Sorry guys but I just went down and back up 5th avenue from Foothills to the bypass..., IT IS NOT GRADED!!!!!!!! and when I went down 15th an hour ago it wasn't graded either...it is now 1 PM...

Cry me a river. It looks like you got to where you neede to go.

Prince George sure has a lot of arm chair city supervisors out there checking progress. We just got a huge dump of snow, give it some time. My little Nissan has had no problems getting around town.

cannot stress this enough, PEOPLE NEED GOOD WINTER TIRES IN THE NORTH!! i have no problem in my lil cheapy tuscon with good tires. I was following a $$ highlander yesterday with all season tires on, slipping and spinning out at every stop!! I think the city is doing a fine job making sure that the major routes are plowed and they'll get around to the lesser used streets in good time.

doogwood...I always manage to get where I want to go, and I had no problems either... I was refering to the claim above that these streets are plowed... city untruths abound...but thank you so much for you cheary comment...

and verballabel , I was refering to the incorrect information in the story... I didn't write it but I can state it is false...and I am not trying to be a supervisor either...

BCRacer. Your comments confuse me. The article says that 5th and 15th are not done and will not get done until the evening. Therefore your observations that they are not done seam to validate the city's statement.

It says that 5th and 15th were not graded - where is the untruth you are talking about?

Com'n folks, it's all about job creation.......
Even with better equipments, more crew members and longer work hours,
it takes more time to get the same amount of snow cleared of our streets now days,
than it took 15-20 years ago.

I read it wrong...appologies to all...

BCRacer.....It is always best to read carefully with eyes open before posting a negative comment..

Story was posted at 1119 am Monday Jan. 17, 2011 and said................

“The downtown didn’t get completely cleared, and we weren’t able to grade 5th and 15th." He is hopeful crews can get those two major routes done tonight when there is no traffic.

--------------------------

Tonight has not yet arrived.

Let us face it people. This City is less prepared these days to clear one snowfall after another of say 10 cm every second day or so than it ever was. I have lived here for close to 40 years and came from Ottawa, a true winter city that knows how to keep ALL city streets relatively clear of snow. They do residential streets, downtown streets, arterials, collectors, bus routes, etc. within a reasonalbe time frame of 24 yours.

The key?

1. Enough equipment. The right mix of equipment.

Do I know whether we have that? I do not know. What I do know is that a few years ago the City was complaining that some of the private contractor they call on for these conditions have priority contracts with businesses to clear the parking lots. Driving around town, that should be obvious to anyone who cares. In other words, not enough contractors for such conditions.

2. Start when it starts to snow when a significant snowfall is expected.

It should be obvious to everyone that does not happen in this town. And, as it states in one of the recent articles on here, they simply do not work for a 24 hour period from Saturday night to Sunday night since that is considered overtime. Don't know how the City got itself into that situation, but they might want to see that they get themselves out of it if they want to save some money/provide required service.

Mother Nature has no down time.

As far as macho guys on here saying they can manage. I can manage as well. I have driven in snow ever since the time I started driving. And I learned to drive in parts of the country which gets more snow than here on average and get much greater single dumps of snow by a factor of 2. The difference is, the city realized that and made sure the city did not come to a standstill.

I must say this. I went for a drive this morning and even though the east west arterials were not done in at least 48+ hours, while the north south ones were done after the Friday snowfall, the downtown was well done from Carney east, with the exception of some residential streets. So, it was possible to park on a plowed road and walk into a hotel and have a coffee.

Here is how information on the net looks in Kingston, a small city like ours, for its snow removal information. A far cry from what we have.

http://www.cityofkingston.ca/residents/transportation/streets/winter

If you live in Kingstoin, you can look up where you fit in the scheme of things by going to this page
http://www.cityofkingston.ca/residents/transportation/streets/winter/lookup

Try it.

Enter Campbell Street, a typical single family residential area about 3 km from city centre.

It is a class 1 of 2 classes of residential areas. Here is the standard:

1. The road will be plowed centre bare within 16 hours of becoming aware of the condition (no more than 8 cm of snow)

For bus routes that becomes 6 hours with no more than 6 cm of snow.

For arterials (Ospika, 15th and those classes of roads) that becomes 4 hours and 2.5 cm of snow.

Using Kingston's population of 117,207 by 2006 census and PG population by the same source of 70,981, the 2010 operations budget for Kingston works out to $2,400/person and PG works out to $1,900.

It is the same all the time. If one wants better service, one needs to pay for it.

Around here, even though we have a higher per capita income than Kingston and a lower per capita cost of living, I am finding more and more that we are simply not prepared to spend to make the community a nicer community to move around in.

Two things -

1) I have good snow tires and no problems getting around (those people with all season or mud tires do every one a favour and stay home when the snow gets deep).

2) I think the city does a good job with what they have to do. Dealing with abandon cars others parked overnight on the road (as one my street), remember folks they can't be everywhere at once they will get us all eventually.

They're clearing the CN Centre parking lot right now. Didn't know that was a priority route.

When did the snow crews start cleaning up? Friday night, Saturday night or Sunday night?

Dont forget that our past Mayor went to the World Winter Mayors Conference in China on two separate occasions. One of the main issues at these conferences was how to deal with winter conditions in Cities. Wonder what he learned???

Prince George has a very small population, that is spread out over a 10 Mile Radius, its no blood wonder that we have snow clearing problems. We have garbage disposal problems for the same reason.

There is only one solution to the snow, and that is to spend the money when necessary to get the bloody roads cleared.

We piss enough money away on useless projects, you would think that we could at least remove the snow in a timely fashion. Of course there is no glory in snow removal.

PG Driver.

1. The rotation time to get all the roads done in PG is 4 days and remains so. That is on the front page of the daily newspaper today once again. They need to cut that in half, and they still would not match most winter cities in this country.

2. Tires are not the only thing that gets a car through deep snow. There is the clearance of the car that makes a lot of difference. Not everyone drives an SUV or 4wd truck. There is the matter of whether ruts have formed. It is easy to go through light fluffy fresh snow that is 25cm deep, it becomes more difficult as that snow is clumped up and ruts are formed. Then, once enough cars have passed, the snow gets packed down, it is easier again. So, it is easier to drive along streets that get enough traffic than the local residential streets. When a new snowfall of 15cm is added to all that, well, evetnually one hits a limit ...... and then wet snow on top, above freesing temperatures, rain, and pretty soon brand new snow tires and tires with studs will not move a car.

3. Has anyone noticed the washboards that have built up at intersections? A natural occurance at locations where vehicles apply brakes as it is on dirt roads in the summer. Then there is the matter of crossing a major thoroughfare with ruts at 90 degree angles to them. Bone jarring! Does wonders to a vehicle. There was a hubcap on the road yesterday at an intersection I passed by.

And to think that Council actually came out with that idiotic list of cutbacks to snowclearing standards. Unbelievable!!!!