well
if you call having another six inches on top of the record snowfall still sitting in your subdivision, than the city has done a good job.
run this column 3 or 4 days from now and ill bet it still is not done but all of the old down town section will be, again.

i will also point out at this time the cn center a city facility gets better service than we do every day of the snow fall. if they contract out their services the city should get their number

nice to know you have somewhere to park if you can get there

Amen Ben. So tired of all the whining about how snow clearing used to be so much better...blah, blah, blah...and how the City dosn't do a good job.
The fact is PG has great snow removal. Let the whiners whine becuase they will no matter what happens.
I for one am very pleased with the snow clearing and, yes, I have gotten stuck on my side street, I have waited for a week for snow to get cleared on my street but I also understand that it's not "Me first" and that these things take time. And no, I don't work for the City.
Contrary to the opinion of most regulars on this site City workers work hard and they are doing the best they can.

My complaint is that the River Road that we spent millions on is inadequate for a real 'bipass' road as advertised. First thing is they have a light at the bridge that has transport traffic stopping on an uphill slope to get the red light to trigger to a green... and the city does a poor job of sanding this uphill stop... they should have built up the grade to the intersection so on full length truck could stop to trigger the light on level ground and there is absolutely no reason why this couldn't have been done considering the costs that went into River Road being a 'bipass' route. Then once across the bridge how do they imagine one gets onto the Hart highway in a snow storm with both on ramps at the traffic circle and the overpass being significant hills with sharp corners limiting any speed one can get to make the climb in a snow event when its usually one of the last places plowed and sanded?

Facts are in a snow storm River Road 'bipass' (heading north) is anything but that for transport traffic... the only logical route to take is 1st avenue up Carney Street to 5th Avenue and a rolling merger onto the Hart Highway at Central.

Other than that being a traffic design flaw that isn't properly maintenanced to mitigate its design flaws... I think the city does a generally adequate job most everywhere else that I have noticed.

I remember as a child digging my fathers Galaxy 500 out of the driveway because graders plowed the street leaving a windrow at the end of our driveway. Now the grades and loaders do this for us. I live here in the north and realize that snow does fall and sometimes in record volumes. No sense crying about it. I like it. Be careful driving, give yourself lots of time, and have fun. The City has priority areas and i agree with them. They will get to my street even if it is the night before another record snowfall :{ .

Well said Ben!!! And realitycheck, I couldn't have said it better, thank you! Of all the northern cities I've lived in all across the country, PG has the very best snow removal. I was shocked when I found out the city also cleared the end of my driveway. Wow, you don't get that anywhere else. The city crews need a huge pat on the back for a great job.

I suggest going out this morning before praising the city's snow removal job.

70,000+ people, can't keep them all happy. Two more months of people complaining about snow removal and then it will be potholes. If everyone stayed off the roads, the City crews would have an easier time clearing the snow. But that will never happen ;)

My issue with the snow removal is the timeliness only. It has been snowing since approx 6pm last evening. I dont expect anyone to be out plowing immediately as that would be a big waste. But I also dont expect our city to wait until the entire dump happens and then go out. I try to do my driveway twice when we are expecting ongoing snowfall during an evening. I think it is a good strategy so I dont break my back clearing it when the dump is completely done.

People have to get to work during the weekdays in the morning and not one of our major routes 5th, 15th, ospika are touched as of yet. Cant we have snow removal crew out at 5am or 6am to at least do the major routes so people can get to work?

And that survey was garbage IMO Ben. Send me a survey with my property tax bill and then we will see how many people actually respond other than 600 who had to access it from who knows where.

Thank you for reminding people that there were only 600 people out of a city of 75 000 that bothered to fill out a survey. Your voice can be used for other things other then griping and whining. Yes the snow clearing "may" have been better in years past...but it's called a "record snowfall" for a reason...There is more snow falling at one time then there has been in the past.

Must be nice to even go anywhere i live on the hart and have been trapped here since the last snowfall....i cant really complain cause i can't go anywhere to even see where the snow has been removed......i know i live in a cutisac with a ten foot tall pile of snow in the center of it and live 5 mins from my childs school (thank god for that) but i mean come on now....i beginning to wonder if the power went out would anybody even know we are here trapped...lol

would be nice to talk to someone and setup a different plan for removing snow in my area as there are 5-10 kids here that make the dangerous trek to school each morning. but that is just me and my wishful thinking!!!

thanks for reading my rant !!!!
Sleepless in PG

Go drive around for a few mins mr meisner and let me know what you think about the citys snow removal efforts.oh ya you prob have a jacked up pick up truck worth 80k when us poor folks drive around mid size cars and get stuck every corner.

Sleepless in PG - my friend lives in a cul de sac with 6 houses around it. Each person does the little piece of road in front of thier house when they clean out thier driveway - voila! The entire cul de sac is cleared.

I live up in the Hart & was off to work at 5:30 this morning with no problems. My driveway and street were not plowed by the highway was clean and I made it into work without any problems. Like Ben said, open your wallet if you want better service and I'm certainly not prepared to pay more taxes so that the few who can't drive in winter can get around better.

Captain America...the survey was on the city's website for a long time, probably at least a month. I filled it out and told them no more tax increases. Cut services if they have to but no more taxes!

I'm on my way back to PG from Ottawa and while the didn't have the dump that PG got, they did have a couple of decent snow falls when I was there and it came down pretty quickly. I was actually surprised to see how quickly the plows were out clearing and in the areas I ventured, it was almost all taken care of by the next morning. I EVEN saw City of Ottawa equipment plowing sidewalks. The extent of sidewalks was impressive enough, but to actually see them getting plowed as a "priority" was even more impressive. I actually see how people can go for a run out there in the winter now that I realize they aren't 6 feet out into the road. Oh and Ben, not an army truck or soldier to be seen. Just lots of city equipment and real winter tires everywhere you looked.

