We have become so used to abnormal weather that we can't cope anymore.
In a post on TreeHugger, Katherine Martinko writes that "we've become a society of wimps when it comes to facing the Great Outdoors, this despite being better equipped than ever to handle it." She complains that " the last thing we should be doing is discouraging anyone from going outside – but that's precisely what's going to happen when "normal winter weather is treated like a crisis."
I am going to disagree with my co-writer. It IS a crisis. It is a failure. There are people trapped in their houses because cities have decided not to spend money on shovelling the part of the road allowance dedicated to people who walk, while the adjacent road allowance dedicated to people who drive is cleared within hours.
University of Toronto bike lane/ Lloyd Alter/CC BY 2.0
And as for people like me who bike, forget about it. Because the city no longer wants to pay for removing snow, they just push it off the sidewalks and the pavement into the parking lane, and the cars take over the bike lane. The assumption is that the snow will melt, so why bother paying to shovel it up?
I’ve been advised to use discretion. If every single car was spilling into the bike lane, I do not enforce. It’s unfortunate but until the bike lanes are clear of the ice I will enforce what I think is fair. Cyclist have every right to take the full traffic lane. That’s what I do
— PEO Erin Urquhart (@TPS_BikeHart) February 27, 2019
And according to our favorite still-employed Police Enforcement Officer in the bike lanes, that's policy.
Hey @amtrak does it really take this long to rescue stranded,passengers? Its been over 24 hours!!! @NBCNews @cnnbrk @ABC @fox12oregon pic.twitter.com/mHKWY4PDuN
— Rebekah Dodson (@AuthorRDodson) February 26, 2019
And people who take the train? 182 passengers on the Amtrak Coast Starlight out of Seattle were trapped for 37 hours, two nights, after the tracks were blocked by snow and fallen trees. Railways used to have giant plows ready for events like this and could respond quickly. But nobody wants to invest in that kind of infrastructure anymore.
Emergency crews are responding to a multi-vehicle pileup on Highway 400 near Barrie, Ont.
