Some YouTube videos:
An Evil Little Sidewalk Tractor!
A lot of people like to post videos of this!
It gets a lot colder in Calgary than Toronto (and Montreal, I think), but I’ll take cold over snow any day of the week. Snow just pisses me off.
The thing about snow in Calgary is that we don’t get much, usually (“usually” being the operative word) - when we do get extra-special big dumps of snow, we have virtually no procedures in place for clearing it. People unlucky enough to live in the 'burbs just don’t get to drive out of their neighbourhoods until it melts.
At this point in winter when we’re all sick to death of it, I’m surprised there aren’t more weather-rage related deaths.
Toronto doesn’t usually get a lot of snow; this year has been exceptional. Historically, Calgary gets 80% of the snow that Toronto does, but I’ll put up with that extra 20% of snow for the 5C average improvement in temperature! (By comparison, Montreal gets almost 40% more snow that Toronto, and is only slightly warmer on average than Calgary – it’s not for the weather that people love Montreal. :D)
Sure we do. “Let’s wait for the next chinook, so it melts.” Y’know, I hate to sound like a transplanted Torontonian, but at least in that city, they cleared snow and ice on all streets. Here, they just dump gravel on top of it, so you too can get a cracked windshield from flying rocks. And if you live on a residential street, forget it–you’re not seeing pavement for four or five months of the year. Come on Calgary; you say you’re better than Toronto, now prove it. Clear the @#$% snow and ice!
And the lovely thing about Southern Alberta in the winter: black ice. Usually studded with gravel. Melt and freeze and melt and freeze. There’s a hill between Fort Macleod and Lethbridge (which has finally been bypassed by the highway) that I lost three friends on, due to black ice.
I bitch about the humidity and extreme heat in the summer here, and the humidity in the winter will give me a chill that lasts for days vs. the nice dry cold at home, but I’m glad to be shut of black ice. (And I’ve already planted broccoli.)
What can I say? Votre pays, c’est l’hiver.
Well at least it appears your sidewalk tanks actually use a real blade to move snow.
When I was in Ann Arbor they had tractors they put big spinning brushes to move the snow away. In reality all it did was to polish ice on the entire sidewalk into a nice clear frictionless sheen, and get rid of any sand or gravel that might have accently made it on the ice and provided traction.
It never occurred to me that you’d need to plow sidewalks, and that they’d have a cute evil tiny tiny snow plow to do it with.
28 postings about snow and no one has mentioned frost heaves yet? For those of you outside the snow belt, picture a paved road. Now picture the paved road being shelled by artillery. Now picture those holes filled with water, which freezes and causes the remaining pavement to buckle at crazy angles.
When driving, the question is “Is the wet spot in front of me a wet spot, or a 1 inch deep depression or a 2 foot deep pothole?” Guess wrong and it will rip the wheel off your car and stuff it into your face.
And in another couple of weeks - mud season.!!!
The winter was one of the reasons I chose Montreal, and even the fact that my four foot high windows are completely covered by snow doesn’t bug me much. However, those little tractor things are evil. In my mind they hum a sinister version of “Zippedy doo da” in a minor key while pretending to play GTA - extra points for hit pedestrians!
I’m forever indebted to my aunt, who bought me the coolest winter accessory I have. They’re like snow-chains for your shoes, crafted out of the kind of rubber they make tires out of, with sharp metal studs on the bottom. I don’t give a damn that they look stupid, they’re the reason I’ve only wiped out twice this winter (and I live on the above-mentioned Montreal crossing with sheets of ice on the pavement).
Oh, the potholes don’t scare us as much anymore. The real fear is the collapsing bridges. Seeing as how something like 245% of the island is underneath an overpass, a little broken axle or shock absorber to replace is nothing compared to what could fall from overhead! :smack:
Actually it’s only -2C here at the moment, and in the direct sun, a few of the icicles on the staircase are melting. Though the weather predictions aren’t indicating that things will get much warmer in the next few days!
Today I had to help an elderly woman over a snowbank, because the bus we were riding couldn’t be bothered to pull forward next to the (relatively) cleared driveway next to the stop. Nope, he stops such that we could either step out into a massive puddle, or onto a snowbank plateau formed by thousands of people stepping there, but without a safe way down. Montreal clears streets, but makes zero efforts to make bus stops accessible.
I love this city. But I hate it’s winters (unless I’m out playing in the snow, but I don’t have much time to do that!)
Those of you complaining about the sidewalk-clearing tanks: be glad that your city actually clears its own sidewalks. They don’t here, which makes being a pedestrian miserable.
Band name?
and these Evil Little Sidewalk Tractors (or ELSTs) have a name
They’re called coquerelles (cockroaches)
Ah, the friggin’ frost heaves! I hate those friggers. Yeah, it was a nice, level, easy to drive on pavement. Too bad about that. We had a nice one on McKnight Boulevard that came back every winter - imagine a 70 kph road where everyone drives 100 kph, but they slow down for this frost heave, it’s so bad. I think it was almost bad enough to endanger your axles.
And then thats when you get nailed with your last storm of the year, it always happens when someone says that.
Declan