I know I pointed this out the other day, but it warrants a follow up. As I mentioned previously, most of the side streets in Boston (particularly in the Allston/Brighton area) were completely unplowed, unsanded, unsalted, and generally left untouched by city workers during this past ice/snow storm last week. How this happens, I am not sure. Did the city just not feel like plowing? Did they think that the slushy combo didn’t warrant the effort? Did no one at the DPW realize what was going to happen when a slush/ice storm is followed by a week of single digit temperatures, and streets go unplowed?
As a result of this complete negligence, the side streets here are complete chaos. The roads are treacherously narrow (more narrow than usual) with solid ice down the middle and slim sets of clear spots for tires on either side of said ice. And then there is the parking situation. Not only have 30% of the available street parking spots disappeared as a result of the snow and ice, but the lack of plowing and salting has created 6 inch ridges of ice that lock the parallel parked cars into place along the curb. To get out (if you can), you need to free your wheels from the ice, and then try and smash over a solid cement-like ridge to get into the road. Given the low ground clearance of most cars, this proves to be an extraordinarily difficult task, and many cars end up half in their spot and half in the street, spinning wheels suspended above the nearest patch of pavement. And again, that’s if you can even get out. Walking around the streets here, it is a chorus of spinning wheels, as dozens of cars helplessly try to extricate themselves. I personally helped to push two cars out yesterday, and gave up on another which has sat stuck in place since the 14th (4 days), unable to get over the ice wall that holds it in place.
Even with my all-wheel drive, things have been dangerous around here. Every time I come and go from my apartment, it is a white knuckle adventure, and my car and those cars around me are at risk.
The City of Boston and those plow contractors that were out on the night of the storm (which literally were riding around with their plows up during the height of the storm) should be ashamed of themselves, and at the very least, there should be some free tow services offered to the legions of stuck people that are only stuck because of the city’s lack of street clearing.
4 Responses
John
February 19th, 2007 at 11:41 am
Well if they were plowing, your cars would be locked in even harder by a 1ft+ ridge around them where the plows pushed it up and this post would be more about how these guys don’t know how to run snow-plows and trapped people.
In any case, the only solution is to do what we do here in Minneapolis; in the collectivist ant-people areas (read:urban) everyone has to move their cars off the street so the plows can get out there and clean the roads. Anyone not moving their car gets towed (and then this post would be about how your car got towed?
).
The pictures doesn’t look too bad. I plan for winter with jackets, hats, gloves, and Nokians and such and would be able to get out of that tiny ridge you guys get stuck on without even noticing it. Snow causes inconveniences, either by not plowing or towing and plowing. I don’t really think it’s negligence on the part of your city, probably just knowledge of physics - salt doesn’t work in those single-digit temps, even when mixed with Calcium Chloride. Also in your instance, sand wouldn’t help unless you’re talking about glare-ice and by the looks of it, you would only have sand help out in that untouched hump in the middle where your wheels don’t go anyways.
Recap:
*If they would’ve plowed as you suggest, more cars and drivers with the inability to deal with that tiny ridge of snow would be stuck.
*If they would’ve plowed properly, everyone would’ve had to move their cars or be towed.
What should they have done? Given the choices, I think the one your left with, as much as it might suck probably causes the least inconvenience. Snow happens.
andrew
February 19th, 2007 at 1:13 pm
John,
You make good points. I think the right thing to do, is to declare and enforce a snow emergency to clear the streets of cars and then move the plows through to clear the streets. As much as people would have bitched and moaned either way, the single day inconvenience of having to move my car, would have been a much better fate than the reality that many people are facing where they are UNABLE to move their cars for several days.
And to speak to the bravado about Minnesotans being able to get up over that ridge “without” even noticing it…a couple of things to consider. Unless cars are made with a Minnesota specific ground clearance unlike the standard ground clearance that everyone else gets on their vehicles, or with some sort of hydraulic system, moving up over a 6-8 inch curb of solid ice from a standstill due to four wheels frozen in place, is not an easy task no matter where you are from.
And lastly…we are in Boston here, not Atlanta, so this isn’t just some unprepared jackasses bitching about a little snow. I have lived here for 28 years and have been through dozens upon dozens of multiple foot snow storms and legitimate Noreasters, and rarely are people stuck in such a way as they are now.
John
February 19th, 2007 at 4:01 pm
>>And lastly…we are in Boston here, not Atlanta, so this isn’t just some unprepared jackasses bitching about a little snow.
punky
February 22nd, 2007 at 11:38 am
be glad you dont still live on lake ave!
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