Driveway, sidewalk and snowbank, on S's side
In true Canadian spirit, we must talk about snow and winter. This winter is unique in that while it has snowed a little more than an average year, there has been very little melt. This means that, not surprisingly, the snow accumulates. In downtown Toronto, snow may be carted off in trucks to a local park and dumped, but in most residential areas, it is simply too expensive.
My neighbour S has a snow service that clears his driveway with a truck. The truck has a plow and scrapes the snow backwards towards the street. Once on the street the snow is pushed up onto the side of the curb.
As the snow has not melted the snow bank on S’s side has steadily gotten larger. Because S’s snow removal service does not have a plow that can be raised up, like a fork lift, the snow bank has grown up but as well out. It’s now 1.5 car widths wide. Combined with the snow bank on the other side of the street, our normally 3 car width boulevard has narrowed to one car width. It’s a little hard to see if other cars are coming. Thankfully we live on a street with little vehicular traffic.
Driveway, sidewalk and snowbank on Popo's side
On the other side, I am the snow clearing service, and with my snowblower, can throw the snow up and over most of the snowbank. The street plow, however, still refuses to plow to the curb, so every part of the street is narrowed. Last year we had better plow drivers and wider streets.
On Sunday we had one day of thaw, when it hit +1C, so I was outside chipping off the ice from the driveway, and hurling it up and over the snowbank. If it snows and you don’t remove it, and then the temperature drops, the snow will compact down and become ice. If there is no thaw this ice will build up, become quite hard and thick, making removal almost impossible. I prefer to chip out my driveway so the accumulation is kept to a minimum, which for me is zero.
Snow is a lot of fun and makes our city very beautiful. I really hope it snows today.