No doubt PG got blasted and with a dump like that it will take time. Generally speaking, I think the city does a decent job of snow removal.

yes interceptor that is fine and dandy when those six people are capable of removing snow all my six neighbors are elderly so that is not an option unless i do them all which its bad enough just cleaning my lil piece right now.....tell ya what go for a drive down dawson road and take a left at the end and bring a shovel.

Just because we got a record snow fall doesnt mean that we have a removal problem. A few extra inches of snow overall would have little or no bearing on the actual removal of the snow.

The problem with the snow removal is the planning, where it is removed, when it is removed, and who removes it.

The City apparently does the bus routes, and schools first, and the downtown , and would return to downtown again to redo it if they got a second dump, rather than finishing the outlying areas. So in effect you could have some areas of the City without any snow removal and the downtown having two removals?? Whats with that.

In addition they remove the snow from the areas where they are going to pick up garbage. So if it happens to be your garbage day to-morrow you will probably get plowed to-day. However if they picked up your garbage yesterday you will probably not get plowed for a week, or more.

So it seems that having all these special arrangements make snow removal more difficult, ie; schools, downtown, buses, garbage. In additon at some point they have to do the alleys so that fire engines can access them if necessary.

So it comes down to planning, and cost. There is no reason in the world for us to try to remove snow on the cheap. We piss enought money away on stupid projects in this town, that we surely can afford a first class snow removal system.

If other Cities are too bloody cheap to clear off the driveways of their citizens thats their problem. Remember that the money being spent is tax dollars, and weighed against getting a heart attack, I will spend the little extra to clear the driveway.

THAT is the issue right there JamesToney. I have a front wheel drive Celica. I can get anywhere with it as long as my 6 to 8 inches of clearance can make it. In nice fluffy snow, that is no problem even if the snow is 12 inches deep. But have a few people drive on our residential road, and it becomes dicey, but still doable since I know how to drive in the stuff as well.

BUT, leave that street unplowed for 6 days of that "record" snowfall and then get another 6 or so inches on top of thsose ruts and the snow in between that has all hardened by now, and you have a problem.

The main streets were sitting undone for 2 to 3 days. Ospika and Tabor were great, but 15th and 5th were not. Neither was Domano and Tyner.

They are done now. So I say leave them to deal with the new snofall and keep on doing the residential streets. More snow is on the way as are warmer temps.

I came here in 1973. The winter of 73/74 was the record year for snow. The record up to then was 132 or so inches = 11 feet or about 2.5 metres. That was reached around mid February. It went on to around 144 inches by March.

That was sort of a normal year for Ottawa in those days.

1. A record snowfall here is nothing compared to a record snowfall around the Great Lakes and the Atlantic provinces. So comparing apples to oranges.

2. Canada is not the USA. The armed services do not come out unless there an emergency declared. Dealing with a 10 inch snowfall is not considered to be an emergency. Dealing with ice storms that topple overland towers, as they have done in that part of the country, might be.

3. A 4 day turnaround time is totally unacceptable. Call Ottawa, Montreal, etc. and they will readily tell you what their turnout time is. They start plowing almost when the snow hits the ground. We get the Boston network channels on .

oops... we get the Boston channels and they recently had two 12" inches of nice wet snow falls about a week apart ... true blizzard conditions of a few yards of visibulity with continuous 30 mph winds sustained for 3+ hours .... they were doing blow by blow reporting in the middle of the night with plows passing by behind them.

1. no waiting
2. worse conditions than here
3. no long term record set
4. people we know had snow cleared ...

BTW, one is a fireman and it appears that they help clear driveways for people who cannot do it themselves due to medical, age or financial conditions.

I went to take some videos of our street about an hour ago. Bus route note done yet at noon. But it was done yesterday afternoon, so that is great prep for last night's snwofall.

The sidewalk was done again. While I don't go everywhere in the city, the parts I do go to in the western part of the bowl and downtown get done very quickly. Based on that they have the right amount of equipment and staff for that part of the job.

Something sure is very different this winter! This is the first winter where I see the snow clearing crews NOT clearing a main bus route completely, but leaving the bike lanes on both sides full of snow for several days and completely obstructing the storm sewer drains.

Let's hope they get around cleaning up before the promised rain shows up - or there will be some huge problems.

BTW, the one and only sidewalk doesn't get plowed until later in the day or not at all, making it virtually impassable for pedestrians.

Obviously somebody is experimenting with for how long the huge piles can be left until something goes awry.

Prince george....If you are suggesting that we plow bike lanes, you are nuts. Bikes should be banned from streets in the winter. Any driver that has encountered a bike slippin and slidin in front of them will agree with me. Bikes are not made for snowy conditions.

Giterdun, I agree, bike riding and jogging on the road should be met with fines. I can't believe the people with their sanctimonious crap feeling they should be doing either activity on a snow and ice covered road. Due to their foolishness, our insurance goes up, them saying, well its not my fault if people run in to each other trying to avoid me..........

Let's remember clearing of the driveway windrows was agreed to by the citizens who also agreed to pay extra for this service. Clearing the driveways is not something the city does for free.

if you think the snow removal was great this year....i think 1. your been smoking the funny stuff or 2. you work for the city of p.g. snow removal.....my only hope today of my road possible being plowed this week was the fact that i live by a school and it is garbage day....but guess what still not plowed and another foot of snow ....this is just ridiculous... oh well maybe after the weekend we will something done....wishful thinking again!!!

Move to Phoenix.