings of the survey, released on the Engage St. John's website, showpoor ratings across the board when it comes to how quickly sidewalks are cleared,ice control and salting, consistency and how well sidewalks areconnected to one another.

Coun. Ian Froude said the survey was conducted to help answer some of the key questions council had about sidewalk clearing.

"We wanted to get a sense of the level of support for investment in changes in the way sidewalks and snow clearing is done now," Froude told CBC Radio'sOn The GoTuesday.

"Secondly, we wanted to figure out what the expectations were for timelines of clearing. Residents have been very clear they're unhappy with those, and I understand completely."

Froude said some of the most telling information comes from how both residents and business ownersrate sidewalk clearing.

Those who took the survey rated the importance of sidewalkclearing at an average 8.9 out of 10, but graded the quality of clearing at 3.6 out of 10.

"Residents were pretty clear in their feedback. So there's a clear gap there."

Froude said small changes and investments have been made to help sidewalk clearing in the past, but bigger changes may need to be made.

"It's been apparent for a number of years that we've needed to improve, and we've made some investments and modifications over the past two or three seasons to try and bridge that divide, from the quality that people desire and need, and the quality that they're seeing," he said.

"We've done a lot of smaller changes, but what may be necessary going forward is substantial changes in how this program is administered."

According to the survey, the public was concerned aboutice removal on sidewalks and the changes to mobility that happen as a result of poor sidewalk de-icing.

The survey said57 per cent of participantslimit their outdoor activity due to sidewalk conditions, while 71 per cent of people said they avoid sidewalks altogether bywalking in the street.

Froude said ice is a yearly concern for council, and they havepurchased new sidewalk plows to help combat the issue in recent months.

"We don't do a good enough job [de-icing] our sidewalks, and one of the reasons for that is our equipment doesn't have, didn't have, salting capabilities," he said. "Our equipment has to be versatile for the climate we have, to ensure that these sidewalks are safe for people."

Snow-clearing budget challenged

While the city is looking to make smarter investments to help meet the public's expectations, Froude said the effect of the pandemic and January's blizzard onthe city's snow-clearing budgetpresents challenges.

"We have extremely constrained fiscal circumstances in a good year, let alone in this situation," he said. "There's two layers to it;there could be a shifting of resources within the existing city budget to increase it for sidewalk snow clearing that of course means that it's not being spent on something else, so that's a difficult choice to make."

Froude said the city is thinking of ways to help commuters travel the sidewalks this winter. For example, he said the city turned crosswalk buttons off due to the pandemic. He said they may continue tokeepthemoff to remove any difficulty of reaching a snow-covered button.

Support for more snow-clearing services could also come directly from taxpayers, as 70 per cent of participants said they would support paying up to $25per property in taxes to better support sidewalk snow clearing.

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