It’s February. Longer, sunnier days make a difference, along some days of warm weather. On the other hand, Denver’s big snow months are ahead. And the area is below the average for year-to-date precipitation.
We may be sated by the whine festival, but I still have a few suggestions and observations about what ought to be in a comprehensive snow plan.
Some suggest Mayor John Hickenlooper is going to float the idea of investing $8 million or $10 million in snow-removal equipment. Before signing off on that kind of capital expenditure, policymakers should thoroughly examine other strategies.
A good snow plan must be accompanied by an enforceable parking plan. It’s one thing to plow a strip down the middle of a snow- and ice-encrusted street. But if a pedestrian, bus rider, cane-, crutch- or wheelchair-assisted person cannot get from the street to the sidewalk, investments in more equipment make no difference.
This is personal. I use a cane. During the snow emergency, I didn’t attempt to go out. I didn’t have to because friends and family made sure I had everything I needed or wanted, and shoveled the sidewalks and the driveway. By week two of the onslaught, I was ready to go out – and did. I was horrified to find that, though I could navigate the streets between my Capitol Hill home and the places I needed to go – downtown, Civic Center, north Denver, Cherry Creek – there were too many times that I could not get from my car to the sidewalk, even when I walked from my parked car in the street to the corner crosswalk.
More troubling were the numbers of people I saw at bus stops. Too often they were standing in the street because the area between the bus bench or shelter and the street was impassable.
Most troubling were the people I saw in wheelchairs, moving down Colfax, Leetsdale or 32nd Avenue, in the lane of traffic because they could not reach the sidewalk or cross an intersection.
Those conditions are not acceptable for a big and diverse city that claims to promote multiple forms of transportation. Sure, a no parking zone on major routes or alternate side-of the-street parking plan in dense residential neighborhoods present challenges, but a comprehensive snow plan is more than clearing lanes for vehicular traffic.
The goal of any transportation plan must be the effective and efficient movement of people. That means pedestrians, buses and bicycles as well as vehicles.
Coordinate equipment, training and resource allocation between city agencies, other jurisdictions and private contractors.
The Department of Parks and Recreation has its own crews and equipment. It can do its won work during a typical snowstorm, but severe weather demands coordination between parks, public works and RTD. Many urban bus routes cross parks and those streets must be cleared, including the paths between bus stops and the street.
Join with other local and county governments in negotiating with private contractors for the use of additional plows and heavy equipment during a severe storm. Construction sites are idle during a snow emergency and there is ample equipment to serve metro counties. On-call contractors are significantly cheaper than spending as much as $10 million to purchase, service, store and maintain equipment Denver may or may not need for five or 10 years.
Train private contractors to be aware of crosswalks, parking regulations, private driveways and building entrances. Moving ice and snow in neighborhoods is more nuanced than shoveling dirt on a construction site.
No one expects complete mobility when Mother Nature takes over. On the other hand, government is obliged to consider the needs of the full range of citizens – children going to school, emergency vehicles accessing hospitals, drivers, pedestrians, the disabled, shop owners and property owners – when assembling a plan to address a worst-case scenario.
Susan Barnes-Gelt (bs13@qwest.net) served eight years on the Denver City Council and was an aide to former Denver Mayor Federico Peña.
