Clearing snow from sidewalks in Annapolis

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Originally uploaded by rllayman

I was in Annapolis yesterday for the Maryland Smart Transportation and Bicycling Forum. At the outset of the morning, City of Annapolis employees were diligently clearing the sidewalks of snow.

Judging by some of the comments of people at the meeting, this was not a usual occurrence. But it was appreciated...

Note that with my ongoing complaint that DC hasn't developed what we might call a "maintenance of way" policy regarding routes for pedestrians, transit users, and bicyclists in a manner comparable to how snow removal policies and practices favor removal of snow from the roads, it's been very interesting to watch the snow removal practices at the Coolidge Recreation Center in Northwest DC. I have written about what I see as failures there wrt snow removal on many occasions.

So last year, they never removed snow from the sidewalks. This year, with the first big snow, they cleared snow from the sidewalks on one of the four blocks that their complex covers. The snow last weekend, they cleared snow from just a bit over two blocks worth of sidewalks, going up to the driveway just south of Underwood). Yesterday's snow they were impressive as before 7:30 am they had cleared the snow from all four blocks.

I don't know how much impact (if any) my public writings (in this and other venues) have had on this progression. And I don't know if other DC Government installations have been making progress on snow removal, in comparison to the typically abysmal lack of attention that we have experienced over the past 20+ years that I have lived here.