TORONTO: Mayor John Tory has announced the City of Toronto’s plan to expand sidewalk snow clearing to all neighborhoods starting this winter.
City staff have recommended the expansion of this service following a successful trial program over the last two winters.
This will mean 103,626 households will now receive this service – including 91 per cent which would now receive mechanical sidewalk snow clearing and around nine per cent which would be manually cleared due to sidewalk obstructions.
The expansion of the service aims to improve safety for residents in winter, provide more equitable snow clearing service to all areas of the city, and support improved accessibility. Right now, around 85 per cent of sidewalks in the city are already cleared by mechanical sidewalk plows while 15 per cent are not cleared mechanically.
In a report going to the Infrastructure and Environment committee next week, City staff confirm that by testing the smaller equipment, as well as the data gathered from the comprehensive inventory, City staff determined that tested smaller plows could clear approximately 91 per cent of sidewalks in Toronto.
The remaining nine per cent of sidewalks could be cleared manually by City workers. When new, smaller snow plows became available in 2019, the City purchased and tested nine plows on nine routes that primarily serve seniors and persons with disabilities and did not previously receive the service.
The routes covered 231 kilometres of sidewalk and City staff observed and documented the performance of the machines in a range of snow conditions and neighbourhood settings. During the summer of 2020, the City also conducted a comprehensive inventory of sidewalks to collect data to help inform the trial as well as the report.
Examples of data collected include sidewalk segment lengths and widths, encroachments at private properties such as planters and retaining walls, and other obstructions such as utility poles, street furniture and adjacent on-street parking.
Mayor Tory said: “Providing city-wide sidewalk snow clearing is the right thing to do and we are able to proceed thanks to the diligent work of City staff. This will mean that when the snow starts to fall this winter, all 7,300 kilometres of sidewalk in Toronto will be cleared by the city. I look forward to supporting this expansion through the Infrastructure and Environment Committee and at City Council next month so that we are ready for next winter.”