It's the middle of February; how's your winter going?

You wouldn't expect your neighbor to clear the snow on the street in front of his house, so why would you depend on him to clear the sidewalk in front of it?

(From Phil's Blog)

In Massachusetts, we get most of our snow in February and March, so I'm anticipating some big storms in the next few weeks, but we've had a couple of notable ones already this year. Last week's dud notwithstanding, last night walking home from Davis, before most of my neighbors had shoveled their walks, I found myself slipping and sliding all over the place! That's not exactly the kind of excitement I'm looking for on my walk home.

How is your neighborhood doing on snow clearance? Does your city have a snow clearing ordinance?

Snow Legislation: what happened?

Back in January, I asked you to call Governor Patrick's office in support of a house bill in support of making changes to snow clearing legislation. This would have made a variety of changes to how municipalities could handle snow and snow clearing, including by increasing the possible fines, adding teeth to enforcing those fines, and removing liability from residents who do clear snow from their walkways. Unfortunately, Governor Patrick vetoed this legislation, much to the great disappointment of many. Thank you all for your calls, and I'll be keeping you updated on next steps relating to the possibility of this legislation being refiled and/or other things WalkBoston will be doing to improve the state of snow clearance on pedestrian ways in Massachusetts.

Break ice while the weather's nice!

Today, it's supposed to be over 40 degrees here in the Boston area. This is a great chance for those folks who've fallen behind on sidewalk clearing to get ahead of tomorrow's snow! There's nothing so treacherous as pitted ice under a camoflaging layer of new snow, so you'll be doing your neighbors and neighborhood a good deed if you have a chance to get out there and clear old ice this afternoon.

I know it's hard to stay on top of the snow this year, but it makes a big, big difference to both individuals and communities for everyone who's able to do their part.

Who are we accomodating: people or cars?

As I walked to the T this morning, I observed several snowplows getting a jump on clearing the streets as the first couple of inches of snow (4-6 predicted for Somerville, where I live) had fallen. Somerville does a great job of keeping the streets well-cleared.

Similarly, some of my neighbors had gotten a jump on the snow by clearing the first couple of inches off their sidewalks before heading to work. As in many cities and towns in Massachusetts, Somerville residents are required to clear their sidewalks of snow within a reasonable time after a storm stops or face fines (and cranky neighbors).

As anyone who's been walking around the urban and semi-urban areas around Boston this month has no doubt noticed, however, sidewalk-clearing policies still result in spotty walking conditions. In my neighborhood, where there's a high volume of foot traffic, I see a lot of people (myself included!) giving up on sidewalks and simply walking in the street.

Every time I see this, I think about how much we need to change the prevailing approach. Why does the city clear streets but not sidewalks? (Some cities do plow sidewalks with small plows, either throughout the city [Brookline] or in commercial areas [Belmont].) In more rural areas where few people move about by foot, this may be a sensible distribution of resources on the basis of people's use of sidewalks, but in areas with high numbers of foot traffic, it simply doesn't make sense.

People should be the beneficiaries of municipal policies, and in densely populated areas well-served by public transit, that includes people on foot as well as in cars. It's past time to realign our narrow, car-centric thinking to a more inclusive approach.

Unshoveled sidewalk? Make the call

With winter in full swing, I'm thinking about snowy and icy sidewalks on a daily basis. Over the weekend, I saw a number of problem spots in Cambridge and Somerville. Of course, there's the typical sidewalk that didn't get cleared after snow, and has been packed down by pedestrians into an uneven, pitted layer of slick ice. These are a pain both for people walking by and for the homeowner who suddenly realizes that it's now or never to clear that ice before the next storm, and I saw (and thanked) a lot of people who were out chipping ice during the day on Saturday.

I also saw a number of crosswalk push-buttons buried behind a big pile of snow, meaning that in order to reach the button to get a walk phase at that intersection, I had to climb up on an icy pile of snow. In most cases, this was due to the city's snow plowing, and Cambridge should know better!

However, the thing that jumped out at me most was businesses that hadn't cleared their sidewalks. This stood out to me because I have an easy action item coming out of it: when I see an uncleared or poorly cleared sidewalk in front of a business, I can either pop in and tell them that I'm concerned about the state of their sidewalk, or call them later to complain.

I've started doing this with the business at the end of the street where I live, which rarely clears their sidewalk on my street, and I was delighted to see that this morning, for the first time this winter, they'd shoveled along my street! Now, I'm going to call them to say thanks.

Call Governor Patrick TODAY!

Please call the Governor's office TODAY (617-725-4005) to ask Governor Deval Patrick to sign House Bill #4883-08.

This bill would allow municipalities to increase fines for people who do not clear their sidewalks and also establishes that an owner's good faith effort to remove snow or ice will not make that person liable for injuries due to a fall (full text is shown below).

Your friendly reminder phone call need take no more than 30 seconds.

Section 5. A municipality may by ordinances and by-laws provide for the removal of snow and ice from sidewalks within such portions of the municipality as they consider expedient by the owner of land abutting upon such sidewalks. Such ordinances and by-laws shall determine the time and manner of removal and shall affix penalties, not exceeding $200 for each violation thereof. Such ordinances and by-laws shall be specific as to the width of the area to be cleared and the standards for clearance.
An owner, lessor, occupant or other person in charge of real property or an agent thereof who, in good faith, removes or attempts to remove snow or ice from a sidewalk abutting his property shall not be liable for personal injuries allegedly caused by the snowy or icy condition of the sidewalk resulting from his act or omission unless the alleged act or omission constitutes gross negligence.

Let it snow?

Today, I'm surly.

It was a beautiful, cozy weekend to welcome the official start of winter with a couple of big snowstorms in the Boston area. I really love snow, both being out in it and also being inside and watching it fall while sipping a hot drink and enjoying the sight from the comfort of my living room.

What I don't love, however, is dealing with navigating through the complete mess our sidewalks become once the snow is done falling. If this were my personal blog, this post would be full of obscenities, so please feel free to fill them in wherever seems appropriate as you read.

This morning, I mentally praised my neighbors who have done even a moderate job of clearing the snow from their sidewalks in the last few days. Unfortunately, this was largely overridden by muttering about the people (and businesses!!) who haven't even begun clearing their sidewalks, making the sidewalks effectively impassable for pedestrians on their way to ... well, anywhere, really. This meant that nearly all the pedestrians I saw today were walking on the street, which is narrower than usual, due to piles of snow on either side, meaning cars have less room to maneuver around people on foot. This isn't safe or comfortable for anyone!

Also, the street is slippery, as I learned when I had my foot slide right out from under me, so surely some of my grumbling is due to having taken an unpleasant spill first thing today. Fortunately, the cab that was approaching was going slowly enough that there was no risk of my getting run over while I picked myself up.

Nevertheless, this is a great opportunity to remind everyone that snow clearing is an issue of vital concern to all of us. Please check out our snow/sidewalks page to see what WalkBoston has to say on the issue.

And if you have time, why not take a shovel out to the corner and dig a connection between the sidewalk and the street where the plows have left nearly impassable mountains of slush? If you do this and send me a picture, I'll praise you publicly and buy you a pony! Or a coffee. Whichever you'd prefer.