Do we need more plows?
I'll be honest, I'm not typically a snow curmudgeon. I live in a Wisconsin city that was hit with a boatload of snow that was then plastered with ice. Clean up is going to be very difficult. I shrugged off the early complaints by some local cranky customers and chose to give the city the benefit of the doubt.
Then Tuesday came around and I had to drive my car downtown and turn onto the rather highly used section of Frances that connects University and West Johnson. That was when I joined the griping chorus. This street, in one of the busiest areas of Madison, had become the equivalent of an unpaved rural back road. Four days out (and one additional fluffy snowfall in between) the roads are finally in a reasonable state of navigation. There are many accusations and theories being tossed around as to why the plow job was so slow, but one I have yet to hear concerns the plow to street mileage ratio.
I took a quick scan through the past seven years of budgets posted on the city of Madison website and found that in every budget since at least 2000 under "Streets: Snow and Ice Control" it says "In addition to the City's 85-90 pieces of equipment available for plowing , the City employs private contractors capable of furnishing graders and endloaders for emergency plowing operations." That number, 85-90, has remained unchanged since 2000.
What has changed? The miles of streets that Madison's trucks need to plow during a storm. I called over to the engineering department today and asked how many miles of maintained streets the city had in the year 2000 and the answer was "655." According to the Madison Measures report for the year 2008 the estimated mileage of streets in 2007 is 765 miles. That is a huge growth of mileage without adding any new plows.
Those numbers raise a few questions: 1) Is the city of Madison relying more each year on independent contractors to handle plowing duties? 2) Are we going to keep the number of city plows the same as we add an average of nine miles to the city every year? 3) There doesn't seem to be a clear budget item concerning independent plow contracting, shouldn't that become a budget item if we are going to become dependent on them? 4) Are the city roads the first priority of these contractors or do we have to wait until after they finish with other clients?
And finally, can't we just hire Pikachu like the Japanese do?
Images of Japanese autonomous snow plows (like the Roomba, but for snow) from PinkTentacle.com
OMG I want one!
Those snow plows are so cute. I want one!
Cthulu Katrina ad?
And what's with that Cthulu-featuring Hurricane Katrina ad on that Pink Tentacle site? I mean, I get that they are into tentacles but that's kind of strange.
I, like you Jesse didn't
I, like you Jesse didn't complain about the snow removal until last night. I work by the Hilldale Mall and live off of First street; no more than a 10 mile drive and it took me a hour to get home. Then, this morning it took me 40 minutes to get to work at 7:30...not acceptable. I believe I heard on the radio that Milwaukee is having similar snow removal troubles.
Re: Do we need more plows?
Hmmm...are those numbers right? Madison has added 110 miles of road in 8 years?
It honestly wouldn't
It honestly wouldn't surprise me. There's been a lot of growth in the last 8 years. New housing developments, business parks, etc.
----
thelostalbatross.blogspot.com
We need to hire Mr. Plow
We need to hire Mr. Plow stat!
Downtown alders snow plowing press release
http://www.ci.madison.wi.us/news/view.cfm?news_id=671
Konkel, Rummel, Rhodes-Conway Call for Cleaning Up the Street Clean-Up Efforts
The alders from the near east Isthmus, home to some of the City's biggest plowing challenges and the routes used by tens of thousands of daily commuters, are calling for a better plan of action in the way downtown streets are cleaned up after snowfalls like those in the past week.
Spurred by suggestions from constituents, the alders propose declaring "Snow Action Days," much like the Clean Air Action Days triggered by air pollution on hot, muggy summer days. During Snow Action Days:
1. Downtown City ramps would be available free starting at 9:00 p.m. instead of 1:00 a.m. to ease the burden on downtown residents who already have very limited parking.
2. Madison Metro would be free, and bus routes would be given a higher priority for plowing to reduce the number of commuters using the clogged streets.
