Snowplowing Madison Style: For Cars, Trucks, Buses...Bicycles.

While Alder Brenda Konkel asked the question, Snow - Shouldn't we have this down by now? I figured we had enough excitement for one week so I laid off the plowing. 

I drove down Gilman Street, a disaster by any standard. A combination of unenforced and unenforceable snow emergency parking regulations combined with an inadequate plowing schedule is a recipe for disaster. There will be a lot of heads rolling if there should be a fire on those blocks and fire trucks cannot get though.

To get an understanding of how the problem occurred see Jesse Russell's post Do We Need More Plows?

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.

Russell points out the obvious, that Madison's mileage of streets is now 765 when it was 655 in 2000.

The ability to clear the city is a function of four elements: depth of the snowfall, wetness of the snow, number of pieces equipment used to plow, and time of day of the snowfall. Rapid temperature drops after the storm can make matters worse.

A snowfall that starts at 10:00 pm and ends at 3:00 am is easier to clear than a snowfall that starts a few hours before the morning or evening rush hours. A wet snow is harder to clear than a dry snow.

As the city grows, its tax base grows. That means new developments should be generating sufficient tax base to acquire new equipment and the operating cost of staff and supplies to keep the plows on the road.

This is especially true if the growth is tilted towards commercial rather than residential development, since commercial property proportionately generates more revenue relative to the services it demands.

In the last few years the city made a conscious decision not to acquire the equipment and in effect, extend the length of time it takes to plow the entire city. If a city-wide plowing of a 5 inch snow used to take ten hours, now is takes 14 or 15 hours. (I am doing this from memory. The numbers may be wrong but the concept is there.)*

There is also the matter of quality. The longer it takes to plow, the worse the results, because so many heavy vehicles go over the routes before the plows can get to the streets. Add to that a policy of not salting, and quickly ice patches bind to the pavement, making the roadway dangerous and especially treacherous for lighter cars and bicycles.

One more thing. The quality of the plowing suffers because operators are rushed. They cannot carefully clear intersections, they cannot take the time to get as close to the curb as possible and stay there, and they are less likely to shift the plow blade at driveways becasue of the pressure to plow more.

Not to worry. This is Madison. A sound policy of politically correct issues makes people forget basic services. Anyway, crime always drops when the streets are impassable.

Brenda, we know how to get it right. We have for over a hundred years. We chose not to.

Brenda, one more thing, regarding this observation from you:

The second, is a whole new problem I hadn't thought about:...
Um, where are you supposed to put all those (garbage) carts when there is also a snow emergency, do you drag them to the odd or even side of the street? And, if we all have to put our carts on the side of the street that the cars are on, where do the cars go?

There are reports in city government going back to the 1970's indicating that the new garbage cart system does not work during snow storms. You will find that most of the successes with the system are in the south (no snow) or suburban areas (few cars parked on long extended streets).

Also, the old garbage trucks could be used as plows. I do not know if the new trucks can handle a plow blade.

It wasn't your job to think of it. It was the job of the people who explained the program to you.  They knew this.

*We did this once when I was mayor.  There were two differences. The extended plow routes were relatively short.  Secondly, we had the ability to add more equipment if needed.

Comments

[thirtyplusyears]

Before we wax nostalgic about some imaginary golden era of snow removal in Madison, my thirty plus years in this city (on the isthmus and near east side) says that it's never been very good. Paul is right about it getting even worse with this first storm, but the ice made this one especially bad. The expansion of the city is a salient point and can certainly add to the slow response and incomplete clearing of major roads as well as side streets. But my corner (adjacent to an elementary school) for the past 22 years has never experienced efficient or complete snow removal. Ice-rutted streets are nothing new in Madison. I think snow emergency parking regulations should extend beyond downtown. Parked cars are a huge factor. More salt would also help, but I understand (and support) the attempt to limit salt use. Over time, I've become accustomed to these winter struggles and don't think that it was significantly better in the (good?) old days.

[Jim C.]

