This week at Council, the approval for staff to remove snow (snow banks) along Yonge St to occur overnight was on the agenda for Council consideration. Current practice is to remove the snow during business hours; however, this has caused some challenges such as traffic issues along Yonge St, blocking some pedestrian paths and as well as access issues for the businesses along Yonge St. Moving to a practice of overnight clearing would alleviate many of these concerns and allow staff to provide a more efficient service for the removal of snow. Residents that live along Yonge St will be notified before the overnight service is to begin.
In looking at the impacts of the proposed change in snow clearing practices, there are a number of benefits of the overnight removal. There would be significant reduction in traffic volumes resulting in reduced potential for incidents, no conflict with parked cars, no conflict with pedestrians, no impact on business owners or their patrons, increase in trucking efficiencies without daytime traffic, reduction of staff required to close curb lane and monitor pedestrians, Business owner satisfaction arriving in morning to clear conditions, and Increased staff productivity. In short, it would be a positive impact on our community.
Staff should be commended for their efforts. This is another great example of staff developing a better service level with costs being the same or a possible savings … This passed unanimously and staff will report back to Council after this winter season on whether and how well the overnight snow removal worked.
