A week and a half has passed since the last big snowstorm, and many Cortez streets are still icy, rutted messes. Major traffic lanes have mostly cleared, but on side streets and near curbs, drivers of low-clearance cars still need to beware.
Several factors are to blame. This year has been unusually snowy in a town that doesn’t often need serious snow removal. Until last week, city crews hadn’t had much of a break between storms that began in mid-December. As the Christmas carol goes, “Snow had fallen, snow on snow, snow on snow.” Vehicles compressed the snow, it became ice on ice, and it’s been hard to get rid of. Ceaseless cold weather hasn’t helped. Piles of snow have had to be hauled away, because they haven’t gone away on their own.
And, as city officials point out, workers have done their best in a town where thousands of vehicles are parked on the streets. They have a lot of miles to clear, with a limited amount of staff and equipment.
All that’s understandable and unavoidable, but perhaps this winter has provided some valuable lessons. The public’s perception is that this time the weather won, and while everyone is grateful for the moisture, many people wonder whether travel really had to be so hard for so long.
For example, snow-route requirements to park vehicles on only one side of each street might have enabled plows to clear wider swaths more quickly. Would drivers have been willing to park across the street from their homes so that the snow could be plowed to one side rather than trapping vehicles on both sides behind plow berms? Perhaps, if that meant that the next night, the other side could be cleared.
(Then again, that storm was only supposed to drop 1 to 3 inches on Cortez, not a foot. Many drivers would have gone to bed without knowing a regulation had been invoked, even if one existed. The forecast also misled those who were planning to plow roads.)
Maybe it’s time to get serious about requiring sidewalks to be shoveled, at least in and near the business district. For several days, neither the sidewalks nor the streets were safe for walking, and parking places were treacherous for those drivers who had managed to excavate their cars. That’s still true in some places Having at least one safe mode of travel is essential, and if every property owner cleared his or her own stretch of sidewalk, at least one would be better assured.
Granted, that’s a burden for absentee owners and people who aren’t able to shovel snow, but perhaps a resource list could be compiled, making it easier to find people with small plows and strong backs.
And maybe the city should institute some strong suggestions about where private individuals shouldn’t put snow. Pushing it into the street from parking lots, driveways and sidewalks just moves the obstacles around, usually into someone else’s way.
None of those ideas would be difficult to implement. In 2016, the city has plenty of effective ways to communicate with residents and encourage them to do what they can to help snow removal progress more smoothly. This may be the last El Niño year for a long time, but we could have two in a row, and spring is still months away. Now is a perfect opportunity to brainstorm some low-cost, low-tech cooperation.
