Pie Palace

You haven’t lived until you’ve been on an OC Transpo bus as it fishtails around corner after corner after corner.

Ottawa’s been buried under 30 centimeters of snow this weekend, with the possibility of more on the way. I live downtown and things weren’t bad: side streets were buried, but the main roads and sidewalks had been cleared. Busy stretches of sidewalk that weren’t cleared were quickly trampled into a walkable state. Wandering down Bank Street this afternoon the it seemed like an ordinary Sunday: stores were open, people were walking to and fro with their coffee, groceries, and other sundry goods. When you’re walking, a foot of snow isn’t a problem (unless you have mobility problems).

Then I hopped on a bus and headed to the ‘burbs, and witnessed a completely different story. Only the main roads had been plowed. Sidewalks were doubly buried – first under mountains of snow that had been pushed off the roads, then under a dumping of natural snow. The only way to get around was to walk on the road. Fortunately most drivers were polite enough to give pedestrians a wide berth.

I won’t say there’s a moral to this story. Those living in the ‘burbs are used to getting around by car, so after digging out their vehicles, it was probably an ordinary Sunday for them as well. But it seemed pretty clear that squeezing people into walkable neighbourhoods lessened the load on city snow clearing infrastructure.

Image by preciouskhyatt.