Dean's Blog

Ahh cold snowy weather. It’s interesting that Calgary has a snow removal system that is based on Chinooks, which are warming trends that happen now and again during the winter. They budget with the hopes that the snow will just go away by itself every few weeks to avoid the additional costs of snow removal, and it shows. I noticed last night as I drove home that there had been a weak attempt to clear the snow along Shaganappi and John Laurie Blvd, as there were blade marks and snow pushed off to the sides of the road. However, there was no attempt whatsoever of actually scraping the ice off of the road, but in fact more of what we call “high blading”, whereupon the snowplow or grader operator raises the blade a few inches off of the road surface so he doesn’t have to go as slow. It pushes off a bit of lose snow, but does nothing for the compacted ice that is all over the place.

The real reason however would be something along the lines of this: Calgary roads have so many undulating potholes, ridges, and bumps that actually trying to scrape along the surface of the road would cause great damage to either the blade of the snowplow or the road itself. Either that, or the operator was hired as a snowplow operator and it is against union rules to plow ice. Trigger finger insurance companies probably pay off city planners to ensure that intersections happen at the bottom of ridiculous hills, such as Bow Trail crossing Sarcee heading east. It’s like a ski jump out there, not a stitch of gravel, and yet you would think it would be a priority. Meanwhile, City Hall is in la la land, dancing around in pink fairy costumes saying: “Traffic problems? Snow? Where? ooh imported punch and pie..”

The day before yesterday I was coming home on the bus, and traffic was so backed up, that the driver of the bus behind us was able to get out of his bus, walk up to the front of our bus, and get on board, talk to the driver, and then go back to his bus during a green light. It creates this interesting paradox. You don’t want to take transit because you freeze to death waiting for the late bus, or the train that is late because someone puked at the station 20 Kilometres away. (And by the way, when the trains are delayed, Transit does not take steps to compensate by adding a few extra busses at the end of the line). You don’t want to drive because it takes you 2 hours to get anywhere, and a fortune to park, and people are needlessly driving like idiots. That gap in front of my car is so I don’t crash into the guy in front of me, not for you to merge into.

City hall just approved a 4% tax hike in addition to last years hike. I don’t know where the money goes, but there sure seems to be a lot of blockheads designing and planning our city these days. Major interchanges with traffic lights 2 blocks away, major roadway projects that don’t actually add any extra capacity or speed, building roads instead of freeways. the list goes on, and I’m tried of typing about it.

For today anyways