The alders also suggested:
· Acquiring smaller plows to maneuver around the narrower streets downtown and to clean up after the large plows;
· Adding to the number of sand distribution points for residents to use around their homes;
· Using blast text-messaging, neighborhood listservs and other technologies to reach Madisonians, in addition to the traditional press releases, radio and newsprint ads;
· Partnering with neighborhood groups, landlords, employers and the UW to educate residents about what to do in a Snow Emergency;
· Increasing the amount of fines for parking tickets during snow emergencies; and
· Towing cars if they are parked in the same place on the two nights following a snow emergency and increasing the fine to cover the actual cost of towing.
"To say the least, our streets are a mess, causing headaches for downtown residents, commuters and the City workers charged with clearing them of snow and ice," said Brenda Konkel, District 2 alder. "We need to do a better job getting the plows out, getting out information, and creating additional options for people to move their cars in the congested areas so crews can clear the streets of snow."
"Many residents expressed frustration at the seemingly slow pace of street clearing considering how far in advance we knew the storm was coming and the difficulty of navigating sloppy, impassable streets," said Marsha Rummel, District 6 alder. "They wondered why streets in surrounding communities were cleared sooner."
"Although many people complied with the Snow Emergency rules and, in fact, stepped up to help their neighbors, many others aren't aware of what to do" said Rummel. "We should look for better ways to educate the public about the need to move their cars. There is a lot of resident turnover downtown, and it would be great for the City to partner with the UW to get information to faculty and students about winter parking rules and snow emergency options."
Tickets for violating the odd/even parking restrictions are currently $30 and appear not to be very effective at facilitating better snow plowing. "We need incentives - carrots and sticks - to get residents to move their vehicles, and we need to have a place to move them to," said Satya Rhodes-Conway, District 12 alder.
Rhodes-Conway said the stick would come in the form of higher tickets and towing of these vehicles. The carrot would come in the form of more options for downtown residents to move their cars out of the way and for commuters to take public transit.
"The free overnight parking should start earlier than it does now (currently 1:00 a.m. to 7:00 a.m.)," said Konkel. "As commuters clear out of the ramps, those spaces should be available to temporarily get cars off the streets that need to be plowed."
The alders noted the changes could require action related to the City budget, City ordinances and City contracts. They look forward to working with City staff and the rest of the Council to refine and implement these ideas.
"More snow is coming, so I would hope we can consider these ideas quickly and find a way to make them and other good ideas out there work," said Konkel.
The alders expressed gratitude to the constituents who have communicated complaints and ideas in the last several days. "It's great that people offer suggestions in addition to complaints," said Rhodes-Conway.
Re: Downtown alders snow plowing press release
The Yuki-taro mentioned above would be perfect. I was only half joking. I don't know if it is available in the U.S. yet, but it currently costs $8,300. Check out these stats:
That would help with the
That would help with the labor costs too. $8,300 sounds like a bargain to me.
snow eating monster
That sounds great.
parking laws
I live downtown on Johnson street, and based on what I've seen, my street would benefit greatly from more draconian parking laws.
Prior to Madison, I lived in Minneapolis and before that Appleton. Both of those were significantly better than Madison at snow removal. Part of that was that the roads were always free of cars, making it a lot easier for the plows to do their jobs. As it is now in Madison, the plows have to maneuver around parked cars -- often on both sides of the road. All the snow under and around the cars remains. When the cars pull out, the snow is kicked loose into the road. It can take days for the plows to get a chance to clear everything.
In Appleton, you aren't allowed to park on any city street at night all winter. I think that's too harsh and wouldn't work in downtown Madison where too few people have off street parking. (Though, as an aside, I think people should be more responsible about thinking about where their car will go before signing a lease.) In Minneapolis, if it's a snow emergency, they have tow trucks lined up to start towing people at midnight if they're not parked where they should be. I think that would work just fine for us. We have existing rules about where you park (even or odd sides) during snow emergencies. Just have the tow trucks ready like they are for rush hour zones already and haul away the offending cars. Pretty soon people will get a lot better about it, and it'll take two nights of plowing rather than days and days.
Post new comment