Winter snow clearance in the Walking City

A bicycle path cleared of snow in Sweden.  Reddit photo.

I used to write yearly about this, focusing on how the sustainable mobility centric city needs snow removal policies that co-equally privilege walking, biking and transit users, not just the motor vehicle parts of roads.

Moving to Salt Lake City-one of Utah's marketing slogans is "the best snow on earth"--is that ironically it doesn't snow that much in the city.  Most of the city is flat, in the valley.  The northeast sections (I live in part there), do get more snow, but it truly varies--one mile east closer to the mountains gets 2x or 3x the amount of snow we do.  Often, within a couple days the snow melts off our driveway anyway.

Of course, the mountain canyons get much more snow than Salt Lake, have avalanche threats, etc.

The city stays on top of road snow clearance, most households shovel their sidewalks, and I don't know what the city does for separated bike lanes--which aren't close to my house, and these days I am unable to bike anyway.

An intrepid bicyclist riding on a snowy road towards Georgetown, DC.  Reddit photo.

A Reddit thread complains about the quality of snow removal in DC ("Has DC's snow removal gone downhill? "), and it covers some of the same issues that got me writing those posts starting in 2009 (also my experience then working as a bicycle and pedestrian planner for Baltimore County).  

Back then it was Mayor Fenty's Administration that failed.  Surprisingly or not so surprisingly, the Reddit thread focus is on the roads--but then even pedestrians use them, especially when sidewalks aren't cleared.

I did find that my yearly "complaints" about the issue led to year-by-year-improvements.  DDOT even swiped a photo I reprinted from the Boston Globe on the topic.  But I'm not there now... GGW focuses on "snecks" but not the overall problem of snow removal in the Walking-Biking-Transit City ("Snow reveals excess roadway").

The condition of State Line Road following the previous day’s snowstorm on Monday, Jan. 6, 2025. The Missouri side on the right, Kansas side on the left. Dominick Williams dowilliams@kcstar.com  

The Kansas City Star has an article, "Kansas City overhauled its approach to snow removal. Blizzard response shows some payoff," about how the Kansas City Missouri (the Kansas side isn't doing too well with the same snowstorm) has transformed its business processes for staying on top of snow clearance, and it's a good model for other jurisdictions.

-- "Snow, winter and the "Sustainable Mobility City"," (2019)

-- "A "maintenance of way" agenda for the walking and transit city," 2010
-- "Snow reminds us of the necessity of a "maintenance of way" agenda," 2013
-- "Testimony on the Winter Sidewalk Safety Amendment Act of 2011," 2011
-- "Level of service and maintenance requirements in planning #2: winter maintenance of bike paths," 2012
-- "Night-time safety: rethinking lighting in the context of a walking community," 2014
-- "Planning for Winter Weather," 2015
-- "Cataloging the various failures to remove snow in the walking/transit/bicycling city," 2015
-- "Who knew?: there is a Winter Cycling Federation and annual conference," 2015 -- the upcoming Congress is in Montreal, February 8th-10th, 2017
-- "Focusing on what's most important: snow on sidewalks or snow on cars?," 2016
-- "Winter preparedness, planning and the Walking/Biking/Transit City," 2019
-- "Walking City Wintertime: Snow and strollers in Toronto," 2019

MOW is a term used by railroads.   And "transit city" as an urban form encompasses sustainable modes of transportation--walking, biking, and transit--based on the concepts expressed in "Transportation and Urban Form: Stages in the Spatial Evolution of the American Metropolis" by Peter Muller.