I love the new trash system -- snow and all. The cans didn't cause any noticeable problem in my beautifully cramped near east side neighborhood.

[sterling]

My neighborhood on the far west side off of South High Point Rd. has been hist by graders twice this year. My street still has several inches of loose snow covering it, so we could use another pass or two. It would be nice if they tried to widen the street as well. Right now we've lost between two to three feet on each side of the street. We've been here four winters now so I've become used to it. Once the snow falls I don't bother trying to go up the slight incline for a week or so. I go downhill to get out of the neighborhood.
The thing I really don't understand though is we've had snow plows throwing sand come through twice now since Friday. They don't bother to clear any snow, just throw some sand. All throwing sand on the snow covered street is doing is making our pretty white snow brown. It certainly isn't improving the driving conditions.

[Jessica]

For some reason Madison Transit allows huge snow piles at the bus stops. Try climbing one, balancing with nothing to hold on to, then somehow getting into the bus which is already slick with water. It's quite a feat, I tell ya! Why can't they be cleared?
I haven't lived here 30 years but in the few years I've lived here I've been amazed at the problem with snow removal. After all this is Madison, WISCONSIN. It snows here. Yet every year it is like a surprise that it snowed and the city seems impotent to do anything about snow removal.

[Kevin]

My neighborhhod is the Blackhawk subdivision on the far west side. It is a popular neighborhood for executives relocating to Madison (I'd estimate 50% of my neighbors are in this category). The average home in Blackhawk pays a property tax bill of $12,000 and snowplowing is most visible service provided by Madison (the kids go to Middleton schools). So, the terrible plowing performance (the worst anyone has experienced and in stark contrast to the plowed/snowblown and shoveled walks and driveways) makes citizens feel that even basic city services are being ignored.

[Brian]

But we can't buy more equipment, Paul. We need to continue occupying Iraq so we can bring the wonderful benefits of shopping, er, I mean, freedom to that country.

There's a limited amount of money, folks. If you're gonna keep electing guys like Clinton and Bush and insisting on an imperialistic foreign policy, where we currently have troops in 130 countries, then you are just not going to have enough money to buy snow removal equipment and pay these folks a decent wage/benefits.

[Steven Stehling]

Brian, please specifically detail the funds Clinton or Bush took away or denied from the City of Madison. The local government has a lot of money. I'm sure they'd like to have more, but they'd spend it the same way they do now. If they wanted more road equipment, they could've bought it. I don't have the total the city spent on researching Mayor Dave's stupid trolley idea, but I bet it could've paid for at least one plow.

[Ticked Off]

The snow removal in the Sauk Heights neighborhood on the far west side is deplorable. There was so much snow on Fargo Trail this evening that I saw a TRUCK with 4-wheel drive get stuck. This is because the city never even bothered to plow back there after the last 3 snowfalls. After the first snowfall the streets weren't plowed for a good 30+ hours.

Great job, City of Madison. Keep up the good work. (This is sarcasm. People who read this blog do not understand sarcasm judging by the responses Paul got to his joke about shooting people who bike in the snow.)

[Don]

How are all those silly little round abouts working out for ya? Great idea to put them on all the already narrow streets so now instead of the cars going straight through the intersection they have to aim right at the corner and then swerve to the left making me wonder if I will be run over while standing on the corner. Mayor Dave, you are the greatest thing that ever happened to this city (not)... where are all the bikes with plows on them? How are those plows working out in the new subdivisions where you now make the streets so narrow you can't get by the UPS truck when it is parked even on a good day? All we need is bikes, and live above the shoe store we work in so we can walk to work, block the evil cars, make the peasants clear the snow away from the road in front of their house like they do in China, think how much money we would save to spend on rain gardens, ride your bike to work in the winter, life would be so much better... I hope the people will get out and vote next time so we can get this city back to doing things like plowing streets and cutting the grass in parks. How much money will it cost us to remove all the traffic blocking devices that have been put in over the last year or two after we get the government back from the hands of a few nuts that have somehow been put in charge?