Clearing snow from sidewalks

[Beakster]

Hi,

I'm fairly new to Toronto, and live on Crawford Street. My question is about where to put the snow you clear from the sidewalk outside your house.

I have street parking and always park my van in the street outside my house. Sometimes there isn't a spot right outside my house and I have to park a couple of houses up or down the street.

When I clear the snow from my sidewalk I always dump it onto my lawn. But one of my neighbours just pushes it onto the road. The other day I was parked outside of her house when I went to get my van in the morning I found a mound of snow about 50cm high in front of and behind my van. There was no way I was able to get it out like that, I had to get my snow shovel and dig it out. I didn't want to put the snow back on the sidewalk as she's just cleared it, and I didn't want to dump it in the middle of the road as that would have been a hazard to traffic so I dumped it on her lawn as it was right there. As the snow came from the road though it was pretty nasty, brown and salty stuff.

I can only assume she dumped it on front of my van so she wouldnt have this nasty snow making her front garden looking untidy, and although I haven't seen her since I am guessing she's not best pleased about it being there. This morning I had to park in the same spot again, where the was once again considerable snow on the road. Over night it froze and I had to spend 20 minutes this morning with a hammer breaking up the frozen snow so I could get my van out.

My question is.... where are you supposed to put the snow that comes off the sidewalk, and what is the correct action when someone buries the front of your vehicle in snow?

Thanks

 

[Eug]

Isn't that snow in front of your van just from the snowplows?

You gotta watch that commercial of the guy who finishes shoveling his driveway, only to immediately have a snowplow go by, piling 50 cm of snow in a perfect line at the end of his driveway. I've experienced that many times. If your car is on the street, the snow just gets piled behind/in front of your car.

 

[Beakster]

No, on my street traffic only parks on the left. The snow plough always pushes the snow to the right. Also this mountain of snow was mostly by my left wheels which were next to the kerb.

 

[W. K. Lis]

From the Toronto website about snow:

Do not push snow from your property back onto the street. It is illegal and it obstructs the work that our operators are doing.

Complain to 311 if you see that happening, then your councilor if not satisfied.

 

[Beakster]

From the Toronto website about snow:



Complain to 311 if you see that happening, then your councilor if not satisfied.

Thanks for that. But when they say "Do not push snow from your property back onto the street." Does "your property" include the sidewalk outside your house? As in pushing snow from the sidewalk onto the road?

 

[dt_toronto_geek]

It's nice to read people are still shoveling snow. I've noticed more and more around where I live that there's very little shoveling going on (namely sidewalks), mostly outrageous amounts of salt being thrown down until the City finally comes along with the sidewalk snowplough.

 

[gabe]

I'd report your neighbour to the city. She is putting people in danger. I'd also like to see the city ban parking on the road during heavy snow falls for people that have driveways. the plow trucks can barley fit on my street with all the cars on the road, If people are too damn lazy to shovel move into a condo.

 

[doady]

I'd report your neighbour to the city. She is putting people in danger. I'd also like to see the city ban parking on the road during heavy snow falls for people that have driveways. the plow trucks can barley fit on my street with all the cars on the road, If people are too damn lazy to shovel move into a condo.

It might not be about being lazy. It might just be not wanting to destroy one's lawn by dumping a whole bunch of salt onto it.

 

[GenerationW]

It might not be about being lazy. It might just be not wanting to destroy one's lawn by dumping a whole bunch of salt onto it.

If you shovel before the salt trucks come by, that's not an issue.

 

[Eug]

If you shovel before the salt trucks come by, that's not an issue.

Most people don't like shoveling at 5 am.

 

[GenerationW]

^ Fair enough, but 40+ years of shoveling at my house, often after the roads & sidewalks have been salted, hasn't destroyed my lawn.

 

[gabe]

It might not be about being lazy. It might just be not wanting to destroy one's lawn by dumping a whole bunch of salt onto it.

It's grass not an organic vegetable garden.

 

[Jonny5]

It's nice to read people are still shoveling snow. I've noticed more and more around where I live that there's very little shoveling going on (namely sidewalks), mostly outrageous amounts of salt being thrown down until the City finally comes along with the sidewalk snowplough.

Downtown condos love to do this. They will lay down a carpet of salt but will never pick up a shovel to clear the leftover slushy mess. Worse is when it doesn't end up snowing and you have to walk across the salt. It feels like the salt crystals they are selling these days are much bigger and pointier than they used to be, or maybe my shoes' soles are getting thin.

 

[W. K. Lis]

While road salt works most of the time in Toronto, it does not work very well when the temperatures fall below -10° C. At -10° C, sodium chloride (NaCl) starts to lose its effectiveness. When it falls to below -21° C, the sodium chloride solution will freeze. In other words, it is useless under -21° C.

They are predicting lows of -22° C tonight (January 23rd).

See this link for more information about road salt.

Note that where the sun shines, temperatures can be higher by about 8° C than the recorded temperatures, which are always temperatures in the shade.

 

[nfitz]

From the Toronto website about snow:

Do not push snow from your property back onto the street. It is illegal and it obstructs the work that our operators are doing.

Complain to 311 if you see that happening, then your councilor if not satisfied.

Note the words though ... "your property". In these areas, the property lines are typically very close to the buildings. Most of the gardens, and certainly the city sidewalks are not your property. So there's nothing illegal about shovelling the city sidewalk onto the street. Or much of the front garden really - though that seems a bit uncivil.

Personally I do shovel - or at least push - the snow on the sidewalk onto the street. And add it to the snow bank the snow plow creates. Never been a problem, but fortunately all the cars park on the other side of my street. That is more of a challenge, people tend to shovel the sidewalks onto the property (I haven't really see them salt the sidewalks on side streets), and onto the street as well, so there becomes a small bank between the sidewalk and the parked cars.

In 2008 and 2009 when the snow became deep enough, the city came along and used snowblowers and trucks to remove the snow banks.